Tag Archives: river

Videos: Tracy Horenbein winning Best Americana with Wild and Free, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2022-08-20

Here are videos of Tracy Horenbein, of Tallahassee, Florida, singing her song Wild and Free, and winning Best Americana, at the 2022 Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.

Wild and Free –Tracy Horenbein, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2022

Thanks for playing, Tracy!

Here’s a WWALS video playlist: Continue reading →

WWALS response to FERC on opposition comments of Pivotal LNG about small, inland LNG Rulemaking 2022-10-04

Update 2022-10-26: WWALS response to opposition comments by Eagle LNG about small, inland LNG 2022-10-17.

Today WWALS and seven other organizations rebutted the opposition comments of Pivotal LNG, LLC to the WWALS, et al. petition to FERC for Rulemaking on small, inland, LNG facilities.

First and last page

If you also want to intervene or comment, here’s how:
https://wwals.net/?p=59062#tocomment.

Yes, the comment deadline has passed, but a FERC attorney told me the Commission usually considers comments filed later.

Thanks to all the co-signers on today’s response: LEAD Agency, Inc., Kissimmee Waterkeeper, Lake Worth Waterkeeper, Peace+Myakka Waterkeeper, Collier County Waterkeeper, Three Rivers Waterkeepers, and Food and Water Watch.

Thanks to all the previous commenters, especially Floridians Against Dirty Energy (FADE), League of Women Voters, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Florida Springs Council, Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, Anacostia Riverkeeper, Potomac Riverkeeper, Assateague Coastal Trust, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and others too numerous to list here.

Thanks to Maxine Connor for rustling up many of those organizations.

Thanks as always to Cecile Scofield, doggedly pursuing LNG for decades now.

The Response

Filed with FERC 2022-10-04 12:40:32 PM as Accession Number: 20221004-5116, “Response to Opposition Comments of Pivotal LNG, LLC, by WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., et al., under RM22-21.”

Notice: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting 2022-10-09

Update 2022-10-10: Agenda: WWALS Board Meeting 2022-10-09.

New WWALS President Sara Jay will preside over the WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting. The public is invited.

We will be discussing the WWALS Boomerang Paddle Race, Chairman and Mayor’s Paddle, Songwriting Contest, trash, outings, water quality testing, opposition to mines, water withdrawals, coal ash, pellet plants, and LNG export, as well as promotion of water trails and solar power, and of course finances.

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

When: 8 AM – 10 AM, Sunday, October 9, 2022

Where: Online via zoom, so you don’t even have to go anywhere. The zoom parameters will follow, as will an agenda.

Square WWALS and Suwannee Riverkeeper logos

Continue reading →

New Valdosta Utilities Director 2022-10-03

Received yesterday, October 3, 2022: Eyre Announced as New Director of Utilities,

Bradley Eyre –City of Valdosta

The City of Valdosta has promoted Bradley Eyre as the new Director of Utilities. Eyre has more than 25 years of experience in the engineering design, inspection, and construction management of water and wastewater systems throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

Eyre has been with the City of Valdosta since 2019, serving as the Engineering Manager for the Utilities Department.
Continue reading →

Pictures: Berrien Beach Cleanup, Alapaha River 2022-09-24

We got quite a bit of trash on a fun morning at Berrien Beach Boat Ramp in Berrien County and across the Alapaha River at Berrien Beach in Lanier County, in the September 24, 2022, River Alive cleanup.

Banners, trash, and people at Berrien Beach Boat Ramp and Berrien Beach, Alapaha River 2022-09-24

The most unusual item was cash. Most of the rest was water, beer bottles, and plastic bags. And the usual used diapers. Plus a bumper. Continue reading →

One Mile Branch Fish Kill 2022-09-23

Update 2022-09-25: High E. coli near One Mile Branch fish kill, and maybe fuel spill 2022-09-23.

Update 2022-09-24: Clean Withlacoochee River water quality test results then One Mile Branch fish kill 2022-09-22.

Scotti Jay says, “I’m glad my dog doesn’t like to get in the water.”

Fish kill and equipment

The One Mile Branch water full of dead fish from Oak Street at VSU down to West Gordon Street and Sugar Creek in Remerton. Sugar Creek goes on down to the Withlacoochee River.

A sewage bypass pipe starts just downstream (west) of Patterson Street and ends near the VSU practice football field west of Oak Street, near where the dead fish start. Such equipment could only have been put there by Valdosta Utilities or its contractors.

I saw such equipment at Patterson Street after Continue reading →

Pictures: Banks Lake Full Harvest Moon 2022-09-10

A dozen people, neighbors and new-found friends, paddled in the coral dusk to see bats fly and the Full Harvest Moon rise through clouds, at Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge, our mini-Okefenokee west of Lakeland, Georgia.

Banners, boats, sunset, bats, moonrise, shore

Thanks to Elizabeth Brunner for leading this outing, and most of the other Full Moon paddles this summer. If you want to help organize WWALS outings, you can apply to join the Outings Committee.

The WWALS Water Quality Testing Committee was well-represented, with Elizabeth and Michael and Jacob Bachrach. Continue reading →

Ashburn sewage problem and Moultrie 2022-09-16

Update 2022-09-23: One Mile Branch Fish Kill 2022-09-23.

Ashburn needs to get a grip on its sewage problem.

This summer, in five separate incidents, Ashburn spilled 1,229,000 gallons of raw sewage into Hat Creek, which runs into the Alapaha River.

Moultrie has a much tinier sewage problem, spilling 500 gallons into Okapilco Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River.

And no, we haven’t forgotten about Tifton’s spill or Valdosta’s five summer spills or the spills by Starke and High Springs, Florida. Those we have reported separately, and all of them together (plus the Moultrie spill) do not add up to Ashburn’s 400,000 gallon August 19th spill, much less Ashburn’s 800,000 gallon August 25th spill.

Summer 2022 Ashburn and Moultrie sewage spills

Ashburn’s excuses varied: Continue reading →

Clean Rivers 2022-09-15

Update 2022-09-19: Ashburn sewage problem and Moultrie 2022-09-16.

Good news: all clean in all the WWALS water quality tests on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers for Thursday. Happy fishing, swimming, and boating!

Maybe see you tomorrow morning on the Roline to Hunter Creek Suwannee River paddle. The Suwannee River is usually clean upstream anyway.

Chart, Rivers, Map

Thanks to WWALS tester Elizabeth Brunner for her usual three GA 122 sites, on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers, all results good. Thanks to WWALS testers Michael and Jacob Bachrach for testing their usual three downstream Withlacoochee River sites at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps.

There’s no update from Valdosta after its dire Monday results for GA 133 and US 84. But first Continue reading →

WWALS Seeks Development Director

Position Summary

The Development Director is responsible for supporting the development and implementation of all WWALS fundraising initiatives, including membership program, major gifts, grant writing, planned giving, special events, and capital campaigns. The Development Director works closely with the Executive Director and the Suwannee Riverkeeper in all development and fundraising endeavors.

Job Responsibilities