Monthly Archives: October 2014

Sinkhole formation and collapse due to drilling under the Withlacoochee River

Drilling through fragile sinkhole-prone karst limestone under the Withlacoochee River (or the Suwannee River, or the Santa Fe River): what could possibly go wrong? Sabal Trail now proposes to move off of the Withlacoochee River in Florida, but still plans to cross the Withlacoochee in Georgia, and to cross the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers, all of which have the same hydrogeology. You can talk directly to Sabal Trail and FERC at the Open House in Jasper, Florida, 5-7PM Tuesday 21 October 2014, and you can join WWALS where the Alapaha River disappears entirely into a sinkhole, at the Alapaha Sink, 2PM Sunday 26 October 2014.

Here are before and after diagrams by Continue reading →

Sabal Trail Withlacoochee River Alternative and Jasper Open House 21 Oct 2014

Due to fine work by WWALS members Chris and Deanna Mericle in Hamilton County, Florida, 300x391 Withlacoochee River Crossing Route Alternative, Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, Florida (bare), in Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 15 October 2014 Sabal Trail proposes to move its fracked methane pipeline off of the Withlacoochee River in Florida, and invites the public to an Open House in Jasper, FL Tuesday October 21st about that and other matters. We can ask them to move it off the Withlacoochee River in Georgia, too. And it’s still possible to file ecomments with FERC, and to contact your local, state, and national elected and appointed officials.

In FERC’s 15 October 2014 Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent and Route Alternatives, Continue reading →

If We Cared About The Environment Like We Care About Sports –Buzzfeed

Viral video: If We Cared About The Environment Like We Care About Sports.

If you care, you can become a WWALS member or donate. We’re all about conservation, for fishing, boating, swimming, wildlife, plants, economy, and history, including the Alapaha River Water Trail. And you are invited to our next outing, walking to the Alapaha Sink, 2PM 26 Oct 2014.

-jsq

Conservation

There’s are a reason the WWALS Mission says “conservation”. It’s pithily summed up by Prof. Rahul Mehrotra.

Elizabeth Gudrais wrote for Harvard Magazine May-June 2012, Engaging Students with Conservation,

PROFESSOR OF URBAN DESIGN and planning Rahul Mehrotra has been involved with restoring historic palaces, writing a law on historic preservation in Mumbai, and crafting a conservation master plan for the Taj Mahal. Harvard recruited him in part for this expertise, and this academic year, with Noyes professor in architectural theory Michael Hays, he has launched a conservation track for Graduate School of Design (GSD) master’s students.

Conservation, he says, is not the same as preservation, which focuses on protection and repair. Conservation is broader and richer, combining historical integrity and creativity to develop narratives connecting the present with the past.

Historical narratives like connecting Continue reading →

1970s Alapaha River Trail

Thanks to Glenn Dowling of Georgia River Network for this flyer from the 1970s for an Alapaha River Trail on “Georgia’s Cleanest River”.

Front

300x343 Georgias Cleanest River, in Canoe Guide to the Alapaha River Trail, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 0 1979 CANOE GUIDE
to the
Alapaha
River Trail

GEORGIA’S CLEANEST
RIVER

GEORGIA
State of Adventure

Back

Continue reading →

The Alapaha River, unspoiled, wild, and scenic –1979 Soil Survey

300x205 Alapaha, in oil Survey of Lowndes County, by USDA, for WWALS.net, 0 August 1979 The Alapaha River is the first illustration in the Soil Survey of Lowndes County of August 1979. This A+ gem of a blackwater river remains “unspoiled, wild, and scenic” and still “provides water sports and fishing for hundreds of people”. More people will know about it soon, due to the Alapaha River Water Trail. Come see an unuusal feature farther downstream: the Alapaha Sink, where the river goes underground. Come with WWALS to the Sink October 26th. Continue reading →

Alapaha Sink: WWALS Outing 2PM 26 Oct 2014

300x225 Red with human for scale, in Alapaha Sink, by Chris Mericle, 16 September 2014 Update 24 October 2014: Map, directions, and how to join WWALS.

Come see where the Alapaha River goes underground, near Jennings, in Hamilton County, Florida, 2PM, Sunday, October 26th, 2014. This is a walking outing; no boats required.

Directions to the parking area: Take I-75 south to State Road 6 in Florida. Go east (left) to US 41. Go north (left) about one mile. Turn right on NW 76th Terrace and go a mile. Turn right on NW 25th Lane and go about a mile. 300x489 Zoom, in Alapaha River Water Trail Draft Map, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 26 September 2014 Turn left at the Jennings Bluff Tract sign and go .9 mile. It dead ends at the parking area. That road is gravel and dirt and kinda bumpy. The parking area can probably hold ten vehicles at least.

The location for the Sink on the draft Alapaha River Water Trail map apparently Continue reading →