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.

USGS warns Withlacoochee River already leaks into Floridan Aquifer

There’s a reason Valdosta’s water wells are 400 feet deep. Its earlier, shallower wells were sucking up Withlacoochee River water that still leaks into groundwater. Should we risk a fracked methane pipeline digging under that same river and possibly causing more sinkholes and underground movement of contaminants, some perhaps coming from the pipeline itself or its demands for pressure testing water?

Sustainability of Ground-water Resources, by William M. Alley Thomas E. Reilly O. Lehn Franke, 1 January 1999, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey – Publisher. In Box E on Page 63:

The Connection Between Surface-Water Quality and Ground-Water Quality in a Karst Aquifer


Figure E-1. Estimated percentage of Withlacoochee River water in ground water in the Upper Floridan aquifer, June 1991. (Modified from Plummer and others, 1998.)
The Upper Floridan aquifer, which is the sole source of water supply for Valdosta, Georgia, and much of the surrounding area, receives large volumes of direct discharge from the Withlacoochee River through sinkholes in the streambed or off-channel. A highly interconnected conduit system has developed Continue reading →

Sabal Trail trying to avoid Withlacoochee River

Chris Mericle got the appended letter from Sabal Trail through Congressman Yoho’s office (FL-03). -jsq

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Norfleet, Jessica
Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 10:41 AM
Subject: FW: Comment on Filing submitted in FERC PF14-1-000 by Individual No Affiliation,et al.

Here is the context of the information I just spoke to you about,

Jessica and Clay, I want to provide you a quick heads up regarding the Withlacoochee River crossing. Continue reading →

DuPont withdraws permit application for Jesup mine –Riverkeepers and Greenlaw

Land use planning can make even a $60 billion market cap company think again about a mine in our sensitive karst limestone aquifer. details here. Greenlaw pictures here. -jsq

Press Release

For Immediate Release: August 27, 2014

Public Outcry Against Proposed Mine Continues to Grow, Mining Company Withdraws Permit Application

JESUP, GA-After hundreds of local residents, conservation groups, and elected officials expressed concerns Continue reading →

Resolution No. 14-10, Hamilton County, FL, 19 August 2014

Other Florida, Georgia, and Alabama counties could do what Hamilton County, Florida just did in this this resolution. Even before it got this resolution, FERC yesterday directed Sabal Trail to deal with what Chris Mericle had been saying, including proposing routes to minimize crossing the Withlacoochee River or to avoid crossing it entirely.

Chris Mericle sent a PDF copy of the resolution with its attached hydrogeological report. I’ve added links to the other referenced documents.

Chris is the local host for the September WWALS Outing on the Withalacoochee and Suwannee Rivers, where you can come float past that same area Sunday 21 September, and see many local springs, sinkholes and shoals that need to be protected from that pipeline.

RESOLUTION NO. 14-10

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
HAMILTON COUNTY, FLORIDA Continue reading →

Alapaha River @ US 84: endpoint of Sunday’s WWALS Outing 24 August 2014

Chris Graham took this picture a week ago of the Alapaha River at US 84, where tomorrow’s WWALS Outing will end up. Come join us on this gem of a blackwater rural river! We’re boating the central area of the in-progress Alapaha River Trail, tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, August 24st 2014.

Meet up at 1:30 at Hotchkiss Crossing on the Lanier County side.

We will drop the boats off, drive the end point at US 84, on a public right of way, where the road is gravel.

Get on water at 2:00.

We will pass by the location for the new Lowndes County boat ramp and public access point. This is a relatively short paddle, about 1.27 miles, but it could take as long as 2 hours if the water level stays low.

This event is FREE! All we ask is that Continue reading →

Nestle and Madison Blue Springs

That magic word “jobs” sucked up water from one of north Florida’s most famous springs: Madison Blue Spring, very familiar to many people from south Georgia. Will it do the same about a pipeline?

Joseph Trento wrote for DC Bureau 20 July 2009, Nestlé: Draining America Bottle By Bottle: How Nestlé Got Millions and Millions of Dollars From a $230 Permit. Continue reading →

Atlantic Sunrise: Williams fracking pipeline through Sabal Trail to LNG export in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and elsewhere

Fracked methane would come from Pennsylvania across our Withlacoochee River twice to LNG export in Florida, and many other rivers and aquifers would have the same problem throughout North America, as would domestic natural gas users as LNG export drives prices up, and local and state taxpayers having to clean up after insufficiently-insured pipeline companies. All the named coastal arrows on this map from Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise project in Pennsylvania branch off from Williams Transco to LNG export operations:

Continue reading →

Cross the Suwannee River: Sabal Trail permit application with FL-DEP

After an application for an exemption for the Withlacoochee River and the Santa Fe River, here’s Sabal Trail’s application to drill under the Suwannee River in between. Should we also expect an “HDD CROSSING” permit application for the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers? And watch out, The Villages in Sumter County, Florida! Sabal Trail has applied for a permit in your county, too. Continue reading →

Flint Riverkeeper to GA Senate Aquifer Storage Study Committee

The same Floridan Aquifer underlies the Flint River, and our Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and other rivers, all of Florida, and across south Georgia all the way to the coast, where Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, explained it to the Georgia Senate’s Long-Term Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Study Committee, 4 August 2014 on Jekyll Island. The ASR idea of pumping treated water into the ground for later retrieval is a bad idea, as Gordon spelled out.

See especially this part in Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers’ Comments to the Senate ASR Study Committee,

In central south GA, eastern and coastal GA, Floridan water is thousands of years old, quite pristine, and is so slow to recharge that essentially it does not recharge in comparison to human uses.

Remember, the Flint River basin where the Georgia legislature keeps trying to implement ASR is the next one to the west Continue reading →