Received Friday, this Meeting Notice:
Announcement Date: March 1, 2019
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:The Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council
will hold a council meeting at the following date, time and location:Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Registration: 10:00 A.M. – 10:30 A.M.Meeting: 10:30 A.M. – 2:00 P.M.
41 AND Main
343 Main St. S,
Tifton, GA 31794For additional information Continue reading
This festival is new to WWALS, with music and dance, arts and crafts, foods and contests in historic White Springs, Florida. You can volunteer to help WWALS talk about our outings and advocacy, including, yes, Valdosta wastewater, plus the Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest coming up in August. We’ll have the froggy toss game, the EnviroScape, and a kayak raffle.
When: 10AM-4PM, Saturday, March 16, 2019
Where: Downtown Streets, White Springs, FL 32096
Event: facebook by the festival, meetup
What: “Come out for music and dance by Florida entertainers, arts and crafts, regional foods, contests and other outdoor activities. Visitors can also purchase azaleas and other local plants to take home.”
For more WWALS events and outings, see Continue reading
Update 2019-03-17: Valdosta has agreed to meet with the dozen downstream Florida counties, elected officials to elected officials, 6PM, Wednesday, April 10, 2019, at Valdosta City Hall Annex, and “the public will have an opportunity to speak.”
A dozen downstream Florida counties want to meet with the Valdosta City Council, elected officials to elected officials, to present a resolution they passed urging the states of Florida and Georgia to do something about Valdosta’s sewage, and to discuss raising funds to help Valdosta fix its sewage infrastructure, so the Florida counties can restore their eco-tourism on the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers. Restoring eco-tourism came up again and again. It’s not just the actual sewage, which never gets to Taylor or Alachua Counties. It’s the stigma of sewage in the rivers. Fixing Valdosta’s spills and regular testing to find other sources are needed.
Valdosta said no. So delegates from all dozen counties are going to come to the March 21, 2019, Valdosta City Council Regular Session and speak in Citizens to Be Heard, three minutes each, some time after 5:30 PM that Thursday evening.
![[Movie: Approval of Resolution (115M)]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-28--fl-rivers-task-force/MVI_0525.jpg)
Movie: Approval of Resolution (115M)
Task Force, clockwise from front:
Scott R. Koons (NCFRPC),
Ken Cornell (Alachua County),
Anthony Adams (Lafayette County),
Don Hale (Suwannee County),
Gene Higginbotham (Dixie County),
Kenrick Thomas (Gilchrist County),
Danny Riddick (Bradford County),
Thomas Demps (Taylor County),
Beth Burnam (Hamilton County),
Rick Davis (Chair, Madison County)
Apparently Valdosta told them that Valdosta doesn’t do workshops or joint meetings, which is curious, since Valdosta’s city council members a month earlier met with council members from all the other Lowndes County cities and the Lowndes County Commissioners about their Service Delivery Strategy, which includes wastewater. Last year, members of Valdosta Mayor and Council met with elected officials Continue reading
Received Thursday. The Rivers Task Force of the dozen downstream Florida counties will be voting next Thursday on a resolution asking the State of Florida (FDEP, SRWMD, etc.) to do something about Valdosta’s sewage spills.
![[4PM Thu 28 Feb 2019, Holiday Inn, Lake City, FL]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-28--river-task-force/compositenotice.jpg)
4PM Thu 28 Feb 2019, Holiday Inn, Lake City, FL
When: 4PM, Thursday, February 28, 2019
Where: Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, 213 Southwest Commerce Boulevard, Lake City, Florida
What: A meeting of the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force
Directions: From the intersection of Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 90 (exit 427) in the City of Lake City turn, East onto U.S. Highway 90, travel approximately 450 feet to SW Commerce Blvd, turn right (South) onto SW Commerce Blvd, travel approximately 720 feet and the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites is on the left.
The agenda, after the customary introductory items, has only a resolution and Next Steps.
Not on the agenda, but mentioned in the minutes of the previous meeting:
The Task Force agreed that the next steps should be to request a meeting with the Governor and Commissioner of Agriculture. Chair Davis informed the Task Force that the next meeting will be held on Continue reading
Two weeks ago, WWALS member Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson asked the state of Florida what baseline water quality testing had been done downstream of Valdota, and:
Please begin water samplings for the isotope for sucralose, fecal coliform testing and any other water testing establishing what or who is culpable of contamination in our protected, Outstanding Florida Waterways.
Yesterday she got an answer. She agrees with my assessment of the data supplied: “Sparse locations and only monthly, but better than nothing.”
