Tag Archives: Suwannee River Water Management District

Videos: Valdosta Wastewater at SRWMD Board 2019-02-12

Update 2019-02-18: The rest of the Valdosta wastewater story at SRWMD 2019-02-12.

The most direct interaction by the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Board that I’ve ever seen, yesterday, when Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse came to explain what Valdosta has done and is doing to stop its sewage spills. Neither the board nor the audience seemed satisfied.

Movie: Darryl Muse, Utilities Director, Valdosta (1458M)

Stay tuned for another post about some of what was said. Meanwhile, below are links to each WWALS video of each speaker or agenda item, with a few notes. These WWALS videos are under a Creative Commons Attribution license, which means you can use them, provide you cite the source, which is WWALS. There are a few more pictures on the WWALS website. See also the agenda. For background and data, see: Continue reading →

Valdosta wastewater at Suwannee River Water Management Board Meeting 2019-02-12

2019-002-13: WWALS videos.

Received just now, the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) agenda for next Tuesday includes:

7.B. Cooperating Agencies and Organizations — City of Valdosta Utilities Department Presentation

When: 9 AM, Tuesday, February 23, 2019

Where: 9225 Co Rd 49, Live Oak, FL 32060

What: SRWMD Board Packet.

7.B. Valdosta Utilities

Good news: the GA-EPD Sewage Spill Reports do not have any spills reported from Valdosta or anywhere else in the Suwannee River Basin during the rains of last weekend.

Plenty of water was coming out of the pipe from Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) into the Withlacoochee River yesterday, but it smelled merely mildly like Continue reading →

Hike at Little Shoals 2019-01-19

Approximately 3-mile loop hike through a riverine slope forest, led by Hamilton County Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price. It is a mature hardwood forest with open understory. Small creeks, spring seeps and seepage slopes are common, near the Suwannee River, northeast of White Springs. Hiking on and off trail. We end up back where we started.

This is the rescheduling of the former Hike to Dead River, because the Alapaha River is too high there.

When: 12:00 PM, Saturday, January 19, 2019

Put In: Little Shoals Entrance:
In white springs on US 41, turn onto CR 135 at flashing light across street from S&S food store.
About a mile or two north of White Springs on County Road 135 is the entrance to Little Shoals in the Big Shoals State Park.
It is a wide open entrance and you can see the parking area once you turn into entrance.
(Do not go to the main entrance to Big Shoals, which is 4 miles north of the Little Shoals entrance.)

GPS: 30.342129, -82.734417

Take Out: Little Shoals Entrance

Bring: drinking water, snacks, hiking shoes, warm clothes, and first aid kit. No boat required: this is a hike, on foot. 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. $4 park entrance fee per car. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

Map: Little Shoals and Big Shoals by SRWMD, including PDF map.

Continue reading →

SRWMD Board in Starke 2018-12-11

Deviating from its usual practice of meeting in Live Oak, it’s going to Starke, the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Board, Tuesday of next week, 9AM December 11, 2018, at the Governor Charley Johns Conference Center, 1610 N. Temple Avenue, Starke, FL.

I don’t see anything on the agenda especially about Bradford County, except tacked onto the end as open to the public “Following Board Meeting”: “• Projects Tour in Starke”.

I’m guessing that refers to the tree clearing project approved as an emergency several months ago, at the request of the Bradford BOCC, due to expected rains.

According to Kevin Flavin, Project Manager and Professional Water Resources Engineer,

Follow this link for an interactive google map by WWALS.

Two stops are to Continue reading →

Videos: Tour of Valdosta WTPs 2018-10-03

Thanks to Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse and staff for the Tour of Valdosta wastewater treatment plants Wednesday. Afterwards, I got them to sit down in a conference room and say again the most important points. They said what they had done to prevent future spills like the big ones this year.

Counterclockwise from front: Utilities Director Darryl Muse, Public Information Officer Ashlyn Becton, Environmental Manager Scott Fowler, Mud Creek WTP Superintendent Mud Creek Stanley K. Martin.

