Thrice rescheduled because of water levels and weather, the Dead River Sink Hike drew a small but attentive crowd to listen to Practicing Geologist Dennis Price and see the Dead River Confluence, the Dead River, and the Dead River Sink, with cypress, tupelo, oaks, pines, and beautyberry along the way, on a warm November day.
![[Jennings Bluff Landing, Dead River Confluence, Dead River Sink, Banners]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-07--dead-river-sink-pictures/many.jpg)
Jennings Bluff Landing, Dead River Confluence, Dead River Sink, Banners
Kyra Purvis, WFXL, November 15, 2021, The city of Valdosta is working together to protect Okefenokee Swamp,
The city of Valdosta is working together to protect the Okefenokee Swamp from a proposed strip mine being placed near the area.
![[Reporter, Mayor, Suwannee Riverkeeper, mine in Suwannee River Basin map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-15--valdosta-okefenokee-resolution-wfxl/many.jpg)
Reporter, Mayor, Suwannee Riverkeeper, mine in Suwannee River Basin mapThe Okefenokee Swamp is a 438,000 acre wetland that straddles the Georgia-Florida line and is a place [where] many local residents go for nature-filled fun.
Continue reading
Update 2023-01-05: News again: Valdosta’s 2021 resolution against the strip mine proposed too near the Okefenokee Swamp 2023-01-01.
Yesterday the most populous city in the Suwannee River Basin passed a resolution opposing the proposed Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) strip mine or any others within ten miles of the Okefenokee Swamp. The resolution further asks the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reverse its abdication of oversight, asks GA-EPD for a moratorium on all mining permits until effects are settled of the recent court overruling of 2020 Clean Water Act changes, as well as to reject the TPM permits, or at least to review those applications as thoroughly as the Army Corps would, and asks the Georgia legislature to prevent such strip mines near the Swamp or any blackwater rivers in the Suwannee River Basin.
You can also ask the state to stop this mine: https://wwals.net/?p=55092
Continue readingUpdate 2021-11-13: Clean rivers 2021-11-13.
All pretty clean for Thursday and Wednesday samples on the Little, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, but there were big rains Friday, so expect the same kind of contamination today and tomorrow that happened a week ago after similar rains. I’d wait a few days before boating, swimming, or fishing in the Withlacoochee River.
![[Chart, Folsom, Hagan; Lakeland, Cleary Bluff; Knights Ferry, Nankin, State Line; Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-04--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Folsom, Hagan; Lakeland, Cleary Bluff; Knights Ferry, Nankin, State Line; Swim Guide
None of the WWALS results for Thursday were zero, but they’re all well below the 410 cfu/100 mL one-time limit.
We have Valdosta downstream results through last Friday. Once again Valdosta results corroborate WWALS results. It’s interesting that last Thursday’s rain contamination had reached Nankin but not State Line by last Friday morning. The Valdosta Okapilco Creek results indicates much of that contamination is probably the usual cattle manure runoff coming out of Brooks County. It’s still lower than the results from last year under similar conditions, so whatever the cattle farmers are doing seems to be working, with room for more improvement. Continue reading
See the Alapaha River for yourself, in these 360-degree views, on Earthviews, taken in August 2021 by WWALS member Bobby McKenzie.
That’s 19.17 river miles, on August 10, 2021. Continue reading
Bobby McKenzie noticed somebody had been there, so I wrote to Valdosta Stormwater Director Angela Bray, “Thanks for another Sugar Creek logjam cleanup; Are we guessing correctly that it was you and Valdosta Stormwater?”
She answered:
You guessed right!
I only took a picture of the trash we picked up. We forgot mosquito spray so we had to get in and out as quick as possible! 🙂
The creek is definitely dropping but makes it super slippery.
Thanks to Valdosta Stormwater for cleaning up the Sugar Creek trashjam twice in one month! It’s good to see they’re having the full experience, like we have for more than a year now, cleaning up this repeating logjam of trash. For much more about the problem, its upstream sources, and how it can be fixed, see the post about their previous cleanup.
