Tag Archives: trash

Videos: Bradford Road @ Berrien County Planning Commission 2025-08-21

Here are WWALS videos of the hour in which several speakers brought up the lack of an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan and many other subjects at the Berrien County Planning Commission. This Public Hearing was about a proposal to put a ten-house subdivision on agricultural land on Bradford, Strawder, and Old Valdosta Roads.

[Tabled: Bradford Road @ Berrien County Planning Commission 2025-08-21, No Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan]
Tabled: Bradford Road @ Berrien County Planning Commission 2025-08-21, No Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan

Lisa Sumner spoke first, about that Plan, and last, specifically wanting to know why were we meeting, since county ordinances require the Plan to be submitted. After much discussion among Commission and Staff, they moved to adjourn. Before the vote, Della Gladieux asked if people would get to speak next month. Yes, they said, people who had not already spoken.

Meanwhile, you can speak in other ways, such as signing the petition against this subdivision of ten houses on agricultural land:
https://chng.it/kKDVsN92xT

People who live in Berrien County can also call or write your Planning Commissioner or Berrien County Commissioner. Anyone can come to that next Planning Commission meeting, which will probably be September 18, since they seem to meet on the third Thursday of the month, at 201 North Davis Street, Nashville, GA 31639.

See for yourself in these WWALS videos of each spaaker, followed by a WWALS video playlist.

See also: Continue reading

Pictures: Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, 2025-08-16

We found surprisingly little trash at the Withlacoochee River below Franklinville Road, but plenty of yellowjackets and deadfalls. Also, Cat Creek stinks like sewage.

[Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16, Yellow Jackets and Chainsaws, Deadfalls, and Cat Creek Stinks]
Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16, Yellow Jackets and Chainsaws, Deadfalls, and Cat Creek Stinks

Thanks to Cindy Vedas for organizing this expedition, and for bringing lunch.

Thanks to landowner Robbie McMillan for access, including mowing a path down to the Withlacoochee River at the Hahira-Moody AFB power line, for swimming, and for chainsawing.

I actually did most of the chainsawing this time, from my kayak, but there are no pictures of that.

Early on, I was chainsawing an opening in the brush towards Tyler Bridge, when something started stinging me. I backed off, but they followed me: Southern Yellowjackets, Vespula squamosa. Continue reading

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

Update 2025-08-25: Slides: Valdosta Utilities Director to Florida River Task Force 2025-08-14.

Update 2025-08-22: Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-08-21.

Valdosta, especially Utilities Director Jason Barnes, did something they really needed to do: they said what has been done to fix their sewer system problems, what they’re doing now, how much money they’ve spent (more than $160 million), and what they plan to spend (more than $69 million).

[Florida River Task Force and Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop, August 14, 2025]
Florida River Task Force and Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop, August 14, 2025

More happened in that meeting of the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force with Valdosta city officials, the few City Council members who showed up (Tim Carroll and eventually Nick Harden), and Mayor Scott James Matheson for a few minutes.

You can see it all in these WWALS videos of the whole August 14, 2025, meeting at the Valdosta City Hall Annex.

Better communications was the most popular request. For example, this was the third time that the Florida Task Force discovered Valdosta Mayor and Council had some other meeting they had to go to at the same date and time.

Several speakers asked for better notification from Valdosta about sewage spills and bad water quality, including notification for weekend visitors. One Task Force member recommended looking at the website of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), but I’m not finding what they want on there.

I commend the City of Valdosta for being the only Georgia local government I know of that posts its water quality results on its own website:
https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-monitoring

Although if you’re on a phone or tablet you can’t actually see the sidebar with the links to those results.

The only place I know with composite water quality testing results (Valdosta, WWALS, and any Florida results) is on the WWALS website, including a weekly water quality report:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/

WWALS collects each working day the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report and posts differences from the previous day for the Suwannee River Basin, and for the state:
https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills/

Several people asked what was being done to deal with stormwater before it becomes an infiltration and inflow problem for Valdosta’s sewer system. The answer was that Engineering is always working on it. OK, fine, let’s see that project list.

One speaker requested more attention to trash. There is much more Valdosta can do about trash. See The Real Trash Problem is the Producers, and How to Stop It 2023-12-23.
https://wwals.net/?p=63786

As one Florida resident pointed out, even treated wastewater still has PFAS and other contaminants in it.

Task Force Chair Rick Davis asked Valdosta to resume testing for fecal contamination three times a week at all the locations that the 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order required for four years. Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman discussed three cases where water quality testing found fecal contamination sources that were then speedily dealt with. The most the city said was they would have internal discussions about more testing.

Valdosta did their own news post about the Thursday’s meeting: Rivers Joint Task Force Meeting Highlights City’s Progress on Water Safety and Quality.

More of the story was published by Stew Lilker, Columbia County Observer, August 16, 2025, N. FL’s Withlacoochee River Task Force met with Valdosta officials on Thursday to be updated on the formerly spill-prone Valdosta utility system. Continue reading

Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, 2025-08-16

Update 2025-08-25: Pictures: Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16.

Update 2025-08-15: Clean river water at Franklinville, Dirty Sugar Creek & Withlacoochee River @ US 84, 2025-08-13, Clean Alapaha River & Withlacoochee River, Upstream & Downstream 2025-08-13.

Clean up trash in the Withlacoochee River from Franklinville Landing in hardwood floodplain for about a mile downstream, past Cat Creek.

This is mostly a walking cleanup.

If you want to bring a kayak or canoe, those could also be useful, although you’re probably going to be dragging them a bit.