![[DEAR bacterial monthly sampling stations]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-21--mmj-fl-gov-bacterial/stations-map.jpg)
DEAR bacterial monthly sampling stations
However, how can the state of Florida be “committed to monitoring and stopping this recurring problem.” when they “do not allow for enforcement actions directed at the source of sanitary sewer overflows, nor for routine water quality surveillance for sources of river water contamination”?
Now it’s true that last restriction was only cited as applying to the Florida Department of Health (FDOH), not the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration (DEAR), and not to the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD). But which of this alphabet soup of agencies should be doing “routine water quality surveillance for sources of river water contamination”?
The beginning of the final paragraph of the response does not indicate any intention Continue reading
Valdosta Utilities naturally painted as rosy a picture as possible, and newspapers have limited space, so here is the rest of the story about Valdosta wastewater at the Suwannee River Water Management District board meeting last Tuesday. SRWMD Chair Virginia H. Johns understands the stigma, and Board Member Virginia Sanchez spelled it out:
“You don’t want to swim in a little sewage versus a lot of sewage either. Both of them are bad. A spill is bad.”
Featured in this post, drawing from the WWALS videos of all the relevant speakers, are Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse, who talked about the catch basin Valdosta is digging, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman, who filled in many pieces omitted by Valdosta and FDEP, and Hamilton County resident Jim McBrayer, who got the attention of the SRWMD board by saying there was E. coli in his well and SRWMD should know where it came from, plus especially the very participatory SRWMD board, who made it pretty clear to FDEP they wanted data by their next meeting, and they wanted Valdosta to move along in fixing their problems in less than a hundred years.
Let’s not forget Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, who pointed out something Valdosta doesn’t want to hear: it’s the stigma of sewage spills that is the big problem they are causing. For sure we need to find out what the specific health and other effects are of Valdosta sewage and other contamination on river water and nearby wells. But the stigma of Valdosta sewage goes far beyond that.
Update 2019-03-28: Video.
Update 2019-02-15: Actually, Friday, February 22, 2019. Also, we’ll be broadcasting from Valdosta Airport.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman
will be on the radio 8:00 AM this Friday, February 15, 22, 2019,
with
Scott James on his Talk 92.1 drive-time radio show,
out of Valdosta, Georgia,
talking about
WWALS paddle outings and events, including the
BIG Little River Paddle Race Saturday, April 27, 2019,
Paddle Georgia, June 15-21, 2019,
and the
Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Saturday, August 24, 2019.
When: 8:00 AM, Friday, February 22, 2019
Where: You can listen on the air, or through the radio show’s own website, or through several online listening services.
Event: facebook.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2019-06-08: Reroute due to lack of rain.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, GA, February 13, 2019 — From next to the largest Suwannee River Basin city, Valdosta, to between some of the smallest, Mayo and Luraville, Paddle Georgia brings 300 people this summer to venture for the first time across the state line from Georgia to Florida, on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Suwannee Rivers, June 15 through 21, 2019.
WWALS Withlacoochee River outing 2017-06-24
“Five years ago I suggested our Withlacoochee River to Joe Cook for Paddle Georgia, and he went one better, adding the Suwannee River, past two of the few second-magnitude springs in Georgia, McIntyre and Arnold, and two of the famous first-magnitude Florida Springs: Madison Blue and Lafayette,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman. “Plus Spook Bridge and the orphaned railroad trestle near Madison, with many shoals and rapids at the GA-FL line! Special thanks to The Langdale Company for permission to take out just below Spook Bridge. Personally, I like that this paddle starts at my birthplace in Valdosta, Georgia and ends at my grandmother’s birthplace at the ferry site for Luraville, Florida.”
This event is organized by Paddle Georgia, with catered dinners and buses to and from the rivers. WWALS is assisting, for example by organizing the Spook Bridge takeout, and by pointing out many sites that non-locals might miss, ranging from springs, and Withlacoochee River agates, and the halberd-leaf rosemallow, whose blooms last only one day, to perpetual bothers such as Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Continue reading
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)]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-12--srwmd/7Muse.jpg)
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
Possibly for the first time ever, all of the Riverkeepers of Georgia spoke at the same event.
![[All Georgia Riverkeepers]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-06--ga-afs-riverkeepers/99-panel.jpg)
All Georgia Riverkeepers: Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers, Savannah Riverkeeper Tonya Bonitatibus, Ogeechee Riverkeeper Damon Mullis, Altamaha Riverkeeper Jen Hilburn, Upper Coosa Riverkeeper Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman, St Marys Riverkeeper Anna Laws, Satilla Riverkeeper Laura Early, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman (Chattahoochee had already left).
Below are links to the WWALS video of each talk, followed by a WWALS video playlist. See also the program, and a few more pictures.
![[Resolution and Next Steps]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-02-28--river-task-force/agenda.jpg)
