Yesterday, we received an alert from the landowner at 215 Knob Hill Road
that yet another spill was happening there.
He copied Valdosta Utilities.
By the time I called Utilities a minute later,
Acting Utilities Director Jason Barnes said he was busy figuring it out and
could not talk right then.
This morning I called Jason Barnes again.
No, they did not find the cause.
However, next week they will “jet from Williamsburg to Knob Hill”
That means clean the sewer line.
Jason Barnes says the City of Valdosta will issue a press release.
But I’ve got stuff to do this afternoon, so here’s what he told me.
Yesterday’s spills were 1500 gallons each from three locations,
215 Knob Hill, and two overflow locations: 300 Knob Hill (the next house downhill)
and 1016 Williamsburg (across the ditch from Knob Hill).
So that’s 4,500 gallons total, all into Three Mile Branch.
Yes, Three Mile Branch flows into the Withlacoochee River along the path Continue reading →
It’s about time something happened there, where
I videoed Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson in December 2022
saying something needed to be done.
According to Valdosta City ordinances, it is the parking lot owner’s
responsiblity to keep trash from escaping the property,
no matter where it came from.
Thanks to Russell Allen McBride for spotting this digging.
Thanks to Gretchen Quarterman for photographing.
She noted, “Enterprise guy was on parking lot. He knew nothing about it.”
It seems unlikely to be the City of Valdosta, considering how reluctant they are
to do anything on private property.
It’s a good thing we sent to see:
yesterday we found a huge new deadfall completely across the Withlacoochee River,
on the route of the
Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle,
coming up Saturday, March 2, 2024.
Update 2024-02-25:
Need to add Sugar Creek, as well as Cat Creek and Franks Creek.
Following up on the December 2023 report of the Fishing Rights Study Committee,
that Committee’s Chair,
Rep. Burchett of Waycross, who is also the House Majority Whip,
this Thursday introduced
HB 1397,
which defines navigable streams in Georgia.
Similarly, the bill could add add Cat Creek below GA 37 and Franks Creek below GA 122. That would help with finding and fixing E. coli problems seen at bridges on those creeks. WWALS has already started investigating those creek problems and has applied for a testing grant. https://wwals.net/?p=58982
These are the bill’s items in the Suwannee River Basin.
If I’ve missed any, somebody let me know. Continue reading →
This Tuesday, February 20, 2024, we learned of two small Valdosta sewage spills,
each 100 gallons.
That’s not enough to get down the creeks to affect the Withlacoochee River,
but enough to stink up the neighborhood.
One was on Boone Drive at Baytree Road, next to Valdosta State University
and One Mile Branch, which runs into Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River.
The other was at 215 Knob Hill Road on a ditch that runs into Three Mile Branch at the southeast corner of Langdale Park, then into the Withlacoochee River
near the southwest corner of the park.
That’s the same location as the
much larger January 10 spill.
I learned about the Boone Drive spill when I called Valdosta Acting Utilities Director Jason Barnes Tuesday morning about the Knob Hill spill.
Neither of these spills has yet appeared in the
GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report.
Jason Barnes says he already sent a report on the Boone Drive spill to EPD,
and he will send one soon about the new Knob Hill spill. Continue reading →
WWALS charter board member Bret Wagenhorst will guide a tour of the Little River from Red Roberts Landing to Reed Bingham State Park Lake. All reservations online in advance, limited to 20 paddlers.
When: Gather 8 AM, launch 9 AM, end 12 PM, Saturday, April 27, 2024
Put In:Red Roberts Landing,
4727 Rountree Bridge Rd., Adel, GA 31620. River left at Rountree Bridge south of Rountree Bridge Road (CR 251) west of Adel; exit 41 off I-75.
Last year we saw bald cypress, pond cypress, pines, willow, tupelow, river birch, water oak, primrose, fetterbush, sparkleberry, holly, titi, wild grapevines, native wisteria, lichen, resurrection fern, goldenclub, mistletoe, and blooming Spanish moss.
We also saw many turtles, some alligators, and a great blue heron.
Continue reading →
Successful boat trials at Action Stage on the Little River!
Videos by John S. Quarterman and Russell Allen McBride for WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS).
Thanks to Laura D’Alisera for transfering the new WWALS 9.9hp Mercury fourstroke 20-inch shaft electric start outboard motor ten miles from West Marine in Jacksonville Beach to a shipping location, where Phil Hubbard received it Saturday.
Thanks to Wild Green Future (WGF) for the generous grant that bought it.
Sunday evening, Russell Allen McBride, Shawn O’Connor, Bobby McKenzie, and I
unboxed it, connected it to its fuel supply, and tried it out.
Thanks to Flint Riverkeeper for the jon boat.
With that outboard, the jon boat will indeed go upriver easily under these conditions.
