Tag Archives: PR

WWALS becomes Suwannee RIVERKEEPER

Update 2023-03-31: Suwannee River Basin is bigger than several states, less populous than any: Suwannee Riverkeeper and WWALS work for fishable, swimmable, drinkable water in all 10,000 square miles of the Suwannee River Basin and Estuary.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WWALS becomes Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

Hahira, Georgia; December 30, 2016 — The Waterkeeper Alliance Board of Directors has approved its Affiliate WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. to become a Member. The newly appointed Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®, John S. Quarterman, will work to protect and preserve the Suwannee River Basin by combining his firsthand knowledge of the waterways with an unwavering commitment to the rights of the community and to the rule of law.

[Detail with creeks]
Suwannee River Basin and Estuary including Santa Fe River HUC, added 2019-09-26.

“Waterkeeper Alliance is thrilled to have Suwannee RIVERKEEPER® to be the eyes, ears, and voice for this vital watershed and community,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President of Waterkeeper Alliance. “Every community deserves to have swimmable, drinkable and fishable water, and John S. Quarterman is the right leader to fight for clean water in the region.”

The Suwannee RIVERKEEPER® will be a full-time advocate for the Suwannee River and its tributaries, including the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Suwannee Rivers in Georgia and Florida, protecting and restoring water quality through community action and enforcement. Quarterman stated, “Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®’s aim is to provide strong advocacy that will result in an improved quality of life for all citizens, whether they rely on it for drinking water or recreation or whether they simply value the Suwannee River Basin’s continued well-being.” Continue reading →

WWALS receives grant for water conservation outreach to farmers and community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WWALS receives grant for water conservation outreach to farmers and community (PDF)

Hahira, Georgia; December 27, 2016 — Local water conservation group WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) has received a grant of Just enough water here, 31.0016918, -83.4573364 $6,000 from the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) to help groups in towns, counties, and countryside to draw the big picture of watershed conservation, as well as to help organize at least one grant from a different source to assist at least one farmer in erosion control.

The award contract of November 11, 2016, says Continue reading →

December Tannin Times, the WWALS Monthly Newsletter

All the WWALS Monthly Newsletters are now available on the WWALS website. WWALS Biota, GWC DD, US 84 Sabal Trail HDD, Southwings WWALS Members get the newest Tannin Times issue when it comes out at the beginning of the month. The most recent is for December 2016 (PDF), with:

  • Bret Wagenhorst’s column WWALS Biota about plants and animals in our watershed,
  • the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen which features Sabal Trail for the third year running,
  • the WWALS discovery of a Sabal Trail frac-out blowing drilling mud up into the Withlacoochee River just upstream from US 84 between Quitman and Valdosta, Georgia,
  • a Southwings flight for WWALS over the Suwannee River in Florida,
  • community outreach at the Alapaha (Georgia) Station Celebration and Okefenokee Pioneer Days (near Folkston, GA),
  • an Outing to the very unusual Dead River Sink on the Alapaha River,
  • the Resolution by Continue reading →

Less withdrawals, more water retention for North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan: WWALS PR 2016-12-06

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jasper, Florida, November 6th 2016 — Better modeling and measurement of more water reuse and retention with fewer water withdrawals in both north Florida and south Georgia, WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) recommended yesterday in comments (PDF) on the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP). WWALS also opposed the Falling Creek Aquifer Storage project and suggested a replacement, and recommended including threats to the FLoridan Aquifer and the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers such as pipelines and fracking.

Figure C3: Aquifer surface change due to withdrawals in north Florida and south Georgia WWALS applauded water supply projects involving reuse or stormwater, especially those in Jacksonvile and Gainesville, two of the sources of the general problem of falling water levels in the Floridan Aquifer. WWALS also applauded the plan to set minimum flow levels on the upper Suwannee River and WWALS expects to be involved with that.

WWALS recommended expanding the original study area, which stopped at the Suwannee River on the west and the Georgia-Florida state line on the north. WWALS president John S. Quarterman explained,

“Our rivers don’t stop because there’s a state line on a map, and there are three second-magnitude springs on the Withlacoochee River in Georgia south of Valdosta, one of them with a more than 4,000-foot cave system, that aren’t taken into account in this draft plan.”

Quarterman elaborated on a much larger concern: Continue reading →

WWALS against Sabal Trail in VDT 2016-11-18

“Demonstrators gathered to protest the Sabal Trail pipeline and participate in the “Dirty Dozen” waterways conference call.” VDT front page That was on the front page of the newspaper of record of the biggest city in the Suwannee RIver Basin. There’s a petition for Georgians to sign, lots of protests in Florida to assist with, and you can help us all watch Sabal Trail to catch their next violation.

Online last night, Derrek Vaughn, Valdosta Daily Times, 17 November 2016, WWALS Watershed Coalition hold demonstration,

WWALS Watershed Coalition sponsored the demonstration.

Members and demonstrators met in the median of Highway 84 at the Withlacoochee River Bridge to listen to the Georgia Water Coalition’s “Dirty Dozen 2016” conference call.

The “Dirty Dozen” list is an attempt to “put a spotlight on ongoing pollution problems, pending threats to Georgia’s water as well as state and federal policies and failures that ultimately harm — or could harm — Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers,’ according to organizers. Continue reading →

GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Withlacoochee River Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail #WaterIsLife 2016-11-16

Update 2016-11-22:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Turbidity curtains Hahira GA, November 14th 2016 (updated with directions and detail Nov 15th) — WWALS is holding an in-person press conference at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge to hear and participate in the announcement Wednesday morning of the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) Dirty Dozen 2016: a dozen of the worst threats to Georgia’s waters. WWALS will then offer a hike up the riverside to the Sabal Trail pipeline crossing location, where Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud leak up into the river.