We have the enthusiastic support of the landowner.

[Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16, A mile of river frontage, Hardwood floodplain]
Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16, A mile of river frontage, Hardwood floodplain

Per our usual arrangement, Lowndes County Public Works will come get the trash after we bag it and set it on the public road right of way. We will also visit the nearby monument to Franklinville, which was the county seat of Lowndes County before Valdosta and before Troupville.

When: 9 AM, Saturday, August 16, 2025

Put In: Franklinville Landing, 6560 Franklinville Road, Hahira, GA 31632, in Lowndes County. From Skipper Bridge Road, go east on Franklinville Road to Tyler Bridge, which is closed.

GPS: 30.981249, -83.268027 Continue reading

Pictures: Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-22

Update 2025-07-28: More chainsaw from Langdale Park, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-31.

Started in 100F heat index, finished in a rainstorm, but Phil Hubbard and I got passage cleared through three big deadfalls and a little one, and started on another.

More of these chainsaw cleanups. Join us next time!

[Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-22, 100F heat index, thunderstorm, Still got several deadfalls]
Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-22, 100F heat index, thunderstorm, Still got several deadfalls

The Withlacoochee River was too low to even get the WWALS jon boat in the water at Langdale Park Boat Ramp, where we rerouted to be upstream of the continued high E. coli in Sugar Creek.

Either outboard would have been of little use, anyway.

So we used one of the Suwannee Riverkeeper fleet of canoes. Thanks to Bob and Sue Raffaele, who donated the Old Town Camper canoe to WWALS 2021-05-29. And thanks to Dr. Dennis Marks for linking us up.

As the rain started to fall, Phil asked, how many miles did we get? Well, about a third of a mile. But we got more deadfalls cleared in that stretch than anybody else did.

While I was the one taking videos and Phil did indeed to most of the chainsaw work, I also chainsawed with two different saws.

Don’t worry: we left plenty of deadfalls for habitat. We cut passage, not everything out of the river.

We collected a bit of trash. Anybody who wants to collect more in this stretch can now get through to do so. And they can come along next chainsaw cleanup and pick up trash then.

Thanks to Wild Green Future for the grant that paid not only for the two outboard motors that we did not use this time, but also for the 86lb-thrust trolling motor and the LiFePO4 batteries that we did use to get back up the river quickly in the thunder and lightning. No pictures of that; we were busy trying to get to port. Continue reading

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]
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

Okapilco Creek 2025-03-22

Downstream from Spook Bridge on the Withlacoochee River, Phil Hubbard and I took a side trip up Okapilco Creek.

[Okapilco Creek 2025-03-22, Withlacoochee River, Piscola Creek, Patrick Creek]
Okapilco Creek 2025-03-22, Withlacoochee River, Piscola Creek, Patrick Creek

We passed Piscola Creek and Patrick Creek.

We went up Okapilco Creek about a mile. Then we encountered a deadfall across the creek. We could have sawed it in a few minutes. But our main mission was checking passage on the Withlacoochee River, so we turned back.

There was very little trash in Okapilco Creek. We collected some of it.

Phil Royce had declined to follow us up the creek, so we caught up with him down near Knights Ferry Boat Ramp. Stay tuned for that.

Thanks to Wild Green Future for the generous grant that paid for Continue reading

Help stop the stealth Florida plastics ban preemption bill 2025-05-01

Yesterday the Florida State Senate voted 24 to 13 for CS/HB 1609 to proceed.

The day before yesterday they took the text of the old bills and inserted it into CS/HB 1609, which has the misleading title “Waste Management”.

Several amendments this morning may or may not have removed the offending verbiage.

Please contact your Florida state Representative and ask them to stop this pre-emption:
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/florida-house/

[CS/HB 1609]
CS/HB 1609

Plastic is one of the biggest pollution threats to our waterways. Continue reading

Pictures: Another Clean up One Mile Branch at Azalea City Trail, Valdosta, GA 2025-04-26

We got quite a bit of trash off of Wainwright Drive, One Mile Branch, and the Azalea City Trail, including near the old trash dump across Hurricane-Helene-damaged fence.

[Clean up One Mile Branch, at Azalea City Trail, Wainwright Drive, Valdosta, GA, April 26, 2025]
Clean up One Mile Branch, at Azalea City Trail, Wainwright Drive, Valdosta, GA, April 26, 2025

The land beyond One Mile Branch left bank, Azalea City Trail, and the fence is owned by University System of GA Board of Regents.

There were children playing in One Mile Branch, including right below the manholes that have repeatedly leaked massive amounts of raw sewage.

One Mile Branch runs into Sugar Creek into the Withlacoochee River.

Thanks to Sara Squires Jones and Scotti Jay for organizing this cleanup.

For more Continue reading

Bad Florida Boating Bill 2025-04-22

Florida Senate Bill 1388/ House Bill 1001 entitled “Vessels” if passed, could undermine vital safety and environmental protections for boaters and Florida’s waterways.

You can use this handy Waterkeepers Florida form to ask your Florida statehouse members to vote NO on this bill:
https://waterkeepersflorida.good.do/SB1388_2025/SB1388FP/

Or contact your statehouse members some other way (telephone, in-person, etc.):

This bill will be before the Florida Senate Fiscal Policy Committee when it meets at 11 AM, Tuesday, April 22, 2025.

[Bad Boating Bill]

Fecal bacteria is one of the leading causes of pollution in Florida waters. One way that the state combats this issue is by Continue reading