Sinkhole, Sabal Trail, Okapilco Creek, Brooks County, GA 2017-09-19

Update 2017-09-21: Yes, I reported it to GA-EPD, et al. (PDF), and here are facebook photos of most of the images below.

How close to exposed is Sabal Trail’s pipe? This sinkhole is at least a foot deep, maybe two or more, and Sabal Trail only buried their pipe three feet deep, despite requests by Brooks, Colquitt, and Lowndes Counties to bury it deeper.

At sinkhole, Sinkhole

N of sinkhole, Sinkhole

Is that fill material exposed on the north edge of the sinkhole? Was this previously a sinkhole they filled and now it’s active again?

N of sinkhole, Sinkhole

Off of Coffee Road west of GA 333, Google maps

I took these pictures Tuesday, September 19, 2017. This sinkhole is at 30.918631, -83.590638, between Little Creek and Okapilco Creek, between Morven and Barwick on Coffee Road, about 3500 feet west of GA 333, aka Moultrie Road, north of Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia.

Off of Coffee Road west of GA 333, Google maps

Pipeline 52, SONAT
Pipeline 52, SONAT

Looking east, SONAT
Looking east, SONAT

SONAT yellow marker, SONAT
SONAT yellow marker, SONAT

Sabal Trail, Sabal Trail
Sabal Trail, Sabal Trail

Looking east down Sabal Trail, Sabal Trail
Looking east down Sabal Trail, Sabal Trail

Sabal Trail In Emergency Call, Sabal Trail
Sabal Trail In Emergency Call, Sabal Trail

Sabal Trail Portrait, Sabal Trail
Sabal Trail Portrait, Sabal Trail

Looking west up Sabal Trail, Sinkhole
Looking west up Sabal Trail, Sinkhole

Walking towards sinkhole, Sinkhole
Walking towards sinkhole, Sinkhole

Closer to sinkhole, Sinkhole
Closer to sinkhole, Sinkhole

At sinkhole, Sinkhole
At sinkhole, Sinkhole

Across sinkhole, Sinkhole
Across sinkhole, Sinkhole

S of sinkhole, Sinkhole
S of sinkhole, Sinkhole

N of sinkhole, Sinkhole
N of sinkhole, Sinkhole

Other sinkholes?

I could only see this one sinkhole from where I was standing on an unmarked access road, but Google maps seems to show it and more and bigger sinkholes nearby.

Sinkhole on Google maps

Sinkhole on google maps, Google maps

More sinkholes?, Google maps

More sinkholes?, Google maps

Sinkholes at Okapilco Creek?, Google maps

Sinkholes at Okapilco Creek?, Google maps

Sinkholes at Little Creek?, Google maps

Sinkholes at Little Creek?, Google maps

Aerials 2016-10-22

Here’s what this same section looked like from the air October 22, 2017, on the same flight on which I discovered Sabal Trail’s frac-out of drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River.

Okapilco Creek, Coffee Road, 30.9182630, -83.5925410

Okapilco Creek, Coffee Road,

Sabal Trail alignment map

For orientation, here is Sabal Trail alignment map 1657-PL-DG-70197-221.

Sabal Trail alignment map 1657-PL-DG-70197-221
Sabal Trail alignment map, courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Closeup, Okapilco Creek, Coffee Road, 30.9192720, -83.5954390

It’s hard to be sure with the resolution available, but it looks like the north side of the pipeline right of way was already wet there then. Which would match with what look like fill materials now exposed again towards the north edge of the right of way.

Closeup, Okapilco Creek, Coffee Road,

Georgia EPD 2017-12-06

This is the same Okapilco Creek crossing at Coffee Road for which WWALS filed a complaint with GA-EPD 2016-12-06. It turned out that with Georgia’s “wrested vegetation” version of waterway frontage, Sabal Trail was technically within their easement.

Red pipe, Okapilco Creek Middle Bridge, Sabal Trail,
Red pipe, Okapilco Creek Middle Bridge, Coffee Road, Sabal Trail, 2017-01-23 30.9174160, -83.5892520

Flooding 2017-01-23

About seven miles upstream of here Okapilco Creek was flooded half a mile wide at GA 122 back in January.

Okapilco Creek
Okapilco Creek, GA 122, 2017-01-23 30.9957420, -83.6039130

That was the same January rain that washed Randy Dowdy’s world-record soybean fields into a nearby creek because Sabal Trail didn’t fix his terraces after they broke them before the rain.

Randy Dowdy field destroyed by Sabal Trail

Meanwhile, solar power needs no pipelines, no eminent domain, no testing or cooling water, and emits only clean electricity. Like, for example, the 769 kW solar project behind Langboard off of US 84 just west of the Withlacoochee River.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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