Tag Archives: Sugar Creek

Trash reporting cleanup, One Mile Branch, Valdosta, 2022-10-21

Update 2022-10-23: Pictures: Lee St. Detention Pond Cleanup 2022-10-21.

Update 2022-10-18: Or come to this other one, Sunday trash reporting cleanup, One Mile Branch, Valdosta’s Lee Street detention pond 2022-11-23.

Come help make the creeks and rivers cleaner by stopping trash from getting into them.

We will teach trash (and other) reporting and followup at multiple locations in Valdosta, using Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app.

More people involved will improve public health, quality of life, and eco-tourism, while providing community involvement.

City Council Sandra Tooley will be there to help encourage participants: it’s her district.

We invite all Valdosta City officials, especially Stormwater Division and Public Works, to come instruct us in how it should be done.

[Trash, clean, map]
Trash, clean, map

Continue reading →

Video: One Mile Branch Backflow 2022-08-09

Bobby McKenzie videoed in the rain: One Mile Branch backflowing upstream from Lakeland Avenue, with runoff under and beside the street carrying trash on past Fire Station No. 2 and under E Park Ave.

[One Mile Branch and Fire Station No. 2]
One Mile Branch and Fire Station No. 2

All that rain no doubt scoured trash from all the yards and parking lots around into the creek. One Mile Branch continues down to Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River.

Here’s the video. Continue reading →

Valdosta sewer spill, Meadowbrook Drive at Gornto Road 2022-08-14

Valdosta had a sewage spill on Meadowbrook Drive at Gornto Road this weekend, which this morning they said they fixed that same weekend. We don’t know how many gallons, but we’re guessing not many. Maybe we’ll know more about that once Valdosta reports to GA-EPD. If it was small, it probably did not get into Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River, although we hope Valdosta is testing to find out.

Congratulations to Valdosta for fixing this problem quickly. Room for improvement on internal handoffs on Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app, and on completeness of reporting. Also, we would like to know the cause, considering there was no rain.

[Map, Manhole]
Map, Manhole

That’s the fourth small Valdosta sewage spill and one major one since June. So far as we can tell by later testing, none of them had any noticeable effect on the Withlacoochee River.

Plus there was a spill from Quitman, Georgia, that very likely did affect Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee River, although more than a week later nobody yet knows how many gallons. And there was a spill from High Springs, Florida, which probably did not affect the Santa Fe River.

WWALS member Suzy Hall noticed yesterday (Sunday) afternoon Continue reading →

Pictures: Chainsaw Cleanup, Sugar Creek to Troupville, Withlacoochee River 2022-07-30

Update 2022-10-17: Pictures: Chainsaw Cleanup with pizza, Withlacoochee River 2022-10-16.

Update 2022-08-09: What made them? Pictures: Tracks, GA 133, Withlacoochee River 2022-07-30.

Everything went exactly as planned for Chainsaw Cleanup Returns, Withlacoochee River, Valdosta, if the plans included two trucks getting stuck, several chainsaws getting stuck, and the whole thing taking more like ten hours than three, with no lunch.

[Banners, Chainsaws, Trash, River]
Banners, Chainsaws, Trash, River

But we cleared a bunch of deadfalls, collected many bags of trash, and recorded where the remaining deadfalls and trash are for later expeditions. That makes this stretch much more paddlable between Sugar Creek and Troupville on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

The water level on the Valdosta US 41 gauge was 6.05′ (116.35′ NAVD88).

Thanks to the three new chainsawers, Shawn O’Connor and Grant and Art Herring, and regulars Bobby McKenzie and Russell Allen McBride. And thanks to the Good Samaritan who gave me a ride to my truck so I could use my logging chain to pull Bobby’s truck out at the take-out. Plus thanks to the two different vehicles that were used to pull my truck out at the put-in.

Note for next time: if you add a four-mile river paddle with a slow boat to chainsawing many deadfalls and the same people picking up many bags of trash, it takes longer.

There are many more Continue reading →

Training: Water Quality Testing, 2022-09-10

You can learn how to help test water quality in the Suwannee River Basin.