It took only ten minutes to haul Russell in his kayak up the third of a mile from the Little River Confluence to Troupville Boat Ramp.
Also due to WGF, we received an 85lb-thrust Goplus 8 Speed, 36 inch shaft, trolling motor, two
Power Queen LiFePO4 12.8V 100Ah, lithium-iron-phosphate batteries,
and a Power Queen 14.6V 10A LiFePO4 Battery Charger.
Those we put on the WWALS bass fisher chainsawing boat,
plus the old WWALS 40lb-thrust mounted on the front.
Shawn and I demonstrated that the new motor alone will push that boat upstream
in these conditions, and both motors will troll it upstream at a walking pace.
Which is all we need to get back to the ramp from the Confluence during chainsaw cleanups.
We are awaiting a couple more items via the WGF grant. Stay tuned.
This is more preparation for the
Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle, Saturday, March 2, 2024,
starting at Langdale Park.
One hopes that the water level will be well below Sunday’s 148′ NAVD 1988 level, or we may have to reschedule for later.
And also preparation for more chainsaw cleanups on other stretches of this and other rivers.
Next: 9AM Sunday, February 25, 2024, we will take the jon boat from Troupville Boat Ramp
down around the Confluence and up the Withlacoochee River to Langdale Park,
chainsawing any remaining paddle obstacles along the way.
That one will be a bit hard to participate in by paddling.
Three of us cleared boating passage between the Sugar Creek WaterGoat
on the Withlacoochee River
behind the Valdosta YMCA and Wood Valley,
around the future Troupville Nature Park and River Camp,
past the Little River Confluence, then upstream on the Little River to Troupville Boat Ramp.
Thanks to Phil Hubbard for leading, and his Stihl chainsaw and electric chainsaw,
to Shawn O’Connor for using his polesaw.
I brought the new Husqvarna 460 Rancher 24-inch chainsaw,
paid for through a generous grant by Wild Green Future.
That grant also paid for some other things you will see in the near future.
Today at Troupville Boat Ramp, at 4:30 PM, we will be trying out some of those things.
The big deadfall between GA 133 and I-75 was underwater,
but there were plenty more to work on.
Phil Royce drove an hour from Live Oak, Florida,
and Gary Koch drove two hours from Ocala, Florida,
saying it was better to stop trash upstream.
In addition to regulars Russell Allen McBride and Bobby McKenzie,
Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson came to see us off; he’s second from left in the banner picture.
More on that in a later post.
These pictures are by Phil Royce.
Phil had to leave early, so his portage pictures are before we came along and sawed a river passage.
![[Three small Valdosta Sewage Spills into Three Mile Branch 2024-02-27: 1500 gallons each @ 215 Knob Hill Road, 300 Knob Hill, & 1016 Williamsburg Drive 2024-02-27]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-27--valdosta-spills/igmany.jpg)
![[Digging in the Stafford parking lot, St. Augustine Road at Hightower Creek 2024-02-27]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-27--st-augustine-road-parking-lot-hightower-creek/igmany.jpg)
![[Big new deadfall, chainsaw, trolling motor, outboard 2024-02-25]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-25--pictures-chainsaw-cleanup-troupville-up-to-sugar-creek-and-back/igmany.jpg)
![[Warrior Creek, Okapilco Creek, Deep Creek, Bird Wing Run]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-22--ga-navigable-streams/igmany.jpg)
![[Tifton Golden Road 7,000-gallon sewage spill into Little River 2024-02-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-12--tifton-golden-road-sewage-spill/igmany.jpg)
![[803 Golden Road, Tifton, Spill of 2024-02-12 in GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report 2024-02-19]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-12--tifton-golden-road-sewage-spill/2024-02-12--tifton-golden-road-spill-2024-02-19-ga-epd.jpg)
![[Map, Boone Drive & Knob Hill 100-gallon sewer spills, Valdosta, GA, 2024-02-20]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-20--valdosta-small-spills/igmany.jpg)
![[BIG Little River Paddle Event, Red Roberts Landing, 2024-04-27, led by Dr. Bret Wagenhorst to Reed Bingham State Park]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-04-27--blrpe/igmany.jpg)
![[9.9hp outboard and 86lb thrust trolling motor (thanks, Wild Green Future) and jon boat (thanks, Flint Riverkeeper) and Bass Fisher (WWALS)]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-18--boat-motor-tryouts/igmany.jpg)
![[Sawing Hurricane and other deadfalls, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, Troupville Boat Ramp 2024-02-11]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-11--sugar-creek-troupville-chainsaw-cleanup-pictures/igmany.jpg)
![[Banners, bass fisher, chain saws, Withlacoochee River, Langdale Park to Sugar Creek 2024-02-03]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-02-03--langdale-park-sugar-creek-chainsaw-cleanup-royce-pictures/igmany.jpg)