We also elicited Valdosta Utilities’ view on the letter establishing the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force, which was mainly Continue reading →

Bob’s River Place variances 2018-08-14

The Bob’s River Place agenda item on the SRWMD agenda for August 14, 2018 turns out to be the latest in year-long series. Every time I’ve stopped by it’s been closed, so I have no dog in this fight. I’m merely presenting what I’ve dug up in a few minutes by following leads backwards. This agenda-and-minute trail is probably incomplete, but what I’ve found tells a tale about SRWMD granting permits, then receiving citizen complaints including about safety. After which it seems SRWMD discovered numerous structures and other features that had been operational for years, yet had not been permitted.

Slip and slide ramp removed from permit application 2/5/2013 yet constructed 4/7/2017
PDF

FAR 2018-01-17

Starting with the earliest mention I’ve found in this series and going forwards, Florida Administrative Register, Volume 44, Number 11, January 17, 2018, Continue reading →

Packet, SRWMD Board, 2018-08-14

The many interesting items on the agenda for next Tuesday morning’s SRWMD board meeting in Live Oak, include a springs campaign discussion, water withdrawals, creek clearing in Bradford County, and the latest in a long-running series about Bob’s River Place in Dixie County.

When: 9AM Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Where: 9225 CR 49, Live Oak, FL 32060

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Nutrien (PCS) mining phosphate and water in Hamilton County and soon in Columbia County? 2018-07-11

Update 2023-05-08: Fixed some images.

Five Years Later: Hamilton County Planning Commission wants conditions on Nutrien phosphate mine permit renewal 2023-03-28.

Thanks to Jim Tatum of OSFR for spotting this op-ed in the Lake City Reporter yesterday by WWALS member and Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida about Nutrien (PCS) mining phosphate and water in Hamilton County and likely planning to expand to Columbia County.

Photo by John S. Quarterman of Dennis J. Price at the Dead River of the Alapaha River, 2018-01-27.

To the Editor:

Much has been written in the last year about Sam Oosterhoudt’s mitigation bank. I was involved in permitting the bank through the Army Corps (ACOE) and The Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. It took about 5 years to get all the permits. Now, 9 years after work began on the project, the phosphate company (then PCS now Nutrien) petitioned the state to shut down the mitigation bank.

I do not know for sure, but, Nutrien may tell you that during the recent sale of PCS and the review of mineral interests owned, they discovered that the mitigation bank had snuck in there and set up shop over their minerals. This probably has some truth to it but I think there is a much more involved reason.

In Hamilton County, Nurtrien/PCS is planning to run out of phosphate to mine in about 10 years, give or take a few years either way. I do not believe they are planning on shutting the doors and leaving. Occidental Chemical Company started mining in Hamilton County Continue reading →

A Resolution Against Phosphate Mines in Florida –Florida Waterkeepers 2017-12-18

Update 2018-12-30: The new organization WATERKEEPERS Florida, as one of its first acts, on December 19, 2018, signed the Resolution Against Phosphate Mines in Florida, thus committing all thirteen of its member organizations.

Update 2018-11-13: Miami Waterkeeper has signed, bringing it to a round dozen Florida Waterkeepers.

Update 2018-08-18: Calusa Waterkeeper has also signed, bringing it to 11 of the 14 Waterkeepers in Florida. (See also PDF.)

Update 2018-08-01: Five additional signers: Suncoast Waterkeeper, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, Indian Riverkeeper, St. Marys Riverkeeper, and Collier County Waterkeeper. Seven of us delivered this resolution in person to FDEP Secretary Noah Valenstein.

Delivered via email as PDF to the Union BOCC before their phosphate mine workshop of Monday, December 18, 2017.

A Resolution
Against Phosphate Mines in Florida

WHEREAS, Waterkeeper Alliance Members are obligated and dedicated to protect the water resources, citizens’ interests, and related benefits in their jurisdictions; and

WHEREAS, phosphate mines have been shown to threaten and cause actual harm to these resources, interest, and related benefits; and

WHEREAS, there are several phosphate mine projects in various stages of permitting in local, state, and federal agencies including county and city governments, Water Management Districts (WMDs), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); and

WHEREAS, there seems to be no public list of current phosphate mines and related facitlities, which include at least

Continue reading →

Four Freedoms Trail, Madison, FL to Withlacoochee River

Paddling down the Withlacoochee River from Nankin to Mozell Spells, the remains of the Valdosta Railway Bridge mark on the right bank the north end of the Four Freedoms Trail, one of the few hiking trails on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT):

Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS, 9 July 2016.

The Four Freedoms Trail in Madison County was constructed as a joint effort between Continue reading →

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