WWALS testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman will do the classroom portion of the course by zoom, followed by hands-on practical training at a waterway with physical distancing. This is both Chemical and Bacterial training by Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (AAS) methods.

Yes, we can and do use this in Florida as well as Georgia.

[Map and table, Georgia AAS]
Map and table, Georgia AAS

We currently have testers on the Little, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe Rivers.

We need more of those, and also for the Alapahoochee and Suwannee Rivers, as well as Cat Creek, Beatty Branch, Sugar Creek, and especially Okapilco Creek and Crooked Creek, plus others.

For more, see: https://wwals.net/testing/

Sign up: https://forms.gle/37DawiGAJYoyqtPKA Continue reading →

Dollar Tree Trash Pile, 1801 Norman Drive, Valdosta, GA 2022-07-31

Bobby McKenzie reported yesterday, “Well again without wanting to and without trying…I found yet another mother load…”

This one is behind the Target, 1801 Norman Driver, Valdosta, GA 31601.

[Trash, drain, Hightower and Sugar Creeks]
Trash, drain, Hightower and Sugar Creeks

It drains into Hightower Creek, then Sugar Creek, then the Withlacoochee River.

Sure, the WaterGoat near the bottom of Sugar Creek, will probably catch this trash when it gets that far. We thank Valdosta again for buying that WaterGoat, and we look forward to Valdosta’s plan for cleaning it out.

And we are still looking for Valdosta to come up with a plan for education and enforcement of its quite good trash ordinances to get parking lot owners to keep trash from getting off their property and to put out trash cans and keep them emptied, as their own 2010 Stormwater Master Plan said they should do “immediately” twelve years ago.

Sure, people shouldn’t litter. But the fast food outlets sell this single-use packaging, and the parking lot owners let it get into the creeks despite the city ordinances. They should bear responsibility.

The City of Valdosta doesn’t expect volunteers to clean up sewage spills, even though city employees do not produce most of that sewage. Why should volunteers be expected to clean up Valdosta’s ongoing trash spills? Continue reading →

Valdosta homemade trash trap, detention pond, One Mile Branch, Ashley Street 2022-07-29

Update 2022-09-06: Trash reporting cleanup, One Mile Branch, Valdosta 2022-10-21.

Update 2022-08-01: Plus a response from the Valdosta Stormwater Manager.

Twelve years late is better than never.

Bobby McKenzie reported Friday:

[Movie, Detention Pond, One Mile Branch, Sugar Creek]
Movie, Detention Pond, One Mile Branch, Sugar Creek

This is a complete shocker! One step closer Continue reading →

Videos: Suwannee Riverkeeper on Scott James radio 2022-07-19

Songwriters, don’t forget to send in your song to the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest by tomorrow, July 20, 2022! Really final deadline this time.

[Movie: Intro: Suwannee Riverkeeper and WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.]
Movie: Intro: Suwannee Riverkeeper and WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.

Valdosta Mayor Scott James and Suwannee Riverkeeper talked about that and many other topics on his radio show this morning.

Here’s a Continue reading →

Chainsaw Cleanup Returns, Withlacoochee River, Valdosta, 2022-07-30

A few people with chainsaws will saw off some deadfalls, while other people pull the pieces aside and clean up the trash caught in the deadfalls.

This outing will depend much on the water level. Right now the Withlacoochee River is too high to reach the lower deadfalls, and in two weeks it could be very low again, so watch the facebook event or the meetup.

[Last tree section drops, 13:15:39, 30.8447282, -83.3476157]
Last tree section drops, 13:15:39, 30.8447282, -83.3476157 2022-06-25

Remember, you do not have to use a chainsaw to come on this outing. We need people moving limbs and picking up trash. Continue reading →

WaterGoat cleanout 2022-07-12

As a temporary stopgap, volunteer Russell Allen McBride continues to clean out the WaterGoat trash boom on Sugar Creek, to keep more trash from getting down into the nearby Withlacoochee River.

[WaterGoat and trash]
WaterGoat and trash

Thanks to Assistant City Manager Richard Hardy for agreeing last Thursday to organize a meeting this coming week to discuss a more permanent cleanout solution, as well as locations for more WaterGoats, and upstream trash solutions. Continue reading →