Category Archives: Sink

Karst Hazard Mitigation, George C. Fisher to Lowndes County Commission 2026-10-13

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George Fisher sent this paper, asking for WWALS to publish it before he presents it to the Lowndes County Commission at their Regular Session this evening, Tuesday, October 13, 2026, at 5:30 PM, 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 30601.

https://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/?p=26113

You can also come speak in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.

Since George’s paper is about water issues, I’m posting it.

George is not a WWALS member, and all opinions in his document are his.

[Karst Hazard Mitigation, George C. Fisher, to Lowndes County Commission, 2026-10-13]
Karst Hazard Mitigation, George C. Fisher, to Lowndes County Commission, 2026-10-13

[To:] Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Meeting
October 13, 2026
George C. Fisher
Subject: Karst Hazard Mitigation

Map of Karst Locations in the US (Epstein et al 2002)

Proposed Action Request

Continue reading →

Ridge Road, River Chase Drive 2026-09-27, and Camelot Crossing Sinkholes 2022-08-29

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Update 2026-10-10: Camelot Crossing Paperwork for Acceptance of Infrastructure @ LCC 2026-06-23.

Here are still more sinkholes near North Valdosta Road and the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County, Georgia.

[River Chase Drive Sinkhole, Ridge Road Sinkhole 2026-09-27, Camelot Crossing Sinkholes, South, NE, and North 2022-08-29]
River Chase Drive Sinkhole, Ridge Road Sinkhole 2026-09-27, Camelot Crossing Sinkholes, South, NE, and North 2022-08-29

Let’s start with the Camelot Crossing subdivision, which recently got notices of violation from GA-EPD.

On the Site Plan of August 29, 2022, there are three “FLAGGED ISOLATED WETLAND”s. Looking through satellite image history in Google Earth Pro, those sure look like sinkholes, with water even in droughts. Continue reading →

Two Notices of Violation on Camelot Crossing –GA-EPD 2026-10-07

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2026-10-08: Ridge Road, River Chase Drive, and Camelot Crossing Sinkholes 2026-09-27.

GA-EPD issued two Notices of Violation on the Camelot Crossing subdivision, presumably related to the pump and pipe into a sinkhole on the neighboring YMCA property.

We can’t yet see what pictures were submitted with the complaint, but it’s a safe bet they included the ones I sent GA-EPD about that site.

https://wwals.net/?p=71105

[Two Notices of Violation on Camelot Crossing about pipe to neighbor sinkhole --GA-EPD 2026-10-07]
Two Notices of Violation on Camelot Crossing about pipe to neighbor sinkhole –GA-EPD 2026-10-07

Received today from Lisa Myler, Southwest District Office, Environmental Protection Division:

Gates Rodimon, a specialist in this office, inspected the two permitted construction activities at this site. Both inspection reports were issued as Notices of Violation.

As for the pumping situation, we were able to determine that Mike Fletcher with Lowndes County may have additional information for you. I have copied him on this email. The pumping was reported to be associated with completion of a permitted lift station supporting this development.

At the moment, the complaint is still open so you will only be able to see basic information. Once the complaint has been closed, you will be able to see the full record here: https://cts.gaepd.org/Complaint/118252

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks,

Continue reading →

Hike to Dead River Sink 2026-11-07

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Approximately 3 mile hike on the Dead River and the dry Alapaha River bed. Initial meetup at Jennings Bluff cemetery. Short stop there where we will climb down a steep bank to explore a spring. Then a drive into public lands to Dead River Sink where we will hike out to the Alapaha River and hike the river bed.

When: Gather 9:30 AM, launch 9:30 AM, end 1 PM, Saturday, November 7, 2026

Put In: Jennings Bluff Cemetery. End of NW 25th Lane, Jennings, FL 32053, on the right, in Hamilton County.

GPS: 30.56693, -83.035297

[Hike to Dead River Sink and Alapaha River 2026-11-07, Jennings Bluff Spring, Dennis J. Price, P.G.]
Hike to Dead River Sink and Alapaha River 2026-11-07, Jennings Bluff Spring, Dennis J. Price, P.G.

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Bettys Place Sinkhole 2026-09-22

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There was a sinkhole on Bettys Place in the Val Del Villas subdivision. It got filled in several times, but there are signs of subsidence next door.

It’s not clear how much attention Lowndes County paid to subsidence in this sinkhole-prone area.

