Sabal Trail plans to start drilling here in the next few days.
I count three houses within the blast radius just in this picture
at the Santa Fe River just east of US 129 in Suwannee and Gilchrist Counties, Florida.
See also
Jim Tatum’s pictures of this Santa Fe River Sabal Trail HDD location from this flight.
Continue reading
Author Archives: jsq
From the air: US 84 HDD Withlacoochee River Sabal Trail 2016-10-22
Update 2016-10-24: Questions filed with FERC in Docket CP15-17 as Accession Number 20161024-5049 and emailed to USACE and GA-EPD (PDF).
What is
that yellow thing in the river, Sabal Trail?
Is that a sinkhole you’ve marked at the Lowndes County HDD site?
And
does blue pipe mean thinner for rural areas like
your executive from Houston told us in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP?
FERC gave you permission to Continue reading
Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant old and new 2016-10-22
Uphill and farther from the river: the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment plant (top left of center) seen next to the old one, the Pecan Row Landfill, and the Withlacoochee River.
Come ask your questions for the entire Suwannee River basin about wastewater and flood prevention this Thursday, October 27th 2016, at the Valdosta City Hall Annex.
The $60 million in fixes so far and those still in progress are a big improvement
for everybody downstream to the Gulf on the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers, and upstream on the
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail. Continue reading
Lake City pipe yard
Southwings flight for WWALS, pilot Roy Zimmer.
Yes, it’s Sabal Trail pipe in an unregistered pipe yard.
-jsq
Sabal Trail planting exotic invasive grasses
Landowners can ask for something else.
Right now in Mitchell and Colquitt County, Georgia, Troy Construction is heading south, covering up the pipe they planted with seed, which according to
Sabal Trail’s documents is bermuda grass and bahia grass,
both of which are
exotic invasive species in Georgia.
According to Sabal Trail’s documents,
“Alternative seed mixes specifically requested by the landowner or required by agencies may be used.”
Now I’m told by at least one Georgia agency that both those grasses can be killed off with Roundup if they spread. But is that really what we want in and near our waterways and wetlands? And why should neighboring landowners have to fight exotic invasive species brought in by an invading pipeline?
So if you’re a landowner or Continue reading
WMA check-in hunt does not count towards Georgia bag limit
A hunter asked about bag limits at
the new
Alapaha River Wildlife Management Area (WMA)
on the Alapaha River in Irwin County betweeen Tifton and Ocilla.
It depends on whether you sign in or you check in.
The answer is not in the approved hunting season dates for the Alapaha WMA, found in other Alapaha WMA information. That’s because it’s in the general July 2016-June 2017 hunting regulations for Georgia. On page 34, note the phrase at the end of “Check-In Hunt” that I’ve emphasized below: Continue reading
Sabal Trail requests variance to Colquitt County, GA creek 2016-10-17
Monday Sabal Trail asked FERC
to
add a contractor yard in Colquitt County,
and to change routing
under a small stream.
No rush: Sabal Trail wants approval by tomorrow,
Thursday, October 20th 2016.
Presumably because they’re racing hell-for-leather to meet their May 2017
in-service drop-dead date, after which (according to FPL’s RFP)
they could forfeit a $200 million bond or lose the contract.
Here, courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), are Sabal Trail’s October 17th 2016 maps of that stream, plus Sabal Trail’s April 2016 maps of where it wants to cross the stream it flows into, Hog Creek and that stream’s downstream Okapilco Creek.
We’ve already seen where Sabal Trail is drilling under the Withlacoochee River between Valdosta and Quitman, Georgia and under the Suwannee River in Suwannee River State Park. Plus there’s an encampment of water protectors in Suwannee County.
Contractor Yard CY3-6
Continue readingOkefenokee Suwannee River Outing @ Fargo, GA 2016-12-10
Update 2017-02-05 Pictures.
You can join WWALS for a fall Saturday paddle on the Suwannee River in
the Okefenokee swamp.
Bring a boat, PFD, and paddle, or you can rent those at the park.
When: 10AM Saturday December 10th 2016
Where: Georgia’s Stephen C. Foster State Park near Fargo, GA
What: Paddle from Billy’s Lake down through the River Narrows to the Suwannee River Sill.
Distance: About 7 miles in about 4 hours Continue reading
Suwannee-Satilla and GA coastal river water councils in Dublin, GA 2016-11-17
Next month, once again the upper Suwannee that drains into the Gulf gets pulled into a meeting with coastal Georgia Water Planning Councils. This is the meeting that got delayed by hurricane.
Joint Regional Water Planning Council Meeting NEW DATE: November 17, 2016
Georgia Department of Natural Resources sent this bulletin at 10/18/2016 09:18 AM EDT
NOTICE:
JOINT REGIONAL WATER PLANNING COUNCIL MEETING
Announcement Date: October 18, 2016
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:
A Joint Council Meeting will be held for the Altamaha, Coastal
Georgia, Middle Ocmulgee, Savannah-Upper Ogeechee, Suwannee-Satilla
and Upper Oconee Regional Water Planning Councils at the following
date, time, and location:
GA DNR, Bulletin, 18 October 2016,
Deserter Lake in Alapaha Wildlife Management Area
Update 2016-10-20: WMA check-in hunt does not count towards Georgia bag limit.
WWALS member Patrick Kunes took this video of
Deserter Lake in
Irwin County on the Alapaha River in
the new
Alapaha River Wildlife Management Area (WMA)
on the Alapaha River betweeen Tifton and Ocilla.
You can hear him talking about turkeys he saw, and you can
see the lake on the river.
He mentions deadfalls, which are a common feature on the upper Alapaha River.
The river itself is not really boatable up that far much of the year,
but lakes like this one often still have water.
Many such lakes do not have public access, but Deserter Lake does now.
This lake is upstream from the formal start of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT), but we’ve included it in the online material about the ARWT because Deserter Lake is in the new Alapaha WMA.
Patrick wrote about this video: Continue reading