Good news for the WWALS cleanup 8AM this morning at Troupville Boat Ramp at GA 133 on the Little River: low E. coli and fecal coliform recently at the GA 133 Little River bridge.
In our weekly open records requests, we have gotten from Valdosta their water quality data through Wednesday of last week, October 3, 2018. It will be even more encouraging if Continue reading
We’re still on for 8:00 AM to noon this Saturday, tomorrow, October 13, 2018, for the WWALS cleanup of the Troupville Boat Ramp and adjacent riverfront down to the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River.
Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) has rescheduled its Rivers Alive cleanup, but we’re sticking with our original date, which is still tomorrow, this Saturday.
We have the enthusiastic support of the landowners south of the boat ramp to the Confluence, including much of the site of historic Troupville, the former seat of Lowndes County before Valdosta.
One of the landowners will be by with donuts at the start.
Photo: Bobby McKenzie from the last WWALS Troupville Boat Ramp Cleanup,
2018-04-21.
See original blog post for details.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Driving back from a long-scheduled conference in Alabama, from the state line to Tifton was widespread damage from Hurricane Michael. Nothing like the devastation on the Gulf coast, of course, but very unusual for inland Georgia.
![[Traffic light repair 15:20:18, 31.6363489, -84.2473075]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-10-11--hurricane-michael/traffic-light.jpg)
Traffic light repair 15:20:18, 31.6363489, -84.2473075
We saw plenty of downed power lines, so don’t be surprised if everybody is power is not back everywhere for a while.
Hurricanes apparently aren’t good at obeying speed limit signs. Continue reading
Thanks to Steve Nichols for having me on The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols, 105.9FM WVGA. We talked about water trails, paddle races, and the Sabal Trail pipeline federal eminent domain jury trials, which were being settled as we spoke. Also we hear the Naylor Boat Ramp will be finished soon by Lowndes County.
As I asked Steve about the three jury trials:
This is about federal eminent domain for the Sabal Trail pipeline.
SN: That’s right.
Now they already built the pipeline. But for these landowners, they sued them for the eminent domain. They do not have a written agreement with the landowners. They have not paid them a cent. But they already built the pipeline. Does that sound right to you? Continue reading
Here is most of a year’s river water quality testing data from the city of Valdosta, on a Water Reporter map:
Click on any of the colored diamonds for graphs. Scroll right to see more graphs. Click on any graph to see every datapoint. Clearly fecal coliform (FCOLI) and E. coli (ECOLI) have significant spikes way beyond the Georgia state limit of 200 cfu/100 ml.
However, as we already saw on the spill followup data map, often, even usually, FCOLI and ECOLI are just as bad or worse upstream Continue reading
Update 2018-10-13: Pictures.
Update 2018-10-12: Yes, the cleanup is still on for Saturday, October 13, 2018.
A fun Saturday morning by the Little River: WWALS cleanup of the Troupville Boat Ramp and adjacent riverfront down to the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, in conjunction with Rivers Alive and Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB). We have the enthusiastic support of the landowners south of the boat ramp to the Confluence, including much of the site of historic Troupville, the former seat of Lowndes County before Valdosta, in the middle of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.
When: 8:00 AM – Noon, 2018-10-13
Put In: Troupville Boat Ramp, 19664 Valdosta Hwy, Valdosta, GA 31602: on GA 133 off I-75 exit 18, in Lowndes County, just west of Valdosta.
GPS: 30.85131, -83.34743
Bring: Cleanup materials will be provided, but if
you’ve got a trash picker, bring it along.
No boat required. You can bring a boat if you like, but unless it
rains before then, there will be very little water in the
river.
Free: This outing is free. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
Photo: Bobby McKenzie from the last WWALS Troupville Boat Ramp
Cleanup,
2018-04-21.
Karen and Tom Johnson travelled many a time three or four hours from Pine Mountain, Georgia, to paddle with WWALS on our outings. Some of us are planning to go to Pine Mountain this Saturday:
HEAR YE! HEAR YE!
Memorial Service/Funeral for Karen Toms Johnson:11:00 A.M., Saturday, September 22, 2018.
1st UMC Pine Mountain, Georgia.
Rev. Liza Marler, officiating pastor.
Luncheon to follow with Karen Storytelling emcee’d by T3.
Memorial Service attendees are STRONGLY encouraged to attend the luncheon.
When: Tuesday-Friday 18-21 September 2018
Where: Post your pictures online here.
Here is the obituary Tom wrote for Karen.
We would like to take with us a collage of pictures of Karen and Tom on WWALS outings (or elsewhere). Please post your pictures here (on this blog post, facebook event, etc.) or email them to wwalswatershed@gmail.com.
Here are some examples:
Photo: Bret Wagenhorst, of
Tom and Karen Johnson, winners, farthest, BIG Little River Paddle Race
29 April 2017.
Thursday morning Suwannee Riverkeeper will be on the “top rated morning talk show in south Georgia” with Steve Nichols, talking about paddle outings, water trails, paddle races, and the Sabal Trail pipeline federal eminent domain jury trials going on right now in Valdosta.
When: 8:30AM, Thursday, September 13, 2018,
Where:
The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols, 105.9FM WVGA
Live streamed on the show’s facebook page
Guest: Suwannee Riverkeeper® John S. Quarterman
Host: Valdosta Today bills The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols as:
The top rated morning talk show in south Georgia, Steve Nichols offers both sides of every story from Berrien County to the Beltway, and everywhere in between.
Should be fun. Do tune in.
More: For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar or the WWALS outings and events web page. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2021-03-18: Plus Moody Air Force Base.
Update 2021-03-17: Now with Ray City added 2021-03-15 and Lakeland added 2021-03-17.
Schedules of testing, with permissable levels: these are in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) wastewater permits, so we need to see those permits. You’d think they’d be on the EPA or GA-EPD website, but….
The U.S. EPA has delegated NPDES permitting to Georgia. You can get draft wastewater permits right off the GA-EPD website, but to get the actual current approved permits, you must get GA-EPD to send them to you. I found this out from Audra Dickson, Wastewater Regulatory Program Manager. I asked her for permits for half a dozen cities and one county, and the next day Alyssa Thomson, Environmental Specialist, Wastewater Regulatory Program, Municipal Permitting Unit, sent them via email.
They’re on the WWALS website now.
Instream Monitoring Requirements, Valdosta Mud Creek WPCP
Why this list? Continue reading
Emmett Carlisle, from Gainesville, Florida, just outside the Suwannee River Basin, sang “Suwannee Harmony,” and won a prize for Best Florida Folk, at the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Saturday, June 23, 2018, at the Salty Snapper, Valdosta, GA.
Emmett Carlisle
(Bret Wagenhorst)
As he sang, “just like the river, together we flow.”
Here’s the video: Continue reading