Acting Valdosta City Manager Richard Hardy called me yesterday. This is unusual, although he does usually answer his phone if I call him.
![[Valdosta Acting City Manager Richard Hardy and City Engineer Ben O'Dowd 2023-03-25]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-04-11--seeclickfix/many.jpg)
Valdosta Acting City Manager Richard Hardy and City Engineer Ben O’Dowd 2023-03-25
Even more unusual was his news: the city may be moving ahead on keeping trash out of creeks.
First some background.
Recent adventures in Click ‘n’ Fix include this one, Continue reading
These maps show the locations of Valdosta’s Stormwater Pond Facility Clusters previously posted. They provide clues to where trash may be accumulating.
Most of the major creeks in Valdosta are represented, plus some that I didn’t know had names, such as Bunche Street Canal and Knob Hill Canal, as well as some that apparently do not have names.
Most (Sugar Creek, Hightower Creek, Dow Street Canal, One Mile Branch, Two Mile Branch, Three Mile Branch, Knob Hill Canal, Cherry Creek, and Browns Canal) are in the Withlacoochee River Basin.
Others (Knights Creek, Dukes Bay Canal, Bunche Street Canal) are in the Alapaha River Basin.
Several of the maps straddles several watersheds.
Below there is a pair of maps for each of the clusters: a map received from Valdosta in response to an open records request, and a map excerpt from one of the WWALS water trail maps.
The rest of the text below is from the document previously posted. Continue reading
Update 2023-04-07: Clean Withlacoochee River 2023-04-06.
Best to paddle, swim, and fish tomorrow morning. Rains are predicted tomorrow.
But until then, all the water quality tests we have are good, for the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers.
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide map 2023-03-30]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-30--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide map 2023-03-30
No new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia in the past week.
But High Springs had a 150-gallon spill. That small an amount and apparently inland should have no effect on the Santa Fe River or its springs.
Thanks to WWALS tester Continue reading
Update 2023-03-29: Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29.
Why did Valdosta City Marshalls close this Click’n’Fix ticket when nothing has been cleaned up?
![[Trash, Two Mile Branch upstream from Ashley Street 2023-03-24]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-02-24--two-mile-branch-ashley-street/many.jpg)
Trash, Two Mile Branch upstream from Ashley Street 2023-03-24
It took nine days for City Marshals to make any response, then they said they would notify the property owner and closed the ticket.
I went there the next day and photographed the same trash in the same locations, plus I took more pictures of more trash upstream.
Today, March 29, 2023, when I asked why the ticket was closed and posted more pictures, the City Marshalls said “The ticket was closed because a citation was written and there is now an open case with the City Marshal’s. We have to legally give the property owner a certain amount of time to address the issue.”
That is new information, and a welcome change from just notifying the property owner.
But why did the City Marshalls again close the ticket? The problem has not been fixed.
In the next big rain, trash will wash down Two Mile Branch into Sugar Creek. If it is not caught by the WaterGoat there, it will wash into the Withlacoochee River. All along the way it is a health hazard to humans, and wildlife eat the trash, especially styrofoam, and cannot digest it. Continue reading
Update 2023-03-29: Trash still dribbling from 2695 N Ashley St into Two Mile Branch 2023-02-24.
At the cleanup Saturday of Two Mile Branch at Berkeley Drive, Valdosta City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd poinged out a mistake in the post on Trash in Valdosta Two Mile Branch Watershed Management Plan, November 2007.
The pickleball courts will not actually be at the same location as the detention pond between Roosevelt Drive and Two Mile Branch at Oak Street. Instead, they will be on the other side of Two Mile Branch, next to the tennis courts.
![[Pickleball Courts Location, Groundbreaking, 2007 Detention Pond]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-07--pickleball/many.jpg)
Pickleball Courts Location, Groundbreaking, 2007 Detention Pond
My mistake. I should not have gone by hearsay, even though two people independently told me the location they thought the pickleball courts would be. Thanks to the City Engineer for pointing out my mistake.
Which doesn’t change the main point of the previous post: sixteen years later, none of the four detention ponds on Two Mile Branch in the 2007 implementation schedule have been built, nor have any other trash detention facilities been put on Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive or Oak Street.
I thank Ben O’Dowd for promising to put trash traps at those locations.
But why were those people who told me that confused?