Please arrive by 9:30 to be ready for the GWC teleconference at 10AM. On the phone call, details of the Dirty Dozen will be announced, with WWALS members assisting for one of them, and another also directly relevant to WWALS watersheds.

After the phone call, people from Florida and Georgia will have an opportunity to speak, because the Withlacoochee flows downstream into Florida, where Sabal Trail also plans to drill under the Suwannee River, as well as the Santa Fe, where 14 people got arrested recently protecting, and the other Withlacoochee (south) River. Let’s see a little cross-state-line solidarity against this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous fracked methane pipeline boondoggle. Call your local press before you come, and bring signs.

When: 9:30 AM Wednesday November 16th 2016

Where: US 84 bridge, east side, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA, 30.793747, -83.450167
It’s in the median of a busy highway, so be careful.

Screenshot 2016-11-14 15-14-56 What: Press Conference for Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen, with hike up the river.
It’s a rough hike, so come prepared with sturdy shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
Or just participate at the bridge. Bring signs if you’ve got them, or make them on the spot.
This is a completely peaceful nonviolent first-amendment press conference.

Event: facebook

Directions: from Live Oak or Gainesville, FL or farther south, or from Albany, Tifton, or Macon, GA or farther north, take I-75 Continue reading →

WWALS and 182 Organizations from 35 States Call for Congressional Review of FERC 2016-09-21

For Immediate Release

WWALS and 182 Organizations from 35 States Call for Congressional Review of FERC

PDF

Hundreds of Nonprofit Organizations Join to Demand Reform of Rogue Agency

Washington, DC, September 21, 2016 — More than 180 organizations representing communities across America called on leaders in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold congressional hearings into the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) extensive history of bias and abuse. The groups are also requesting reform of the Natural Gas Act, which the groups say, gives too much power to FERC and too little to state and local officials.

“The time has now come for Congress to investigate how FERC is using its authority and to recognize that major changes are in fact necessary in order to protect people, including future generations, from the ramifications of FERC’s misuse of its power and implementation of the Natural Gas Act,” says Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and a primary organizer of the effort.

Protesting the pipeline at the Suwannee River crossing...so nice to see lots of kids! “A prime example of FERC’s dereliction of duty to the public benefit is the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline Spectra Energy is drilling through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and under our Withlacoochee River in Georgia and our Suwannee River in Florida,” says John S. Quarterman, president of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS), the Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the upper Suwannee River. He added, “FERC failed in its due diligence by opaque selection of environmental contractors, by issuing its permit before permits from two states and the Army Corps, by ignoring copious new geological and other evidence, and by giving Sabal Trail construction go-ahead while a lawsuit is still pending by Flint Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, Gulf Restoration Network, and others, including construction through properties whose landowners have not even had eminent domain compensation hearings. Most egregiously, despite FPL, the source of the $3 billion for this boondoggle, admitting in its 2016 Ten Year Plan that Florida needs no new electricity until 2024 at the earliest, FERC refuses to even reconsider the alleged “need” for this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipeline. Corporate profits for Spectra Energy from Houston, Texas and Enbridge from Calgary, Alberta are no justification for taking local land and risking our water, air, taxes, and safety.”

The letter to Continue reading →

WWALS Outings, Rivers, and Pipeline on Chris Beckham drive-time radio WVGA 105.9 FM 8:00 7:30 AM 2016-09-02

8AM Friday morning WWALS will be on Chris Beckham’s drive-time radio show. WWALS president John S. Quarterman will be talking about Saturday morning’s Suwannee River paddle outing and other outings upcoming on the Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers, along with other developments on the Alapaha River Water Trail and the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, along with many other things WWALS does. Plus what you can do about the FERC rubberstamp of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline drilling under the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers.

When: 8:00 7:30AM Friday September 2nd 2016

Where: Continue reading →

May 2016 Tannin Times: WWALS member newsletter

WWALS members have already received the June Tannin Times. A month or so later, we publish the WWALS newsletters online, such as this one from May 2016.

Big Little River Paddle Race and Outings Follow this link for PDF and below are images of the May 2016 Tannin Times. Click on any small image to get a bigger image. It’s all about the BIG Little River Paddle Race, WWALS Ambassador Dave Hetzel went to A Day in the Woods, and we boated in outings at Ray’s Mill Pond and on the Alapaha River with Great Egrets and canopied by trees in full spring leaf.

In advocacy, WWALS applauded Suwannee County, FL Continue reading →

Video of Chris Beckham radio show about BIG Little River Paddle Race 2016-05-21

You are invited this Saturday morning to Reed Bingham State Park (between Adel and Moultrie) for a morning of sun, fun, cypress, turtles, and don’t pet the alligator at the fourth annual BIG Little River Paddle Race. You can register online (follow the link) or at the site (also follow the link for details). And Phil Hubbard’s special offer is still open: he will pay for two free registrations. If interested, send email wwalswatershed@gmail.com; first two received win.

Lots of prizes in numerous categories, including $100 for first prize. Plus Phil Hubbard also made and we have available the WWALS Fallers Plaque, which you may win if you inadvertently fall into the water. Thanks again to Bret Wagenhorst of Tifton for organizing the paddle race.

Here’s video of me talking about that on Chris Beckhams’s radio show, WVGA 105.9 FM the morning of May 16th: Continue reading →