Tag Archives: north Florida

Notice: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting 2025-04-13

WWALS President Sara Squires Jones will preside over the WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting. The public is invited to this regular busineass meeting.

That’s for the entire 10,000 square mile Suwannee River Basin, in Georgia and Florida, including the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Alapahoochee, Little Alapaha, Little times two, New times two, Black, Dead, Sampson, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers, and all their creeks, springs, sinks, ponds, and swamps, such as Grand Bay, Banks Lake and the Okefenokee Swamp.

Notice: WWALS Board Meeting, 6-8 PM Sunday, April 13, 2025

When: 6 PM, Sunday, April 13, 2025

Where: Online via zoom; the link will be posted.

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/527409036791413/

Much of the work of WWALS is done by committees of members, and many of them have some good results to report. If you’d like to join a committee, please fill out the application.

The board itself does most of its business online via email, but it’s good to have these gatherings once a quarter.

The current board members, officers, and staff are listed on the Board web page.

More: For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS outings web page, https://wwals.net/outings/. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations

Clean Little & Withlacoochee Rivers, Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-04-01

Update 2025-04-04: Dirty upstream, clean downstream: New and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-04-03.

Avoid Sugar Creek after rains, at least downstream from Baytree Road.

I sampled Tuesday, hoping to get low E. coli so we could all put that long-term Sugar Creek sewage spill behind us. But the results were very bad, as in Too Many to Count (TNTC) at Gornto Road and 4,933 cfu/100 mL at the WaterGoat. The alert limit is 1,000, so many times that.

Why? Most likely the banks and bed of Sugar Creek are still contaminated from the sewage spill and the rains washed some of that into the creek. Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes assures me the sewage bypass is working. Even though its pump wasn’t running when I went by there, he says it turns on as needed.

The good news: the Withlacoochee River downstream at GA 133 was pretty clean. Apparently rainwater in the river diluted the contamination from Sugar Creek. The Little River at Troupville Boat Ramp was even cleaner. So downstream on the Withlacoochee River you should have no problems this time from Sugar Creek.

After rains, Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-04-01, Clean Little River &, Withlacoochee Rivers

The usual weekly WWALS water quality report will be published tomorrow (Friday). Continue reading →

BMAP Webinars: Lower and Middle Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers, Silver and Rainbow Springs 2025-04-10

Six months after the in-person meetings last October, FDEP is holding more BMAP meetings, this time as webinars.

Silver and Rainbow Springs, BMAP Webinars 2025-04-11, Lower and Middle Suwannee & Santa Fe River 2025-04-10

The Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) documents can be found here:
https://floridadep.gov/dear/water-quality-restoration/content/basin-management-action-plan-documents

I have asked the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for the agendas for these meetings.

Lower and Middle Suwannee River Basin BMAP Meeting
April 10, 2025
10 a.m. EDT
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8387583116283965525

Santa Fe River Basin BMAP Meeting
April 10, 2025
2 p.m EDT
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2633110891434594903

Silver Springs and Rainbow Springs BMAP Meeting
April 11, 2025
10 a.m. EDT
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6935859431224387930

From the Summary of the Lower and Middle Suwannee River BMAP, page 9: Continue reading →

Update Rock Bluff Management Plan, renew Woods Ferry River Camp lease agreement @ SRWMD 2025-04-08

On the SRWMD Board Agenda for April 8, 2025, related to the Lands Committee proposal to convey three spring parks to Suwannee County, SRWMD hasn’t even finished its planned work on Telford Spring, and Falmouth Springs is still closed due to hurricane damage. See page 48 in the Land Management Update Report.

Telford Spring: In July, the District opened Telford Spring to the public. EUTAW, Inc has completed a conceptual plan to improve parking and public access. The initial phase to develop the parking lot is planned.
Storm Facility Repairs: Hurricane Debby and Hurricane Helene have damaged public use areas to varying degrees. Eight sites are currently undergoing plans for assessment and construction costs to repair. The sites under assessment are Suwannee Springs, Falmouth Springs, Owen Springs, Steinhatchee Falls, Blue Sink, Atsena Otie Key, and Lukens. FEMA conducted site inspections for 3 of the damaged facilities. Falmouth Springs remains closed due to damage to the boardwalk.

Collage, SRWMD Board Package 2025-04-08

Perhaps the most interesting items in the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Governing Board agenda for April 8, 2025, are these two items under “5. Consideration of the following Items Collectively by Consent:” Continue reading →

Give Suwannee, Falmouth, and Telford Springs Parks to Suwannee County –SRWMD Lands Committee 2025-04-08

There’s nothing on the SRWMD agendas for Tuesday, April 8, 2025, about the proposal last month for a swap of the back of the SRWMD Ellaville Tract for Riverview Farms on the Withlacoochee River. Presumably negotiations are still in process. See the previous post for a petition against the swap and other things you can do:
https://wwals.net/?p=67339

But this month’s Lands Committee Agenda contains examples:

Of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) asking the Florida Department of Environmental Proteciton (FDEP) for springs acquisition funds (as they could do to buy Riverview Farms instead of swapping for it).
This Avalon Woodlands Ravines is in Jefferson County in the Aucilla River watershed for a conservation easement with Tall Timbers Research, Inc., who would conduct all easement monitoring and compliance.
Of declaring SRWMD land surplus (as they already did years ago for the back of the Ellaville Tract).
This Turkey Island Tract is in Levy County near the Suwannee River, because “The parcel is isolated from the larger tract, with no adjacency to District lands and is located within a residential neighborhood.”