There’s nothing ambiguous about where the 2007 plan put the Oak Street detention pond: between Two Mile Branch and Roosevelt Drive east of Oak Street. Continue reading
Update 2023-03-27: Correction: Pickleball courts to be on other side of Two Mile Branch from 2007-proposed detention pond 2023-03-07.
On the radio this morning, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman talked trash, and many other subjects. See it for yourself in these WWALS videos.
Come to the Two Mile Branch Cleanup tomorrow (Saturday) morning at 8 AM.
![[Radio and Two Mile Branch 2023-03-24]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-24--scott-james-radio-videos/many.jpg)
Radio and Two Mile Branch 2023-03-24
Cleanups are necessary, but not enough. We discussed Valdosta’s history of publishing plans to deal with trash and then not doing anything. Valdosta Engineer Ben O’Dowd seems to have started some action, and more is needed.
Below are links to each WWALS video of each topic, some with a brief summary, followed by a WWALS video playlist. Continue reading
Update 2023-03-27: Correction: Pickleball courts to be on other side of Two Mile Branch from 2007-proposed detention pond 2023-03-07.
The City of Valdosta has planned to do something about trash in Two Mile Branch since at least 2007, as part of a Watershed Management Plan, that appeared to grow out of a GA-EPD action. Most of those planned actions do not seem to have happened, despite a table of projects and an implementation schedule. And despite some of them turning up again as merely “proposed” in a 2010 plan. At least one of them will never happen, because the city has found a source of funds for a completely different project on the same site.
I urge the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) not to be satisfied with plans.
Actions are what count.
![[Two Mile Branch: plans are not enough]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2007-11-01--two-mile-branch-wmp/many.jpg)
Two Mile Branch: plans are not enough
I commend the City of Valdosta for its plans for a trash trap on Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive and at Oak Street. There is some reason to believe these actions will happen, thanks to City Engineer Ben O’Dowd.
I urge anyone who can to come to the Two Mile Branch cleanup between those locations,
8-11 AM this Saturday, March 25, 2023:
https://wwals.net/?p=61338
First let’s go back to 2007 to see why plans are not enough: only actions count.
This map includes as BMPs (Best Management Practices) detention ponds on Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive (15) and above Oak Street (18), the same locations where Valdosta is now planning, sixteen years later, to finally do something. The map even includes additional ponds below St. Johns School (27) and on Canna Drive (18). I see no sign any of these projects actually happened. Continue reading
Update 2023-03-24: Videos: Trash, Okefenokee, Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting, WWALS Gala on Scott James radio 92.1.FM 2023-03-24.
Friday morning at 8:30 AM, Suwannee Riverkeeper will talk trash with Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson on his radio show, Talk 92.1 FM.
https://talk921.com/
WWALS and the City of Valdosta are doing a cleanup Saturday at Two Mile Branch; meet at 507 Mack Drive and park on Howell Brook Drive. The city is finally moving a bit on trash traps, but there is much more to do, including having the City Marshalls inform businesses of the city trash ordinances, including potential fines and other penalties.
We’ll also talk about Continue reading
Update 2023-03-29: Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29.
Come to Two Mile Branch Saturday, March 25, 2023, see the trash problem for yourself, and talk to many of the people mentioned in this article.
Malia Thomas, Valdosta Daily Times, March 9, 2023 , Group calls for city trash reforms,
VALDOSTA — In the WWALS Watershed Coalition’s eyes, the city needs to clean up its act.
John Quarterman, Suwannee [R]iverkeeper of WWALS, and Bobby McKenzie, [former] WWALS intern, have expressed concern over trash pile ups in the city’s waterways, particularly in Sugar Creek. Continue reading
Update 2023-07-12: Pictures: Two Mile Branch Berkley Drive Cleanup 2023-03-25.
Update 2023-03-29: Valdosta Creek Trash Tour 2023-03-29.
Valdosta, Georgia, March 9, 2023 — Come help get trash out of the woods by Two Mile Branch, upstream and downstream from Berkley Drive, in this joint cleanup by WWALS and the City of Valdosta.
![[Two Mile Branch at Berkley Drive cleanup]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-25--two-mile-branch-cleanup/two-mile-branch-berkley-drive-cleanup.jpg)
Valdosta City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd said, Continue reading
![[Example Cluster maps]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-01--vld-orr-pond-clusters-map/many.jpg)
![[Radio, Two Mile Branch]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-24--scott-james-radio/many.jpg)
![[Sugar Creek Beach, trash, WaterGoat trash trap, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, Suwannee Riverkeeper]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-03-09--vdt-trash/many.jpg)