Tag Archives: quality

Florida Congress members ask EPA to stop ERC toxic water level hikes

One Senator and eight representatives want the EPA to fix what ERC broke last Tuesday. Letter Two of them are running against each other for Senate yet they signed this letter together: that’s how serious this situation is. Here’s PDF and the text is below.

Congress of the United States
Washington, DC 20510

July 26, 2016

The Honorable Gina McCarthy
Administrator
US. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator McCarthy,

We’re writing to alert you to our serious concerns with a problematic public health proposal in Florida that will soon be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval.

Continue reading →

Stop Florida ERC from raising water toxin levels 2016-07-26

Update 2022-12-23: EPA gives Florida 12 months to fix its water quality standards 2022-12-05.

FDEP could have stuck with U.S. EPA’s recomendations for water quality, but instead did a complicated statistical analysis to excuse raising the amounts of benzene and other toxins in Florida’s waters. Drinking, fishing, swimming: all are affected. The decision may be made 9AM this Tuesday morning, July 26th 2016, by the Environmental Regulation Commission (ERC) in Tallahassee. Please call or write its members, your newspaper or TV stations, or come to the meeting early for the demonstration and then attend (see below for details).

The ERC has cancelled all its other monthly meetings so far this year, yet Continue reading →

Sabal Trail Georgia Section 401 Water Quality Permit

Received today from GA-EPD, although they issued it three weeks ago. Sabal-Trail-WQC-SAS16-Signed-Copy-0001 2013.0000000, 6.0000000 Basically, they believed Sabal Trail, with a few requirements, and issued the permit.

GA-EPD sent three documents, which are inline below with links to the PDF copies that were attached: Continue reading →

Pictures, Ribbon Cutting, Withlacoochee Water Pollution Control Plant 2016-07-12

The crowd was large, the speeches were brief, the food was good, and the tour later was, ah, redolant, but the new plant works better than the old, and, best of all, it’s out of the flood plain.

Sementha Mathews directs them all

Here are a few pictures of this morning’s ribbon cutting for what was billed as the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and Force Main, but they seem to have actually named the Withlacoochee Water Pollution Control Plant (WWPCP). The combination of WWPCP and Force Main so far has prevented any new wastewater spills, and long may it do so.

WWALS Videos will follow, including from a WWPCP tour by the plant operator.

Meanwhile, congratulations Continue reading →

Two new reasons for a SEIS: WWALS to USACE, GA-EPD, and FERC 2016-07-08

LiDar Filed Friday as FERC accession number 20160708-5096, http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?document_id=14476452, “Two new reasons for a USACE Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and a halt to Sabal Trail permits; see also accession numbers 20160708-5089 and 20160708-5088, by WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. under CP15-17.” (PDF) Continue reading →

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony 2016-07-12

Here’s the invitation card for the Valdosta WWTP ribbon cutting Tuesday morning. Congratulations, Valdosta!

Invitation

VALDOSTA
A City Without Limits

The City of Valdosta, Georgia
Requests the Honor of your Presence
at the
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
for the
Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant Continue reading →

Rivers-Alive Cleanup at Berrien Beach Launch, Alapaha River 2016-09-10

No boat needed! This Rivers-Alive Cleanup is on land, at GA 168, the launch for Berrien Beach on the Alapaha River. Bring gloves. Trash bags will be supplied. 300x221 Public access on north side of bridge, with cement strip boat ramp at higher water level but no facilities. Access road is unpaved and about 1/4 mile long. Nice sandy beach., in Berrien Beach at GA 168 on the Alapaha River, by Bret Wagenhorst, for

When: 4PM Saturday September 10th 2016

Where: Berrien Beach Launch, at GA 168, 31.159076, -83.045554

Directions: 12.9 miles east of Nashville, GA on GA 168; launch access road is on left (north) side of highway west of the river.

Duration: about 1.5 hours.

Events: facebook, meetup.

Responsible party: Bret Wagenhorst

This outing is Free! But we encourage you to join WWALS today Continue reading →

Ribbon Cutting, new WWTP and Force Main 2016-07-12

Finally ready for prime time and a ribbon cutting: the new, uphill, out-of-the-floodplain, long-awaited Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and Force Main, New WWTP site near Withlacoochee River which have not overflowed or otherwise caused sewage spills in the recent rains, so maybe Valdosta’s chronic problem smelt downstream all the way to the Gulf is perhaps finally fixed. Congratulations, Valdosta!

When: 8AM Tuesday July 12th 2016

Where: At the new WWTP on Wetherington Lane, north off US 84, west of I-75 exit 16

Invitations: Paper invitations were mailed last week, including to counties and health departments downstream in Florida, according to Sementha Mathews. If you didn’t get one, contact her, and she says the event is in any case open to the public.

Update 2016-05-30: Sementha Mathews says the paper invitations were mailed Tuesday (day before yesterday), so they should arrive by the end of the week. Arrived.

Contact: Sementha Mathews Continue reading →

CR/T Class 3 Permit Change Meeting Report 2016-06-22

A small but inquisitive group attended the CRT Class 3 Permit Change Public meeting on Wednesday June 22nd at the Public Library on Woodrow Wilson Drive in Valdosta.

The representatives of the company included Ramesh Mulani (Operations Manager for CR/T), Brian Jones from International Paper (apparently International Paper is responsible for the monitoring of the wells), Carol Northern from EarthCon Consultants, a subcontractor to International Paper and a gentleman whose name I failed to record. Ms. Northern gave a detailed overview of the reasons for the two permit change requests.

  1. The first permit change was to Continue reading →

Where to look for dye from Alapaha Dye test

Update 2023-05-01: Alapaha Swallets Dye Trace Project 2016-10-01.

Tom Greenhalgh dying the Dead River, Harley Means, and a drone Tom Greenhalgh started putting the dye in the Dead River Swallet about 11:06 this morning, with Harley Means observing in this picture, plus a drone also taking pictures. See below for where to look for the dye coming back up in the next few days. If you see it, please take a water sample for SRWMD. Continue reading →