Category Archives: creeks

PCS Phosphate Mine 2016-10-22

W across PCS Phosphate Mine, 30.4429360, -82.7851800 Is this what you want Bradford, Union, and other counties in Florida to look like? I wonder what effect this phosphate mine had on the much lowered water level of White Springs, or the Suwannee River?

The PCS Phosphate mine in Hamilton County near White Springs and Jasper spread under our Southwings plane while surveying the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline 22 October 2016. On board were Southwings pilot Roy Zimmer, photographer Dominick Gheesling, Jim Tatum of Our Santa Fe River, and John S. Quarterman of WWALS. Here are pictures by Jim Tatum, a few videos by John S. Quarterman, and a Google map showing the locations. Continue reading →

Brooks County Comprehensive Plan Workshop

More about that in a previous post.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Workshop, Greater Brooks 2030 Comprehensive Plan, 2017-02-07

First on the list of Areas Requiring Special Attention in Brooks County, Georgia:

  • Areas of significant natural or cultural resources, particularly where they are likely to be intruded upon or otherwise impacted by development; such as wetlands, groundwater recharge areas and river corridors.

/pictures/2007-01-01--brooks-compplan/[Map D-4 Water Resource Protection Districts]
Map D-4 Water Resource Protection Districts

According to Ariel Godwin of the Southern Georgia Regional Commission,

The next workshop for the Brooks County Comprehensive Plan will be:

Thursday, February 7th, 2017
9:30 a.m
Brooks County Commission Offices
610 South Highland Street, Quitman

In this workshop we will work on the Land Use Maps and Character Areas.

We are inviting you to participate to ensure Continue reading →

Okapilco Creek flooding @ GA 122 2017-01-23

Narrow Bridge 30.9955325, -83.6041529 Half a mile wide: Okapilco Creek one week ago on GA 122 between Barney and Pavo, Georgia.

Usually you have to peer down into the woods to see if you can see any water in the creek. After the recent storms, you could see water beside the highway half a mile before you got to the creek bridge.

WWALS video: Continue reading →

Tornado crosses Sabal Trail unfinished pipeline last night: time to report violations 2017-01-20

It’s time to photograph and report all potential Sabal Trail violations after last night’s storm. Pipeline construction should stop until damage can be independently assessed. I-75 is shut down, and so should Sabal Trail be.

Thats not daylight The sky was lit by lightning all night as a tornado killed two people in Brooks County and more in Cook County, Georgia. In between is Sabal Trail’s pipeline path across Okapilco Creek. I-75 is closed. What did that tornado do to the unfinished pipeline? What will all this water and wind do to all the Sabal Trail pipe exposed on top of the ground? What about that frac-out and sinkhole at Sabal Trail’s Withlacoochee River drilling only a short way downstream? What about Sabal Trail’s pipe going into that now probably waterlogged ream under the Suwannee River, or the Withlacoochee River South? What about Continue reading →

Tornado crosses Sabal Trail unfinished pipeline: more corrosion? 2017-01-20

It’s time to photograph and report all potential Sabal Trail violations after last night’s storm. Pipeline construction should stop until damage can be independently assessed. I-75 is shut down, and so should Sabal Trail be.

Thats not daylight The sky was lit by lightning all night as a tornado killed two people in Brooks County and more in Cook County, Georgia. In between is Sabal Trail’s pipeline path across Okapilco Creek. I-75 is closed. What did that tornado do to the unfinished pipeline? What will all this water and wind do to all the Sabal Trail pipe exposed on top of the ground? What about that frac-out and sinkhole at Sabal Trail’s Withlacoochee River drilling only a short way downstream? What about Sabal Trail’s pipe going into that now probably waterlogged ream under the Suwannee River, or the Withlacoochee River South? What about Continue reading →

Sabal Trail in Lowndes County, GA 2016-12-12

Sabal Trail’s 100-foot gouge makes the old pipeline right of way look like nothing, across Lowndes County, Georgia; pictures by John S. Quarterman for WWALS on 12 December 2016, with videos and a google map.

Troy Access signs start on Nankin Road shortly after you come up from Florida.

Rocky Ford Road is the most obvious pipeline crossing. You can see all the way to it from Barrett Coody Road. Continue reading →

Sabal Trail now drilling under Suwannee and 5 other rivers and creeks 2017-01-03

Sabal Trail is drilling pilot holes under the Tallapoosa River in Alabama and the Withlacoochee (south) River in Florida, according to its latest biweekly report filed today. HDD Construction (1 of 2) It’s already reaming a bigger hole under the Suwannee River in Florida and the Chattahoochee River at the Alabama-Georgia border, as well under Hillabee Creek and State Highway 22 in Alabama. Hillabee Creek seems to keep taking longer.

In Georgia, drilling is completed under Earth Dam, the Flint River, the Ochlockonee River, and the Withlacoochee River, and in Florida under the Santa Fe River, Shingle Creek, and Dyer Blvd.

Drilling has not started under Continue reading →

What WWALS Does: watershed advocacy from outings and water trails to wastewater and pipelines

Water trails, wastewater, corporate agriculture, solar power, fracking, and pipelines: WWALS works with many issues in many ways, as part of our advocacy for conservation and stewardship through education, awareness, environmental monitoring and activities such as our monthly paddle outings. McIntyre Spring snorkel 30.6416626, -83.3660889

Here’s an introduction to WWALS for the many new members and even more people following WWALS on facebook and twitter.

WWALS Watershed Coalition, or WWALS for short, is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation about everything related to water in the watersheds Continue reading →

Bevel Creek, not Beaty Creek, on Williams Road off Loch Laurel, Lowndes County, Georgia

Mystery finally solved of where is the road over what creek does Lowndes County Georgia want to replace a bridge?

Loch Laurel Road to Williams Road --Google Maps Item 6.b. Replacement of Beatty Creek Bridge on Williams Road, for yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session: where is this for the $634,800 low bid from Southern Concrete Construction of Albany, GA? There are two Williams Roads in Lowndes County and no Beaty Creek. In the north end of the county Cat Creek has a tributary Beatty Mill Creek, with a Williams Road running near it between Upper New Bethel Road and Beatty Mill Creek Road. But according to all the maps I can find, Williams Road does not cross Beatty Mill Creek.

So what exactly is it that the county wants to pay the low bidder $634,800 for? In the 8:30 AM Tuesday 25 April 2016 Work Session, Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker asked, “Where exactly is this?” Continue reading →