You are all invited to come help clean up Sugar Creek on Saturday, October 9, 2021, at this same location behind the Salty Snapper on Gornto Road, just upstream from the Withlacoochee River. Continue reading
Yes, Floridians, please sign the petition at FL5.org to get the Right to Clean Water constitutional amendment on the ballot, for our rivers, springs, and drinking water from the Floridian Aquifer.
This editorial is quite surprising from the Citrus County Chronicle, which has been all for the Duke Energy fracked methane power plant in Crystal River and has not opposed Strom Inc.’s Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) proposed facility there. Maybe education and persuasion have some effects.
![[Clean water amendment worth backing]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-24--rtcw-citrus-county-chronicle/240646562_1019690892116887_8571200039912949916_n.jpg)
Clean water amendment worth backing
Page A9 – TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021
OPINION
CITRUS COUNTY CHRONICLE
EDITORIAL BOARD
The opinions expressed in Chronicle editorials
are the opinions of the newspaper’s editorial board.
CLEAN WATER A MUST
Clean water amendment worth backing
Clean water is imperative to our ecosystem both in Florida and throughout the world.
Continue readingUpdate 2021-11-05: Rain reschedule: Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, Jennings Bluff Launch, 2021-11-07.
New date: November 6, 2021. October was overbooked, so we have again, for the last time we hope, rescheduled the Hike to the Dead River Sink.
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year. We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida. He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is: there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
This is a hike: no boat is needed.
![[Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-07-10--hike-dead-river-sink/many.jpg)
Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price
When: Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, November 6, 2021
Put In: Jennings Bluff Launch. From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
GPS:
30.567183, -83.038911
You’re aiming for the Jennings Bluff Tract entrance.
![[Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-01-27--hike-dead-river-sink/20180127_114218.jpg)
Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653
Take Out: Jennings Bluff Launch
Bring: drinking water, snacks, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net//outings
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading
These are not small numbers, in a recent peer-reviewed scientific study:
“The scenario where the entire population consumed tap water yielded the lowest environmental impact on ecosystems and resources, while the scenario where the entire population drank bottled water yielded the highest impacts (1400 and 3500 times higher for species lost and resource use, respectively).”
![[Plot: human health and lost Species/year]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-07-05--bottle-water-effects/plot-crop.jpg)
Plot: human health and lost Species/year
DALY is disability-adjusted life years.
For resource use, so far as I know Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, does sit on karst limestone, unlike Florida and south Georgia. So the resource effects of bottled water withdrawals from the Floridan Aquifer on our rivers, springs, and wells are probably worse than this study shows. Those lowered water levels in turn affect ecosystems and human health.
Filtered tap water is just as good for human health as bottled water, with far less external effects. Plus filtered tap water does not expose humans to plastics from bottles. Continue reading
Update 2021-08-11: New date: November 6, 2021. October was overbooked, so we have again, for the last time we hope, rescheduled the Hike to the Dead River Sink.
The Alapaha River is still too high to see the geological marvels that Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price wants to show us. So we’re rescheduling again, this time to October. The first available date is Saturday, October 2, 2021, but please check back, because there’s no way of knowing what the water levels or the hurricane situation will be in October.
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year. We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida. He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is: there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
This is a hike: no boat is needed.
Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price
When: Gather 9:00 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:15 PM, Saturday, October 2 [TBD], 2021
Put In: Jennings Bluff Launch. From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
GPS:
30.567183, -83.038911
You’re aiming for the Jennings Bluff Tract entrance.
Jennings Bluff Tract sign, 11:42:18, 30.5670965, -83.0388653
Take Out: Jennings Bluff Launch
Bring: drinking water, snacks, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.
Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members.
You can pay the $10 at the outing, or online:
https://wwals.net//outings
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading
![[Mayor and Riverkeeper]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-11--valdosta-okefenokee-resolution/many.jpg)
![[Willacoochee Landing, overhanging branches, GA & FL RR, mile marker, beach, Lakeland Boat Ramp; ARWT map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-19--earthviews-alapaha-river/many.jpg)
![[Bags of trash in boat]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-09-30--sugar-creek-valdosta-stormwater-cleanup/IMG_7402.jpg)