Driving back from a long-scheduled conference in Alabama, from the state line to Tifton was widespread damage from Hurricane Michael. Nothing like the devastation on the Gulf coast, of course, but very unusual for inland Georgia.
![[Traffic light repair 15:20:18, 31.6363489, -84.2473075]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-10-11--hurricane-michael/traffic-light.jpg)
Traffic light repair 15:20:18, 31.6363489, -84.2473075
We saw plenty of downed power lines, so don’t be surprised if everybody is power is not back everywhere for a while.
Hurricanes apparently aren’t good at obeying speed limit signs. Continue reading
Thursday morning, the day after Hurricane Michael passed by to the west and north of the Suwannee River Basin, only Gopher River and the New River gauge near Lake Butler were in Action Stage.
Does a place that nearly floods even when a hurricane is a hundred miles west of it seem like a good location for the HPS II phosphate mine, in Union and Bradford Counties, Florida ? Continue reading
Update 2018-10-28: Now at State Line Ramp! Yes, we’ve moved downstream, to plenty of water, no deadfalls, plus shoals, in two states (Georgia and Florida) and four counties (Lowndes, Brooks, Madison, and Hamilton).
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, GA, October 8, 2018 — By popular demand at the Hahira Honeybee Festival, WWALS has extended the deadline for early-bird $20 tickets through Saturday, October 13, for the WWALS Boomerang paddle race, coming up Saturday, November 3, 2018. This new event goes downstream and back again on the Withlacoochee River and the west edge of Valdosta, the largest city in the Suwannee River Basin, only a few miles from Valdosta State University. Someone from the Atlantic coast of Florida won our spring BIG Little River Paddle Race this spring, and kayaks or canoes from everywhere are welcome at the Boomerang as well. If you don’t have a boat, two outfitters so far have signed up to supply those. There will be food and drink and music at this WWALS fall paddling festival.
WWALS Boomerang organizer Bobby McKenzie and family with fellow WWALS board
member Dan Phillips
in the parade at the Hahira Honeybee Festival.
Boomerang paddlers will race from Langdale Park Boat Ramp, just off of North Valdosta Road (US 41), down the Withlacoochee River to Sugar Creek Landing, and back upstream. If you don’t want to race, you can just paddle, and if you don’t want to paddle upstream, you can take out onto Gornto Road. Bobby’s four-year-old son finished our other paddle race, so paddlers of all ages are welcome.
For all the details and to get tickets, Continue reading
Water quality is worse upstream of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee WTP and far downstream of its Mud Creek WTP, according to Valdosta’s most recent data, received last week in response to a Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request from WWALS. This is the recent data I mentioned in the tour of Valdosta WTPs.
Does this data mean Valdosta is perfect and will never spill again? Nope. But it does mean there’s more than one source of fecal coliform and E. coli. We need to find those other sources, which is one reason WWALS is starting a water quality testing program.
Valdosta’s smaller WTP is in the Alapaha River Basin.
The WTP is the image left of top center, St. Augustine Road is the green diamond top left, Johnson Road is the grey diamond below and left of top center, and GA 135 Alapahoochee is the grey diamond bottom right.
100 and 10 are good readings for Fecal Coliform and E. coli, upstream of the Mud Creek WTP. Continue reading
Update 2018-10-28: Now at State Line Ramp! Yes, we’ve moved downstream, to plenty of water, no deadfalls, plus shoals, in two states (Georgia and Florida) and four counties (Lowndes, Brooks, Madison, and Hamilton).
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2018-10-08: Early-bird $20 ticket deadline extended through October 13th!
Today is the last day for the $20 early registration for WWALS Boomerang, Langdale Park to Sugar Creek and Back Again, Withlacoochee River, Valdosta, Georgia.
Here is a flyer and a two-per-sheet version, both in PDF ready for printing.
Get your $20 early-bird tickets today before they go up to $30!
And if you come to the Hahira Honeybee Festival today, you can see Bobby and the McKenzie clan march in the parade.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
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
WCTV came to Hagan Bridge Landing at GA 122 on the Withlacoochee River to interview Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman about what Madison County and 10 more Florida counties are doing about Valdosta sewage spills into local rivers. Don’t forget the Tour of Valdosta wastewater treatment plants 9:30 AM this morning, Wednesday, October 3, 2018.
Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 2 October 2018, North Florida communities look to solve sewage spills in Valdosta, Continue reading
Thanks to Steve Nichols for having me on The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols, 105.9FM WVGA. We talked about water trails, paddle races, and the Sabal Trail pipeline federal eminent domain jury trials, which were being settled as we spoke. Also we hear the Naylor Boat Ramp will be finished soon by Lowndes County.
As I asked Steve about the three jury trials:
This is about federal eminent domain for the Sabal Trail pipeline.
SN: That’s right.
Now they already built the pipeline. But for these landowners, they sued them for the eminent domain. They do not have a written agreement with the landowners. They have not paid them a cent. But they already built the pipeline. Does that sound right to you? Continue reading
Except for being a very unseasonable 102 degrees in the shade, it was a very fine day at Berrien County Harvest Festival in Nashville, Georgia, Saturday, 29 September 2018, next to the Withlacoochee River and in a county bordered on the east by the Alapaha and Willacoochee Rivers.
He likes wwals.net so much he wanted to be on it, and now he and she are, shown here with Gretchen Quarterman.
Here are some pictures from the last year, and we’ll be back today at the Berrien County Harvest Festival.
