Tag Archives: quality

Valdosta sewage into One Mile Branch 2023-06-21

Update 2023-06-26: Valdosta Williams Street One Mile Branch Sewage Spill Sign 2023-06-26.

Valdosta had a sewage spill starting Wednesday and did not tell the public until Saturday at 5:14 PM.

[Map: One Mile Branch, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River 2023-06-24]
Map: One Mile Branch, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River 2023-06-24 in the WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail
All the yellow diamonds indicate earlier Valdosta sewage spills.

Where on the more than three-mile-long One Mile Branch the spill occurred was not mentioned in the Valdosta press release. This is perhaps the most vague sewage spill press release ever from Valdosta, with no location even as precise as a block, no estimate of how much sewage was spilled, and no indication of how long it had been going on.

I have inquired about those things.

It’s good that WWALS rescheduled our chainsaw cleanup that was going to be today, on the Withlacoochee River downstream from Sugar Creek and One Mile Branch, where the spill happened.

The City of Valdosta Press Release

Continue reading →

The Mermaid says sign the petition, Rights to Clean Water for Florida 2023-03-26

The mermaid likes it.

Florida registered voters, please sign the petition to get a state constitutional amendment for Rights to Clean and Healthy Waters on the ballot:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org

[The Mermaid says sign the RTCW petition]
The Mermaid says sign the RTCW petition

This picture of Mermaid Danielle Shmalberg with the RTCW petition and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman was taken at the 2023 OSFR Songwriting Contest, part of RiverFest by Our Santa Fe River.

WWALS has shamelessly copied that idea for years. Join us Friday evening, September 22, 2023, for the sixth annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest as part of the first-ever WWALS gala fundraising dinner, WWALS River Revue:
https://www.betterunite.com/WWALS-wwalsriverrevue2023/ Continue reading →

Final webinar, Upper and Middle Suwannee River Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs) 2023-06-23

Thanks to the anonymous tipster.

Notice: 27234319

Notice of Meeting/Workshop Hearing

Department: WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICTS
Division: Suwannee River Water Management District

The Suwannee River Water Management District announces a public meeting to which all persons are invited.

DATE AND TIME: Friday, June 23, 2023, 10:00 a.m.

PLACE: Webinar

Subject: The meeting can be viewed by webinar to maximize the opportunity for public participation. The webinar is free to attend and can be accessed from a computer, tablet, or smartphone in listen only mode — comments will be received from the online audience during this meeting.

[Agenda plus map]
Agenda plus map

The purpose of the meeting is to conclude the peer review process for the Upper and Middle Suwannee River Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs). This meeting will allow for the peer reviewers to discuss any revisions to the final draft of the peer review consensus report for these MFLs. Following their discussion, the reviewers will vote to approve the peer review consensus report. These MFLs are specifically for the Upper and Middle Suwannee River segments. The District will continue to work on the MFLs for priority springs along the river based on the District’s MFL priority list schedule.

Continue reading →

PFAS fixes to wastewater treatment could keep drug residue out of rivers 2021-08-11

The PFAS problem may cause wastewater treatment that cleans up another bad problem: pharmaceuticals.

Tara Lohan, The Revelator (Center for Biological Diversity), August 11, 2021, What Happens to Wildlife Swimming in a Sea of Our Drug Residues?

Wastewater exposes plants and wildlife to hundreds of chemical compounds. Researchers are learning about potential side effects and solutions.

Effects range from obvious physical defects to behavior change. For example, bold crawfish are not safe crawfish.

[Valdosta WWTP clean outfall, 2023-03-04, 30.8361045, -83.3595411]
Valdosta WWTP clean outfall, 2023-03-04, 30.8361045, -83.3595411

But a different type of contaminant may lead to fixes. Continue reading →

Valdosta annual stormwater reports to GA-EPD 2023-02-14

Back in December, Valdosta got a five-year renewal of its stormwater permit by GA-EPD. I noticed that the renewal process requires updating the city’s Best Management Practices (BMPs) by June 4, 2023. And the permit requires annual reports.

Here are the last five years of Valdosta annual stormwater permit reports, in 1051 files.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1MOOnrGRNitnaD1pxmSrxM54qDtG4vhgm

They must be valuable: Valdosta charged WWALS $106.53 to satisfy the open records request.

[Two Mile Branch water quality, Pond inspection list, Pond enforcement]
Two Mile Branch water quality, Pond inspection list, Pond enforcement

They are rather dry reading, and I do not claim to have read them all. But there are some interesting bits.