Collage, SRWMD Lands Committee 2025-04-08

Let’s concentrate on a proposal to transfer several SRWMD parks to a county: “5. Intergovernmental Agreement for Conveyance of Suwannee Springs Park, Falmouth Spring Park, and Telford Spring Park to Suwannee County,” all on or near the Suwannee River.

Why? SRWMD staff thinks these parks are too developed and intesively used for SRWMD’s passive parks model, and they would fit Suwannee County better.

And: “An estimated $35,000 will be saved per year in management expenses by conveying the properties to the county.”

This is the same Suwannee County that sold off the site of Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park to what has become perhaps the most intensively used private park in the county, just downstream and across US 129 from Suwannee Springs Park. So I wonder what Suwannee County wants to do with these three parks. The proposal does say transference would include a deed restriction that public access must be maintained. Continue reading →

SRWMD exchange back of Ellaville Tract for Riverview Farms Withlacoochee River land? 2025-03-29

Update 2025-04-02: Update Rock Bluff Management Plan, renew Woods Ferry River Camp lease agreement @ SRWMD 2025-04-08.

Update 2025-03-29: See also Florida buys Hardee Spring on the Withlacoochee River.

Why not buy the riverfront property?

It’s easy to see why SRWMD would want the Riverview Farms tract: it’s between two Twin Rivers State Forest tracts on the Withlacoochee River in Madison County and directly across from another in Hamilton County.

SRWMD Land Swap: Gopher tortoises for riverfront, Ellaville Tract for Riverview Farms, Why not buy Riverview Farms?

And SRWMD is offering to trade is not riverfront property; it’s the back of the Ellaville Tract. But it still has gopher tortoises on it: a keystone species that harbors up to 300 other species in its burrows.

If you want to stop this land swap, here’s a petition to sign:
https://act.audubon.org/a/ellaville

And call or write your SRWMD Board member and show up at their next meeting.
https://www.mysuwanneeriver.com/133/Governing-Board

Larry Sessions represents the Upper Suwannee Basin, including both these tracts. Harry Smith and Charles Keith are at large. Chair Virginia H. Johns has to consider the entire District.

Even better, if you know grasstops who have the ear of that Board, such as timber company Rayonier and cattle company Lukes Brothers, ask them to contact the Board.

Craig Pittman called gopher tortoise burrows “Nature’s Condo,” Continue reading →

Florida State Parks Love Fests 2025-04-05-06

Come to one of the Florida State Parks Love Fests, organized by the Suwannee-St. Johns Group of the Florida Chapter of Sierra Club, in conjunction with WWALS, OSFR, and others.

You remember last year, when a proposal for golf courses and hotels at Florida State Parks was postponed “due to overwhelming interest” (read: massive statewide protest) and then cancelled.

This year, we need people to help strengthen FL SB 80 and HB 209, which put some constraints on privatization plans, but not enough.

You can help online:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/SB80_2025/SB80_Sponsors/

And you can come down to a state park on the Suwannee or Santa Fe River next weekend.

Florida State Parks, Love Fests 2025-04-05-06, Suwannee River SP, Manatee Springs, O’Leno SP, Gilchrist Blue Spring

On the Suwannee River: Continue reading →

Send in your songs, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2025

Hahira, Georgia, March 28, 2025 — Submissions open April 1, really, no fooling, for the 2025 Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

WWALS Board Member Scotti Jay said, “It will be even more fun this year!”

The Eighth Annual Finals will be held at the WWALS River Revue, an indoor fundraising dinner, to benefit WWALS Watershed Coalition, with an evening of food, drink, speakers from Georgia and Florida, a silent auction, and the music of a headliner and of the Songwriting Contest Finalists. That’s 5-9 PM, Saturday, September 6, 2025, at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Georgia.

Tickets are $65 each.
https://app.betterunite.com/WWALS-wwalsriverrevue2025

WWALS Membership Director Janet Martin said, “Your ticket or sponsorship helps support everything WWALS does, from water quality tests, paddle outings and swimming & boating lessons, to chainsaw cleanups, and beyond to advocacy to stop trash at its sources, strip mines, and pipelines. We work for water trails, solar power, and Right to Clean Water, with growing engagement for youth and marginalized communities.”

For how to sponsor or provide an item for the silent auction, follow the above link or the QR code, or go to wwals.net and scroll down to WWALS River Revue.

Song Submissions Open April 1, 2025, no fooling!, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

WWALS President Sara Squires Jones said, “Musicians, don’t wait until the deadline to send in your songs. I can’t wait to hear them.”

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said, “You’ll hear more later about the M.C., the speakers, and the judges.”

Continue reading →

River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment 2025-03-26

We all drink with straws from the groundwater here in the U.S. southeast coastal plain.

River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment in Georgia and Florida

So surface water interchange with groundwater produces problems for city and county drinking water treatment, and for E. coli contamination of private water wells. Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee River and Ty Ty Creek 2025-03-19

Update 2025-03-29: Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-03-26.

It’s a good weekend for boating, if you are experienced and like water high and fast.

WWALS and Valdosta Utilities got good water quality results both upstream and downstream of Sugar Creek for Wednesday, and there has only been a sprinkle of rain since.

No new sewage spills were reported in Georgia or Florida.

No rain is predicted until Monday.

The Withlacoochee River at Pinetta is too high to paddle, as is the Suwannee at Fargo and the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers near where they join.

Avoid those spots, and happy high and fast water fishing, swimming, paddling, or boating this weekend.

If you are experienced, join us on Saturday, March 22, 2025, for the Expert paddle with jon boats: Troupville to Knights Ferry, Withlacoochee River.

The Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle has been rescheduled to April 19th.

For these and other WWALS outings and events, see: https://wwals.net/outings/

Clean Withlacoochee River and Ty Ty Creek 2025-03-19, No new sewage spills, No rain this weekend