Join us for a leisurely Sunset and Full Moon Paddle on our mini-Okefenokee, Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge, just west of Lakeland, Georgia.
This Outing is honoring Farmers, who get free entry.
When: Gather 6 PM, launch 6:30 PM, moonrise 7 PM, sunset 6:50 PM, end 8 PM, Monday, October 26, 2026
Put In: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Georgia 122, Lakeland, GA 31635, in Lanier County, on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT).
![[Full Hunter's Moon Paddle, Banks Lake, 2026-10-26]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-10-26--full-hunters-moon-paddle/fbmany.jpg)
Full Hunter’s Moon Paddle, Banks Lake, 2026-10-26
The moon rose before the sun set over Banks Lake. Not just any moon: a supermoon. The moon’s orbit is not a circle, and it was the closest it ever comes, appearing 18% larger than some other times.
Thanks to Kimberly Godden Tanner for leading this paddle. A little drizzle didn’t stop us. The bats didn’t come out, but we heard them in their tree.
Video:
https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/1480346073300582/
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPmBkixiHE6/
![[Full Hunters Moon Paddle, Banks Lake NWR, West of Lakeland, GA, 2025-10-06]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2025-10-06--banks-lake-full-hunters-moon-pictures/fbmany.jpg)
Full Hunters Moon Paddle, Banks Lake NWR, West of Lakeland, GA, 2025-10-06
There are more pictures below. Continue reading
Last call, songwriters, tomorrow, Wednesday, August 19, 2026:
https://forms.gle/fihLNVC2xbD1SXBB6
Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman discussed the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest last Thursday at the Mayor’s day job, the radio show he owns and hosts on talk921.fm.
Songs can be about any waterbody in the 10,000-square mile Suwannee River Basin or Estuary in Georgia or Florida, including the Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha, Alapahoochee, or Suwannee Rivers, or the Okefenokee Swamp, or any other river, creek, swamp, or sink. Plus underground waters such as the Floridan Aquifer.
Songwriters can be from anywhere; they come from as far as Tennessee and south Florida.
Here are WWALS videos from that radio show:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2118859655696045
https://www.instagram.com/p/DcL-5a7I2nc/
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSTFinxTNQsw&si=u4CDRXlSjW5tCIl6
Once we get those last few songs from the procrastinating songwriters, the organizing committee will select Finalists.
The Finalists will play at WWALS River Revue, 5-9 PM, Saturday, September 12, 2026, at the Lowndes County 4-H Club in Lake Park, Georgia, on Long Pond.
https://wwals.net/pictures/songwriting2026
When you buy a ticket, you get to hear them along with the three judges, who will select the winners.
And you get a sit-down dinner with cash bar, Headliner Joe First, who is last year’s winner, and two speakers:
Plus a silent auction! Continue reading
Here’s what six people running for Florida Governor have to say about clean water. The other candidates did not respond.
We got a variety of answers about WFNF, desalination, potable reuse, WMDs, datacenters, and RTCW. For what these candidates wrote about those and other issues, see below.
WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is conducting a Political Candidate Clean Water Questionnaire: #WWALSCleanWaterQuestionnaire
We already reported responses from statehouse District 9 and District 10, and also U.S. Congress Florida District 2.
For much more about Water First North Florida (WFNF), see:
If you are a candidate for state or national office in Florida this year, in the Suwannee River Basin, we sent you a questionnaire. If you didn’t get it, please let us know.
https://wwals.net/donations/contact/
Primary Election Day is tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18. Continue reading
Update 2026-08-17: Florida Governor Candidates: Clean Water Questionnaire –WWALS 2026-08-17.
Here’s what some of those running for U.S. Congress from Florida District 3 have to say about clean water: Troy Albers and Seth Harp.
Kat Cammack (the incumbent), Georgia Hubac, Mike Klein, and Tom Wells did not respond.
FL-03 covers Hamilton, Columbia, Baker, Union, Bradford, Alachua, Gilchrist, Suwannee, (most of ) Lafayette, Dixie, Levy, Counties, and part of Marion County. That’s almost all of the Suwannee River Basin in Florida, except not Madison County.
![[Florida U.S. House District 3, Political Candidate Clean Water Questionnaire --WWALS 2026-08-17]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-17--fl-03-water-questionnaire/fbmany.jpg)
Florida U.S. House District 3, Political Candidate Clean Water Questionnaire –WWALS 2026-08-17
WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is conducting a Political Candidate Clean Water Questionnaire: #WWALSCleanWaterQuestionnaire
We already reported responses from statehouse District 9 and District 10.
In FL-03 also WFNF is not popular, WMDs in their current form are problematical, hyper-scale AI datacenters are looked upon ascance, and these candidates support RTCW. For these candidates’ answers to those and other questions, see below.
For much more about Water First North Florida (WFNF), see:
If you are a candidate for state or national office in Florida this year, in the Suwannee River Basin, we sent you a questionnaire. If you didn’t get it, please let us know.
https://wwals.net/donations/contact/
Primary Election Day is tomorrow, Tuesday, August 18.
Our source for who is running is Continue reading
Dennis Norman, the landowner with the big hole in his driveway at 4637 Rustic Ridge Road, said his wife did a video recording of the children back in 2019 and he saw the crack in the driveway then.
He told the county about it this spring, before his driveway collapsed. Last Wednesday he was waiting around for somebody from the county to come out, who apparently already had, and I finally got his Commissioner to call him.
According to the dictionary and USGS, it’s a sinkhole.
The question is what caused it: “gradual soil movement”, a sewer pipe break, or a contractor running something along the road?
