Tag Archives: Suwannee River Basin

Rescheduled: Florida River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop 2025-08-14

Update 2025-08-01: OK Withlacoochee River, Cleaner Sugar Creek, Dirty Beatty Branch 2025-07-30.

Buried in the middle of a reminder of the cancellation of the previous workshop:

“The Joint Workshop has been rescheduled for August 14, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.”

That message doesn’t say where, but I have confirmed with Scott Koons that it will be in the same place:
Valdosta City Hall Annex, 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia.

Florida River Task Force and Valdosta City Council, Joint Workshop, Rescheduled: 2025-08-14, 6 PM

As I noted when the meeting was originally scheduled, back in 2020, this Task Force of the dozen downstream Florida counties was instrumental in getting a Consent Order on Valdosta by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD). Continue reading →

Cancelled: Florida Rivers Task Force meeting with Valdosta City Council 2025-07-21

Update 2025-08-01: Rescheduled: Florida River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop 2025-08-14.

Received this afternoon.

Cancelled: Florida Rivers, Task Force meeting, with Valdosta City Council, 2025-07-21

River Task Force Members, Interested Persons and News Media,
JOINT WORKSHOP CANCELLATION NOTICE
Please be advised that the City of Valdosta City Manager informed us today that City of Valdosta City Council members and city officials will be attending a change of command ceremony at Moody Air Force Base on July 30, 2025.
Therefore, the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop at the City of Valdosta City Hall Annex, 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia scheduled for July 30, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. has been CANCELLED.
The Joint Workshop will be rescheduled for a later date. Continue reading →

Cancelled! Florida River Task Force meeting with Valdosta City Council 2025-07-30

Update 2025-07-21: https://wwals.net/?p=68012

Update 2025-07-18: Filthy Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River dirty upstream but clean downstream, clean Alapaha River 2025-07-17.

Back in 2020, this Task Force of the dozen downstream Florida counties was instrumental in getting a Consent Order on Valdosta by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD).

The Task Force was dormant for a while, but recent Valdosta sewage spills have caused it to be reactivated. Some of its members already met privately with several Valdosta City officials a month or more ago. Now a long-awaited public meeting has been announced.

Also, we finally have a list of the members of the Task Force.

Y’all come.

Florida River Task Force and Valdosta City Council, Valdosta City Hall Annex, Wednesday, July 30, 2025

The email notice received this morning says: Continue reading →

Video: How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar by Dennis Price, 2025-06-19

Update 2025-07-25: SRWMD & SJRWMD aquifer recharge project update @ SRWMD 2025-07-08.

Dennis Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida, asked, “Are we just a water tower for Jacksonville?”

He showed us “the history of surface and ground water in the flatwoods in south Georgia and north Florida in the Suwannee River Basin. Historic water levels and how we have changed these levels. Changes beginning with forestry then farming, and population growth. Ideas for correcting the problems.”

How Humans Affect the Aquifer, WWALS Webinar by Dennis Price, Are we just a water tower for Jacksonville? 2025-06-19

This applies to the Floridan Aquifer proper and the other aquifers above it, all below the Suwannee, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, and their tributaries.

Here is the WWALS video of this WWALS Webinar:
https://youtu.be/o4s1jPN0EVI

Some still images are appended.

Thanks to WWALS Board Member Janet Martin for organizing this webinar and for introducing Dennis.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

See the announcement of this webinar for Dennis’ resume and other background.
https://wwals.net/?p=67740

Plastic bag bans keep trash out of rivers and the sea –a study in Science 2025-06-19

Plastic bag bans work, finds a study published in Science this month. And not by a little bit: “a 25 to 47% decrease in plastic bags as a share of total items collected relative to areas without policies” and a “30 to 37% reduction in the presence of entangled animals in areas with plastic bag policies”. The study says even partial bans help, and the effect increases with more bans.

Plastic bag bans keep trash out of rivers and the sea –a study in Science, June 19, 2025

Cleanups alone do not solve the trash problem: trash just keeps coming back. Trash traps help keep it out of creeks and rivers, but have to be continually cleaned out. Banning use of the trash goes a long way towards fixing the problem, as this recent study shows.

Local governments in Georgia and even in Florida can ban or regulate such packaging. Continue reading →

Georgia needs better economic solutions for forestry and rural south Georgia 2025-06-26

I’m going to agree with something a supporter of the now bought-out mine said: we need better economic solutions for south Georgia forest owners. And beyond that, for south Georgia. So counties and cities won’t be tempted by jobs promised by mines, landfills, private prisons, and pellet plants.

Georgia needs better economics, for forestry & rural south Georgia, Drew Jones, Charlton Co. Commission, Okefenokee Swamp & blackwater rivers

Drew Jones wrote in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today, June 26, 2025, Okefenokee deal exposed how Georgia’s forest policy is flawed and needs reform, Continue reading →

Bats of Georgia, Samuel Holst, GA-DNR, a WWALS Webinar 2025-08-21

Update 2025-10-14: Documents and Video: Bats of Georgia, Samuel Holst, GA-DNR, a WWALS Webinar 2025-08-21.

A Wildlife Biologist with GA-DNR, Samuel Holst, will talk about the bats of Georgia, including in Banks Lake and the Okefenokee Swamp. Plus some of our rare small mammals that are found around the Okefenokee.

When: 12 PM, Thursday, August 21, 2025

Put In: Register to join with Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/L4lMEWAMRyCE66LTG7CyQg
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end.

Bats of Georgia, Samuel Holst, GA-DNR, a WWALS Webinar, Thursday, August 21, 2025

Continue reading →

How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar, by Dennis J. Price, P.G., 2025-06-19

Dennis Price, P.G., of Hamilton County, Florida, says, “I plan on going through the history of surface and ground water in the flatwoods in south Georgia and north Florida in the Suwannee River Basin. Historic water levels and how we have changed these levels. Changes beginning with forestry then farming, and population growth. Ideas for correcting the problems.”

This applies to the Floridan Aquifer proper and the other aquifers above it, all below the Suwannee, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, the Okefenokee Swamp, and their tributaries.

When: 12-1 PM, Thursday, June 19, 2025

Put In: Register to join with zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/FdxNg0QeSB-ngQLGUaIWKw
WWALS Board Member Janet Martin will give a brief introduction.
Questions and answers will be at the end.

How Humans Affect the Aquifer, a WWALS Webinar 2025-06-19

Continue reading →

River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment 2025-03-26

We all drink with straws from the groundwater here in the U.S. southeast coastal plain.

River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment in Georgia and Florida

So surface water interchange with groundwater produces problems for city and county drinking water treatment, and for E. coli contamination of private water wells. Continue reading →

U.S. EPA recognizes sewage sludge on farmland among human health risks of PFOA and PFOS forever chemicals 2025-01-14

WWALS Science Committee Chair Dr. Tom Potter notes, “Finally EPA has recognized the risks of sludge application to farmland.”

Sewage sludge as fertlizer is a widespread problem in Florida.
https://wwals.net/?p=61560

These forever chemicals as in our rivers in Georgia and Florida. They collect in fish, including in the Alapaha River.

Waterkeeper Alliance encourages Waterkeeper groups to participate in the public comment period, which must be received on or before March 17. Individuals and other groups can also comment.

U.S. EPA recognizes sewage sludge on farmland among human health risk of PFOA and PFOS forever chemicals 2025-01-14

See EPA on Draft Sewage Sludge Risk Assessment for Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctane Sulfonic Acid (PFOS) and https://www.Regulations.gov, EPA-HQ-OW-2024-0504; FRL 12451-01-OW. Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.