There’s been an outcry for the EPA to intervene, from people
downstream of Valdosta on the Withlacoochee and
Suwannee Rivers.
Representing Hamilton, Suwannee, Columbia, and Baker Counties
in the Florida statehouse,
FL Rep. Elizabeth Porter [R-10]
has taken up that cry.
In the current political climate of the EPA being downsized after it already was underfunded, Continue reading
Enteric bacteria have been confirmed in the Withlacoochee River,
and in the Suwannee River downstream of the confluence,
say SRWMD and FDEP, while there’s
still no update on the City of Valdosta website
about
the 2.2 million gallons of sewage
Valdosta leaked into the Withlacoochee River and didn’t tell the public about for two days.
Valdosta wasn’t the only city to spill into the Withlacoochee during the recent storms. Tifton did, too, but Valdosta’s spill was more than 230 times bigger than Tifton’s. And city sewage is not the only source of contamination in the rivers: wildlife, agricultural animals, and septic tanks add to it. Baseline monitoring would help disentangle which is which. But nobody is going to believe this contamination this time came from any place but Valdosta.
SRWMD, News Flash, 2017-01-26 (no time given), Health Officials Confirm Wastewater Contamination In The Withlacoochee And Suwannee Rivers,
Madison, Fla. — The Florida Department of Health in Hamilton, Madison and Suwannee today issued a joint health advisory extending the previous advisory for the Withlacoochee River to include a portion of the Suwannee River. The health advisory is now in effect for residents and visitors on the Withlachoochee River and on a portion of the Suwannee River from the point where the two rivers meet, downstream along the border of Madison and Suwannee County to the Lafayette County line just above Dowling Park. The river waters are not safe for contact during recreational use at this time.
Test results from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection water sampling in the area have confirmed high levels of enteric bacteria possibly due to a large spill of untreated sewage reported by the City of Valdosta, Georgia.
People are urged to avoid contact with water in the Withlacoochee River and the impacted areas of the Suwannee River. Water contaminated with wastewater overflow presents several health risks to humans. Untreated human sewage with microbes can cause gastrointestinal issues, disease, infections or rashes.
Anyone who comes in contact with the river water should wash thoroughly, especially hands, and before eating and drinking. Children and older adults, as well as people with weakened immune systems, are particularly vulnerable to disease so every precaution should be taken to avoid contact with river water.
Additional sampling will take place to determine when the river water is safe for recreational use.
Individuals with questions about the spillage should contact Valdosta Environmental Manager Scott Fowler at 229-259-3592 or by email at sfowler@valdostacity.com.
Individual with questions for Florida DEP should contact wastewater coordinator Jim Mayer at the NE District office in Jacksonville at 904-256-1700.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Valdosta wasn’t the only city to spill sewage in the recent storms, but Tifton’s spill was tiny by comparison.
Following up a rumor, I called the city of Tifton and eventually got
to Tommy Coker, Wastewater Superintendent, Tifton Regional Waste Water Treatment Complex (TRE).
You won’t find him listed on
Tifton’s website, because he works for the private
contractor that runs TRE:
ESG Operations, Inc.
That arrangement was announced in November 2012.
Anyway, Tommy Coker says they did have a spill, of 9,500 gallons, into a storm drain inside the TRE site, that goes into the New River. It started Sunday January 22nd and stopped about midnight Monday January 23rd, 2017.
The TRE is located at 80 Old Brookfield Rd W, Tifton, GA 31794, which is east of Tifton on US 82 towards Alapaha and Willacoochee, GA.
The New River flows into the Withlacoochee River east of Adel and south of Nashville, between Cook and Berrien Counties, GA. The Withlacoochee forms the rest of the border of those two counties, then flows through Lowndes County past Valdosta and its WWTP, then forms the border of Brooks and Lowndes County, Georgia, and Madison and Hamilton County, Florida, until it joins the Suwannee River, which runs on along Suwannee County and others down to the Gulf.