And who is responsible for the damages.
Also, are there more cavities that may collapse.
![[Alleged Sinkhole 2026-08-12, 4637 Rustic Ridge Road, Foxborough subdivision, Lowndes County, GA]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-12--alleged-sinkhole-rustic-ridge-road/many.jpg)
Alleged Sinkhole 2026-08-12, 4637 Rustic Ridge Road, Foxborough subdivision, Lowndes County, GA
Here’s a WWALS video playlist from the site:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLalLgq5w7US8&si=VY1m8J6P8PGdqjcS
Dennis Norman had already called the county before his driveway collapsed. He thought it was a sinkhole then, and he’s still not sure.
He stuck his tape measure down in there, and it was 5 feet 3 inches deep before it collapsed. Continue reading
Update 2026-08-15: It’s treated creek water, not human wastewater.
It broke four days after SJRWMD bragged about it working:
the Black Creek treated waste creek water pipeline into Alligator Creek.
This is the prototype for the 60+-mile Water First North Florida (WFNF) pipeline from Jacksonville into the Suwannee River Basin.
We should trust SJRWMD and JEA to build a pipeline?
There’s an election going on. No candidate seems to want to support WFNF.
WWALS sent a clean water questionnaire to all Florida candidates for office. It also got answers on many other water topics. Some of those answers may help you choose who to vote for.
Here are the answers from Statehouse District 9:
And the answers from Statehouse District 10:
WCJB Staff, WCJB, August 11, 2026, Pipe burst, eroded underneath State Road 21 in Clay County, lanes blocked,
Continue readingKEYSTONE HEIGHTS, Fla. (WCJB) – The Black Creek pipeline burst and eroded underneath State Road 21 between State Road 16 and Sharron Road in Clay County Tuesday morning.
Clay County Fire Rescue officials say the pumps that supply the water are secured. State Road 21 is currently down to one lane.
Fire rescue officials are at the scene and FDOT officials are mobilizing to repair the damage. Officials say there are no injuries or accidents at this time.
The Alapaha River tested clean last Friday, but the Town of Alapaha Wastewater Treatment Outflow was filthy.
The Withlacoochee River tested clean for Monday and for Wednesday downstream.
The only sewage spill reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia, was a 25,000 gallon spill into Hat Creek on August 2, that Ashburn, Georgia didn’t report to GA-EPD until Monday, August 10. That’s upstream of the Alapaha River.
According to the results we have, happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating, if you can avoid the rains.
This image is an illustration. Scroll down for the details.
Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall,
and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results
The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading
Sabal Trail proposes to add another fracked methane pipeline alongside the one it plowed under the Withlacoochee, Suwannee, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee (South) Rivers almost a decade ago, plus bigger compressor stations in Suwannee and Marion Counties, Florida, and elsewhere.
What “economic development” could eat such a doubling of pipeline capacity? I know of only one candidate: hyper-scale AI datacenters, powered by gas plants such as the one rumored in Mitchell County, Georgia, near the Sabal Trail pipeline.
![[Sabal Trail wants a second pipeline and bigger compressor stations, 2026-08-03]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-03--sabal-trail-doubled/fbmany.jpg)
Sabal Trail wants a second pipeline and bigger compressor stations, 2026-08-03
The first person to post this letter online was apparently Jodi Brantley, today, August 14, 2026. Others confirm that multiple landowners received this letter. The gist of the letter is on Sabal Trail’s own website:
https://www.sabaltrailtransmission.com/Project
This is not the long-delayed Project Phase III, which was supposed to add 75 million cubic feet per day. That one was originally supposed to be in service May 1, 2021, but got extended until May 1, 2023, and again to May 1, 2025, and most recently to May 1, 2027.
This Sabal Trail Expansion is a new project.
The current Sabal Trail pipeline “is capable of transporting over 1 billion cubic feet per day or more of natural gas to serve local distribution companies, industrial users and natural gas-fired power generators in the Southeast markets.”
So a second pipeline could add another billion cubic feet per day.
Sabal Trail’s excuses are: Continue reading
The Withlacoochee River is up at Langdale Park Boat Ramp.
At 118 feet NAVD88 yesterday and 119.19 feet today on the Valdosta Gauge at US 41, that’s several feet above the WWALS recommended minimum of 116 for boating. It’s probably even high enough to put in a boat with a motor and go over most of the remaining deadfalls at the bottom of the park.
Unfortunately, the rains that brought the river up also once again produced erosion on the access road, out of the private development site.
![[2026-08-13: River up at Langdale Park Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River, erosion on access road]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-13--langdale-park/fbmany.jpg)
2026-08-13: River up at Langdale Park Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River, erosion on access road
Down at the boat ramp, you can see the WWALS signs for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) and below them a container with rack cards for people to take. Continue reading
![[Songs for Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest by August 19, on Scott James radio, Finalists play September 12, 2026]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-13--scott-james-radio/fbmany.jpg)
![[Florida Governor Candidates, Clean Water Questionnaire, WFNF, Datacenters, WMDs, etc. --WWALS 2026-08-17]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-17--fl-governor-water-questionnaire/fbmany.jpg)
![[Black Creek treated creek water pipeline broke 2026-08-11, after less than a week, Prototype for WFNF]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-11--black-creek-pipeline-broke/fbmany.jpg)
![[Ashburn sewage spill 2026-08-02, Clean Alapaha River 2026-08-08, but dirty Town of Alapaha, Clean Withlacoochee River 2026-08-12]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2026-08-12--wq/many.jpg)