The Alapaha River is dry much of the year in most of its Florida run, because it goes underground upstream and comes back up in the Alapaha Rise, which is actually upstream on the Suwannee River from the Alapaha Confluence. The Cody Scarp causes this underground river phenomenon. See also the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail.
WWALS member Harriet Heywood, Citrus County Chronicle, 3 December 2016, Sabal Trail forum was informative,
I was an attendee at the Public Forum on Sabal Trail on Nov. 21.
As an attendee, I found the forum at the Unitarian Universalist Church, endorsed by the League of Women Voters, to be both educational and well-presented, and the event was well-attended. To read the Sabal Trail-perspective piece, in The Chronicle almost a week post-forum, you might believe speaker and attendee fears were unfounded. However, Spectra Energy, the parent company of Sabal Trail has an extremely bad safety record, with blowouts, leaks and explosions occurring far more often than Sabal Trail’s spokesperson admitted in the Sunday article, including an explosion in Pennsylvania last April and a huge blowout in The Arkansas River in 2015, among many other accidents and safety violations. The article covering the forum colored speakers and attendees as ill-informed worrywarts. As far as I could tell, no one from Sabal Trail attended the forum.
I have since learned that sinkholes and drilling blowouts have already occurred recently, in both Georgia and North Florida, video-documented by Sierra Club’s Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson and John S. Quarterman, president, WWALS Watershed Coalition. A sinkhole opened at a Sabal Trail construction site in Suwannee County, near the Santa Fe River, on C.R. 49 between Branford and Live Oak (the site of the O’Brien, Hildreth Compressor Station) damaging at least the road there.
And another well-documented Valdosta, Georgia area Withlacoochee River drilling blowout occurred as Sabal Trail was drilling under the river. Impossible events, according to Sabal Trail’s spokesperson. There are other documented incidents of wildlife and wetland destruction in the Hunter Creek region as the pipeline makes its way to South Florida for export. Forum attendees were not ill-informed worrywarts. They were well-educated concerned citizens.
There were numerous safety concerns raised about Continue reading
Confirmed: Sabal Trail’s water for drilling under the Withlacoochee River in Georgia is coming from Quitman, Georgia. Specifically from a fire hydrant on Holloway Drive just east of Young Street.
Sabal Trail previously told FERC Continue reading
Suwannee County, Florida.
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Sabal Trail caused a sinkhole at the HDD site in Lowndes County, in addition to
the frac-out under the Withlacoochee River previously discovered by WWALS,
plus a bunch of other sinkholes or “depressions” they just reported today.
They say they discovered the HDD site sinkhole the day after they told FERC
there was no sinkhole at what appears to be exactly the location they now,
four weeks later, say is a sinkhole.
FERC Accession Number: 20161202-5137, “Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC submits it Continue reading
Wanee, Hulaween, Suwannee River Roots Revival,
and right now Suwannee Lights; where music lives: Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, seen from the air.
Unanimously, they passed
a resolution to support the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail: the Brooks County Commission at their regular meeting of Monday November 7th 2016 (PDF).
Thanks to the Commissioners, especially Chairman Myra Exum and Vice-Chairman Joe Wingate, for their warm welcome to WWALS.
Thanks to Commissioners and staff, especially County Administrator Justin DeVane,
for some very useful suggestions, such as numbering river landings as well as naming them,
in the same way that county roads have both names and numbers to make it easier
for emergency services.
The picture is of county agent Stephanie Hollifield reminding the Commissioners that Brooks County farmer Randy Dowdy set a world record for soybean yield of Continue reading
Bell EMS looks a stone’s throw from the Sabal Trail pipeline corner, in these WWALS aerials from the Santa Fe River to Bell, Florida, in Gilchrist County.
Bell Emergency Management Services (lower right), Sabal Trail bend to the east (top left)
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS, Southwings flight, 23 November 2016
Sabal Trail had a bunch of buses and trucks next between 91st Lane and 94th Street in Gilchrist County. Continue reading
The crowd was very attentive to every word about
wastewater and flood prevention,
with officials from the City of Valdosta presenting in
the first of a new quarterly WWALS speaker series.
If you didn’t come, you can see and hear in these videos
Henry Hicks
about wastewater,
Emily Davenport
about flood prevention,
Tim Carroll
about solar power,
and Sementha Mathews
about how to get more information from Valdosta.
WWALS Treasurer and acting Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman
opened
and
closed the meeting.
Each talk had many small but important stories, so we will probably blog more posts about those. Meanwhile, here are the videos: see for yourself! Continue reading
Sabal Trail’s pipe is still laid out north of the Suwannee County horizontal directional drilling (HDD) site on the Santa Fe River, but it won’t be for long unless something stops it.
Pictures by Beth Gammie and John S. Quarterman on Southwings flight for WWALS, 23 November 2016.
N. up Sabal Trail across Santa Fe River into Suwannee County, 29.8988570, -82.8495600, by John S. Quarterman for WWALS on Southwings flight 2016-11-23