Tag Archives: Withlacoochee River

WWALS at Brooks County Skillet Festival 2018-10-20

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The WWALS booth will be back in Quitman, Georgia, this Saturday at the Skillet Festival, with buttons and stickers (WWALS, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Water Trails, Water Is Life) and the raffle kayak.

When: 9AM-3:30 PM, Saturday, October 20, 2017

Where: Brooks County Courthouse, 100 Screven Street, Quitman, Georgia 31643

What: Brooks County Skillet Festival, quilts, cooking, vegetable market, fashion, dogs, clogging, skillet toss, race, and parade

Event: facebook

Skillet raffle on inward side, WWALS booth
WWALS at the Skillet Festival in 2017.

More: For more WWALS outings and events Continue reading →

Pictures: Troupville Cleanup 2018-10-13

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We had fun cleaning up at Troupville Boat Ramp and the private land down the Little River to its Confluence with the Withlacoochee River, and then up the Withlacoochee a bit. Boy Scouts did much of the work, in Ronnie Thomas’ troup: this cleanup was his idea. Two of the landowners who let us into the land down to the Confluence were there; that property is for sale. Scotti Jay and Bobby and the McKenzie clan were also there. Brown Dog and Yellow Dog liked getting into another river.

[Red, yellow, white, blue, 10:09:03, 30.8454610, -83.3467969]
Red, yellow, white, blue, 10:09:03, 30.8454610, -83.3467969

Landowner Helen Tapp promised donuts, and delivered. Continue reading →

Still Saturday: Troupville Boat Ramp Cleanup, Little River, 2018-10-13

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We’re still on for 8:00 AM to noon this Saturday, tomorrow, October 13, 2018, for the WWALS cleanup of the Troupville Boat Ramp and adjacent riverfront down to the Little River Confluence with the Withlacoochee River.

Keep Lowndes-Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB) has rescheduled its Rivers Alive cleanup, but we’re sticking with our original date, which is still tomorrow, this Saturday.

We have the enthusiastic support of the landowners south of the boat ramp to the Confluence, including much of the site of historic Troupville, the former seat of Lowndes County before Valdosta.

One of the landowners will be by with donuts at the start.

Children and trash, Sign
Photo: Bobby McKenzie from the last WWALS Troupville Boat Ramp Cleanup, 2018-04-21.

See original blog post for details.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Hurricane Michael, Albany to Tifton 2018-10-11

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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]
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 →

Low water in Suwannee River Basin with Hurricane Michael 2018-10-11

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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.

Gulf to Atlantic, After Gauges

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 →

Deadline extended for WWALS Boomerang early-bird tickets, through 2018-10-13

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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, Parade
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 →

Worse upstream and far downstream, Valdosta water quality testing 2018-09-19, 2018-09-25 2018-10-02

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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.

Mud Creek WTP

Valdosta’s smaller WTP is in the Alapaha River Basin.

Map, Mud Creek WTP

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.

Map, Mud Creek WTP

St. Augustine Rd., Mud Creek, Mud Creek WTP

100 and 10 are good readings for Fecal Coliform and E. coli, upstream of the Mud Creek WTP. Continue reading →

Flyer and last discount ticket day for WWALS Boomerang Withlacoochee River paddle race by Valdosta

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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.

Flyer, WWALS Boomerang
PDF flyer.

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!

Videos: Tour of Valdosta WTPs 2018-10-03

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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.

Valdosta staff,
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 at Hagan Bridge on Withlacoochee sewage spills downstream into Florida 2018-10-02

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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.

Enough is enough when it comes to sewage spills in local rivers, Hagan Bridge

Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 2 October 2018, North Florida communities look to solve sewage spills in Valdosta, Continue reading →