Tag Archives: WWALS

Ask Georgia Power to conserve our water –WWALS to GA PSC

Approved 12 June 2013 by unanimous vote of the WWALS board, Dave has mailed a signed copy to the Georgia Public Service Commission, and I will go read it to the PSC Tuesday morning at 10 AM 18 June 2013, at their hearing about

Docket 36498, Georgia Power Company’s 2013 Integrated Resource Plan and Application for Decertification of Various Units
and
Docket 36499, Application for the Certification of Amended Demand Side Management Plan

Y’all come! -jsq

From: WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
3338 Country Club Road #L336
Valdosta, GA 31605
12 June 2013

To: Georgia
Public Service Commission
244 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta GA, 30334-9052

Dear Public Service Commissioners and Staff,

The recent rains have swollen our blackwater rivers, Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, and Little, under our longleaf pines and Spanish-moss-covered oaks, and filled up the tea-colored tannin waters in our frog-singing pocosin cypress swamps here in central South Georgia. But that was only a dent in our protracted drought that ranges from mild to extreme, with projections not much better.

We do not need more traditional big baseload power plants gulping down our river or aquifer water when solar and wind power use far less, and those renewables are now at grid parity with coal, natural gas, and nuclear.

Power plants are thirsty, as the Union of Concerned Scientists pointed out in a 2011 report, “Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants: Electricity’s Thirst for a Precious Resource”.

Much of the water used to cool power plants evaporates, and is Continue reading →

George Page of VL Parks and Rec speaks to WWALS Board 2013-06-12

Draft Agenda

WWALS Watershed Coalition
Regular Meeting
Board of Directors
Wednesday 7:30 PM 12 June 2013
IHOP, Adel, GA
  1. Call to Order, Welcome and Introductions
  2. Special Speaker – George Page
    Valdosta Lowndes Parks and Recreation Executive Director since 2011.
    Mr. Page will update us on current park efforts and river access
    perhaps plus some VLPRA ideas on river trails. Continue reading →

George Vellidis Dissolved Oxygen Slides

PDF of Dissolved Oxygen Dynamics in the Upper Suwannee River Basin by Prof. George Vellidis, Crop & Soil Sciences Dept., University of Georgia, Tifton, GA. He used these slides when he discussed the dynamics of dissolved oxygen concentrations in WWALS waterways at the 8 May 2013 WWALS board meeting.

More later.

-jsq

Your pictures of Georgia outdoors

Got pictures of a designated Wilderness Area in Georgia? Send them to the Georgia Sierra Club by June 1 with $25 for the 2013 Wilderness Georgia Photo Contest or by November for the Smithsonian Photocontest 2013 or bring them to the silent auction tomorrow at the WWALS Janisse Ray fundraiser in Tifton.

A few excerpts: Continue reading →

Flint River #2 on American Rivers’ Most Endangered Rivers list

American Rivers released Wednesday its list of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® 2013, and our neighbor to the west, the Flint River, is on it. Some of the Flint’s problems are the same as in our WWALS watersheds, including drought and floods. The writeup doesn’t mention it, but I think the arsenic wellwater problem extends over there, too. The Flint does have Atlanta at its headwaters, and Flint Riverkeeper and others just had to fight off a legislative attempt to frack Flint water for Atlanta. However, the overpumping problem was apparently already much worse in parts of our watersheds way back in 1980. And the Flint doesn’t have the Lowndes County Commission, which prefers to close its only public access to the Alapaha River rather than listen to 350 people wanting to keep it open for demonstrated public uses. -jsq

Flint River, Georgia Take Action
At Risk: Water supply for communities, farms, recreation, and wildlife
Threat: Outdated water management

The Flint River provides water for over one million people, 10,000 farms, unique wildlife, and 300 miles of exceptional fishing and paddling. Despite being in a historically wet area of the country, in recent years many Flint River tributaries are drying up completely and the river’s low flows have dropped dramatically.

American Rivers and Flint Riverkeeper are working in collaboration with diverse partners to restore the flows and health of the Flint. The State of Georgia also has a role to play and must act to protect the Flint in droughts and at all times to safeguard the river’s health for today and future generations.

The Threat

The Flint is a river running dry. The reasons are many, and include

Continue reading →

South Georgia author Janisse Ray fundraiser for WWALS Watershed Coalition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PDF of event flyer

Tifton, GA, April 17, 2013, WWALS Watershed Coalition brings Janisse Ray, a South Georgia naturalist and conservation writer to Tifton for fundraising, food and fun on Saturday May 11th at Blackshank Pavilion, 457 N. Carpenter Road.

A native to South Georgia, Ray writes about the places that are familiar to us. She is an American writer, naturalist, and environmental activist. Ray will read to us from some of her works which include:
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood,
Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home,
Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to the Gulf,
Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land,
A House of Branches,
Drifting into Darien: a Personal and Natural History of the Altamaha River
and The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food.

Ray lives and works on a family farm in southern Georgia.

Cost: Family Event $5-Individual/$10-Family

Agenda

Continue reading →

Withlacoochee River at Franklinville 16 April 2013 2013-04-20

Come paddle the Withlacoochee River from GA 122 to Franklinville, 10 AM 20 April 2013, in the monthly WWALS outing.

Update 2016-02-01: Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman.

Franklinville Road Bridge (closed):

Franklinville Road Bridge (closed)

Withlacoochee River:

Continue reading →

Watershed meeting organized by Army Corps of Engineers

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) didn’t know there was a large water problem hereabouts, but now they do, and they want to take a watershed-wide approach, from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico, including both surface water and aquifer issues, perhaps starting with redrawing FEMA’s flood maps, and maybe even including once again funding the state water council.

Thursday 11 April 2013 there was a rather large governmental meeting organized by USACE in response to the City of Valdosta’s request of 11 March 2103. Yesterday, Valdosta City Council District 5 Tim Carroll sent the appended list of attendees, augmented by a conversation with him on the phone just now. We know little else, because no media or private citizens were invited.

  • USACE Savannah office: Jeff Morris, Georgia Silver Jackets Coordinator and Beth Williams, Hydraulic Engineer
  • USACE Jacksonville office: David Apple, Chief, Watershed and Restoration Planning Section
  • GADNR: Christopher Hill and Tom Shillock, GAEPD Floodplain Management Unit
  • GEMA: Dee Langley, Planning Program Manager and Terry Lunn, Director, Hazard Mitigation Division
  • GEMA: Gary Rice – Regional Field Coordinator
  • USGS: Brian McCallum, Supv. Hydrologist/ADir and Keith McFadden, Physical Scientist
  • FEMA Region 4: Susan Wilson, CFM, Floodplain Management and Insurance Branch Chief and Janice Mitchell, Insurance Specialist and Lender Compliance

Those state and national agencies were brought by:

Continue reading →