It turns out Valdosta has some Fecal coliform results for Two Mile Branch, Continue reading →

Veto Florida fertilizer preemption

Please ask the Florida Governor to veto the part of the budget bill that could end up with preemption of local fertilizer bans.

You can use this handy Waterkeepers Florida form to do that: https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/stopthefertilizerpreemption/

[Veto fertilizer ban preemption]

Who would benefit by the bill? Phosphate mines.

As everyone knows, fertilizer nitrates leaching through the soil into our springs and rivers is the main cause of the algae blooms that crowd out native vegetation and starve fish and manatees in the Suwannee River Basin. The state’s Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) won’t solve that problem. Counties and cities can pass ordinances to address the problem, but not so easily the relevant part of this bill becomes law.

The relevant part of line item 146 of SB 2500 reads: Continue reading →

Agenda: Tifton, GA, meeting, Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council 2023-05-24

Update 2023-05-16: Rivers and mining: WWALS comments on Suwannee-Satilla Draft Regional Water Plan 2023-05-15.

We have an agenda for the May 24, 2023, meeting of the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Commission (SSRWPC) in Tifton, Georgia.

Note the SRWMD presentation about Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs), as in the ongoing SRWMD peer review of the Upper and Middle Suwannee River MFLs.

SSRWPC will also be discussing their Lake Beatrice water storage and Alapaha River replenishment scheme, which has assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Don’t wait until the SSRWPC meeting to get your comments in on their Georgia Regional Water Plan by May 15, 2023.

[The attendees: Sheri Almer and Cliff Lewis of GA-EPD, Emory Gawlik and Shayne Wood of GDM Smith, Council Mac McCall, Chair Scott Downing, Foreground Bert Early of Georgia Forestry, Elizabeth Backe of SGRC, Emily Ducker and Sean King of SRWMD --John S. Quarterman Suwannee Riverkeeper]
SSRWPC meeting 2023-03-14.

Received this morning in response to a WWALS request, Cliff Lewis wrote:

Agenda for the upcoming meeting is below. See you then. Continue reading →

Dollar General developer and property owner sue Lowndes County about rezoning denial –VDT 2023-05-03

The plaintiffs’ case is based on the Lowndes County Commission not agreeing with county staff’s recommendation to approve the rezoning, as well as “evidence supporting their petition and codes relating to the Unified Development Land Code.”

Maybe this is the “enhanced facade” that Dollar General offered in the Public Hearing after which the County Commission denied the rezoning, on January 1, 2023.

[Enhanced facade, plat, and future development, VDT and actual stormwater by WWALS]
Enhanced facade, plat, and future development, VDT and actual stormwater by WWALS

Also the plaintiffs say all the public comments were “generalized and speculative”. Huh, I sure thought I heard a bunch of quite specific public comments. The letter WWALS sent to the Commission before that Public Hearing was quite specific, for example, in saying the allegation that the closest effect on nearby property owners would be on their residences was hogwash, given that stormwater from the subject site runs west under GA 122 onto neighboring property much closer than that residence.

There was speculation in various comments, but it was based on easily documented history of Dollar General and of property development in Lowndes County.

After a story by a Valdosta Daily Times reporter, that local organ of record weighed in with an editorial supporting the citizens. Continue reading →

High Springs small sewage spill, Santa Fe River 2023-05-04

Update 2023-05-05: Clean Withlacoochee River 2023-05-04.

High Springs, Alachua County, Florida, had another small sewage spill, mostly vacuumed up. It probably did not affect the Santa Fe River, but High Springs needs to get a grip.

[Public Notice and Map of High Springs Plaza Sewage Spill 2023-05-04]
Public Notice and Map of High Springs Plaza Sewage Spill 2023-05-04

Pollution Notice Continue reading →

Comment deadline for Georgia draft regional water plans 2023-05-15

Update 2023-05-16: Rivers and mining: WWALS comments on Suwannee-Satilla Draft Regional Water Plan 2023-05-15.

The comment deadline is coming up in less than two weeks for the Georgia Regional Water Plans.

[Comment deadline 2023-05-15]
Comment deadline 2023-05-15

Here is the notice:
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/GADNR/bulletins/35828a6

The draft plans are here:
https://waterplanning.georgia.gov/regional-water-plans

The Suwannee-Satilla draft plan is here:
https://waterplanning.georgia.gov/suwannee-satilla-regional-water-plan

Send comments to: water.planning@dnr.ga.gov

For more information, please contact Clete Barton at (470) 251-4769 or Clete.Barton@dnr.ga.gov

The Suwannee-Satilla Regional Planning Council (SSRWPC) is meeting a few days after the deadline, May 24th, in Tifton.

 -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/