Category Archives: Aquifer

The Floridan Aquifer is our main drinking water source under our entire WWALS watershed, east to south Carolina, west through Alabama to Mississippi, and under all of Florida.

Antioch Cemetery in a field, Jasper, FL

“Gone but not forgotten” say many of the epitaphs Closer in Antioch Cemetery, stranded in the middle of a center pivot field near Jasper, Hamilton County, Florida. Who did this? Could it be Bill Gates?

The cemetery is at the end of SW 38 Trail, 30.4606571, -83.1870117, in a tiny 1.97 acre parcel 4736-000 owned by Continue reading →

Public Comment Period for Madison Blue Springs until 2016-06-24

A public hearing already happened last week, but you can still send comments until next Friday, June 24th 2016, about Madison Blue Spring State Park. Maybe you’d like to comment on the specific improvements they plan, or maybe something about Nestle or maybe how close Sabal Trail wants to come with its fracked methane pipeline.

That’s the deadline in the Green Publishing notice, but the Public Comment Form says Thursday June 23rd, so to be safe, get your comments in by next Thursday. Continue reading →

Dye test in Dead River Sink on Alapaha River

Update 2016-06-22: Dye test into the Dead River Sink: it came back up several days later and eighteen river miles south, in the Alapaha River Rise and Holton Bluff Spring, both on the Suwannee River.

The Alapaha River disappears underground in dry seasons, and nobody has ever known where it comes back up. Soon, we will know.

Green Publishing, 16 June 2016, Dye test held for river basins,

The Florida Geological Survey will be conducing a dye test for the Suwannee River Water Management District in the Upper Suwannee/Alapaha River basins later this month. They will introduce dye into the Dead River Swallet (swallets are sinkholes that capture flow) and a swallet that is located on privately owned land. They will also have sampling devices setup at Continue reading →

Sabal Trail reacts to Sanford Bishop GA-02, WWALS, Price P.G.

It’s time for more people and organizations, especially Congress members, to ask the Corps for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, after Sabal Trail side-stepped many of the questions Cover letter in a 130-page claim that it had already addressed every recent point from U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop GA-02, WWALS Watershed Coalition, Flint Riverkeeper, and Dennis Price P.G. in recent letters to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. If karst concerns alone were enough to move Sabal Trail off of the Withlacoochee River in Florida, and the Itchetucknee River, and to move it to a different crossing for the Santa Fe River, they should be enough to move it off the Suwannee River, where the conditions are quite similar.

In case anybody wondered whether Sabal Trail is watching the web for anything posted by its opponents, note where Sabal Trail said in its included 6 June 2016 letter to Mark R. Evans of the Corps that it first saw Sanford Bishop’s letter: Continue reading →

4610 foot explored cave at McIntyre Spring, Withlacoochee River, Georgia

Did you know there’s an almost mile-long cave system under the Withlacoochee River between Lowndes and Brooks Counties, Georgia? Valdosta cave-diver Guy Bryant wrote a fascinating in-depth blog about McIntyre Spring, including this map he drew, and the picture below of him in this cave system that starts in the river bottom.

There’s no land access, so don’t trespass. And don’t try to go in the cave even from boats unless you really know what you’re doing. It’s been visited by some of the most famous cave divers in the world, a couple of whom are no longer with us due to accidents in other underground caverns.

But do please go read Guy Bryant’s blog post. Continue reading →

Pictures of high school student photography contest winners, Serenity at Lime Run Spring

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Live Oak, June 4rd 2016 — The photographers of these inspirational pictures were themselves photographed by a local photographer.

“It’s so important to engage young people in respecting and appreciating nature. Hopefully they will want to protect it.” said Deanna Mericle, WWALS member from Hamilton County, who organized this contest along with Eileen Box of Suwannee County and the Live Oak Woman’s Club, two weeks ago in Live Oak, Florida. Continue reading →

Videos: Elected Officials see sinkholes where Sabal Trail would cross Suwannee River State Park 2016-05-15

You can see U.S. Congress member Ted Yoho FL-03 and a staffer for Sen. Bill Nelson discuss water, air, energy, growth, and past and future generations with local citizens environmental groups, including Suwannee County residents plainly saying they’re in the incineration zone. You can see for yourself sinkholes Sabal Trail omitted from what it told FERC. Soon we hope to see letters from Ted Yoho and Bill Nelson to the Corps and to FERC.

Below are links to the WWALS videos of the event, with many notes. For handouts, still pictures, and more information about this event of Sunday morning May 15th 2016, see Continue reading →

Sanford Bishop GA-02 requests Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement for Sabal Trail from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2016-05-27

Rep. Sanford Bishop GA-02 just stood up again against the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline invader, for the Flint River, the Floridan Aquifer, and his constituents in Albany, and Dougherty and Terrell Counties, pointing out FERC shouldn’t have issued a certificate before all the state Clean Water Act Section 401 permits were in, and asking for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

Many counties and county seats have passed resolutions against Sabal Trail I’m sure we’re all looking forward to similar requests from Austin Scott GA-07, in whose Congressional district Sabal Trail would cross Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee River, and in which Moultrie, Valdosta, and the counties of Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes passed resolutions against the pipeline. And especially from Ted Yoho FL-03, in whose district Sabal Trail would cross the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers through the most vulnerable recharge area of the Floridan Aquifer in the Florida Springs Heartland, and in which the counties of Hamilton, Suwannee, and Marion have already sent letters to the Corps, like Rep. Bishop just asked for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

We know the Corps did a SEIS for Keystone XL. The Corps should do a SEIS for Sabal Trail, so Continue reading →