So Valdosta was not the only city to have a spill during the recent storms, but Valdosta’s 2.2 million gallon leak was more than 230 times bigger than Tifton’s spill.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
A hunter asked about bag limits at
the new
Alapaha River Wildlife Management Area (WMA)
on the Alapaha River in Irwin County betweeen Tifton and Ocilla.
It depends on whether you sign in or you check in.
The answer is not in the approved hunting season dates for the Alapaha WMA, found in other Alapaha WMA information. That’s because it’s in the general July 2016-June 2017 hunting regulations for Georgia. On page 34, note the phrase at the end of “Check-In Hunt” that I’ve emphasized below: Continue reading
Update 2016-10-20: WMA check-in hunt does not count towards Georgia bag limit.
WWALS member Patrick Kunes took this video of
Deserter Lake in
Irwin County on the Alapaha River in
the new
Alapaha River Wildlife Management Area (WMA)
on the Alapaha River betweeen Tifton and Ocilla.
You can hear him talking about turkeys he saw, and you can
see the lake on the river.
He mentions deadfalls, which are a common feature on the upper Alapaha River.
The river itself is not really boatable up that far much of the year,
but lakes like this one often still have water.
Many such lakes do not have public access, but Deserter Lake does now.
This lake is upstream from the formal start of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT), but we’ve included it in the online material about the ARWT because Deserter Lake is in the new Alapaha WMA.
Patrick wrote about this video: Continue reading
WWALS collected many bags of trash and four mattresses Saturday in the Rivers-Alive Cleanup at Berrien Beach Launch on the Alapaha River.
Thanks to Bret Wagenhorst for organizing this annual cleanup.
Special thanks to the three members of Valdosta State’s
Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.) for joining in,
and a student from UGA Tifton!
This outing was also part of the Great Suwannee River Cleanup, and we’ll have some more of those this year. This particular cleanup was at Berrien Beach Landing in Berrien County on the Alapaha River Water Trail. Thanks to Al Browning and the landowner for access to the sands of Berrien Beach in Lanier County.
See also the Video: #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail —WWALS 2016-09-10.
Until 5PM today, WWALS has a table at the Rhythm & Ribs BBQ Festival,
at Fulwood Park, in downtown Tifton, Georgia.
From points south, get off I-75 at exit 63B, and follow W 8th Street to Prince Ave.
If you’re coming up GA 125 from Nashville, turn right at W 8th Street.
If you’re coming west on US 82, turn right at Main Street (GA 125), etc.
WWALS Ambassador Dave Hetzel is there with board member Bret Wagenhorst,
talking about the BIG Little River Paddle Race May 21st at Reed Bingham State Park
and
all the outings before then,
along the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail
and the Alapaha River Water Trail.
Plus how you can become involved!.
And we hope to see you at some of the other upcoming WWALS outings and events
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
All the Suwannee River Basin USGS gages in Georgia just got a new flood level reporting system (except they missed one).
They’ve added a level measurement from sea level,
probably not coincidentally about the same as the Florida gages
added a level measurement from dry riverbed,
so both Georgia and Florida gages now have both measurements.
This actually does not affect the WWALS level charts for the
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail
nor for the
Alapaha River Water Trail,
because those continue to display water levels from dry riverbed.
To see this change at all, you have to drill down to the USGS detail pages,
for example on the Withlacoochee River
at Skipper Bridge Road in Georgia,
or
near Pinetta, Florida.
National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, Tallahassee, FL, unknown date, Suwannee River Basin Datum Changes in South Central Georgia,
Starting on October 14, 2015, the National Weather Service in Tallahassee and Jacksonville will make adjustments to the reporting method for water level in the Suwannee River System. This includes river gages in the following rivers or creeks: Continue reading
The Tifton newspaper carried the
press release Sunday April 26th
about the May 16th BIG Little River Paddle Race
at Reed Bingham State Park.
You can register online. Continue reading
Plus early March rains really were directly on Valdosta,
even more than in Valdosta’s third wastewater spill of February,
yet river levels rose most downstream.
Here are 90-day graphs of precipitation (in inches) and river levels (in feet) at the three Georgia Withlacoochee River gauges, from USGS. Also note river levels can continue dropping even while some new rain falls. Continue reading