[Bettys Place Sinkhole, Val Del Villas subdivision, History of Lowndes County, GA, Rezoning, Infrastructure, & more houses]
Bettys Place Sinkhole, Val Del Villas subdivision, History of Lowndes County, GA, Rezoning, Infrastructure, & more houses

Neighbor Rachel Armstrong says that “It opened as a melon-sized hole in the road where the water drainage spot is for the street.” Continue reading →

Aquifers: Surficial, Upper Floridan Aquifer, and sinkholes 2015-04-08

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When you drill a well in the Suwannee River Basin, what water do you get?

Early settlers could dig a well by hand 20-40 feet deep and get enough water. That’s the Surficial Aquifer, which is groundwater in sandy soils near the surface, below the water table. That’s not so easy now, after decades of agricultural and industrial well pumping.

Drill deeper and you’re into the Upper Floridan Aquifer, which is water in cracks and caverns in karst limestone. Or that aquifer may reach to the surface in a spring, as in a few spots in south Georgia and many in north central Florida.

Or the ground may collapse into the aquifer, in a sinkhole. How often do sinkholes happen, and under what conditions? Well, we don’t know in Lowndes County, Georgia, because the county has never studied it. I don’t know of any other counties that have studied this problem. Alachua County, Florida, at least has a factsheet.
https://alachuacounty.us/Depts/EPD/Documents/Natural/sinkhole%20fact%20sheet%20062112.pdf
But it doesn’t seem to reference any systematic study.

Few wells go deeper than the Upper Floridan Aquifer, but there is also a Lower Floridan Aquifer, and in some places, more aquifers even below that.

[Surficial Aquifer, Upper Floridan Aquifer, Sinkholes and Springs, Lower Floridan Aquifer]
Surficial Aquifer, Upper Floridan Aquifer, Sinkholes and Springs, Lower Floridan Aquifer

These figures are from USGS Professional Paper 1807, Revised April 8, 2015, “Revised Hydrogeologic Framework of the Floridan Aquifer System in Florida and Parts of Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina,” by Lester J. Williams and Eve L. Kuniansky.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1807/

How deep? In Lowndes County, maybe 100 feet deep, maybe less, and you’re into the Upper Floridan Aquifer.

In Irwin County, Georgia, where a hyper-scale AI datacenter has been permitted, anywhere from almost zero to 200 feet, depending on where. Continue reading →

Lowndes County did no groundwater sinkhole study, yet asserts there have been only five sinkholes in the past 75 years 2026-09-25

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Lowndes County may start doing a ground study of sinkholes in 2027, after not doing one that should have wrapped up in 2021.

How can the county write an effective datacenter ordinance with no study of sinkholes in the karst-limestone underlying Lowndes County? Sinkholes such as have sunk a county road and forced Valdosta to dig its water wells deeper?

As the county’s recently-adopted Hazard Mitigation Plan says on page 71,

The region immediately north and northwest of the City of Valdosta is an active, heavily documented covered-karst zone. Because the overlying soil and sand layers are relatively thin or permeable here, acidic rainwater and river overflow rapidly dissolve the underlying limestone. This causes high sinkhole susceptibility. Places like Snake Nation Road northwest of Valdosta have suffered severe road-swallowing sinkholes because of this collapsing bedrock.

That is the region with the rezoned M-1 property likely for a hyper-scale AI datacenter.

[Lowndes County did no groundwater sinkhole study, yet says there were only five sinkholes in the past 75 years]
Lowndes County did no groundwater sinkhole study, yet says there were only five sinkholes in the past 75 years

The new Hazard Mitigation Plan that the county adopted on September 22, 2026, asserts that only five sinkholes have been reported between January 1, 1950, and July 31, 2026.

I have personally seen more new sinkholes than that in the past dozen or so years. Including the Rustic Ridge Road sinkhole that County Manager Paige Dukes refered to as “a cavern” yet is not included in this Plan’s list of sinkholes. Also the Cherry Creek Sink that appeared in the Withlacoochee River within a few months in 2013. And the sinkhole under a garage on Norman Hall Road that formed around 2012.

Yet the Lowndes County Commissioners and Staff plan to complete a datacenter ordinance before their 60-day datacenter moratorium expires on October 16, 2026.

How can Lowndes County write a proper ordinance that takes into account sinkholes when, as the Plan also says:

The risk of developing caverns underground and close to the surface is unknown in Lowndes County. In southern Lowndes County, several sizable lakes formed from sinkholes. Smaller sinkholes have occurred in Valdosta. Because data and analysis are lacking, the true risk is unknown.

On September 25, 2026, I sent an open records request to Lowndes County: Continue reading →

Apparently no effect of dirty milk water spill downstream to Pride Branch 2026-09-25

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Update 2026-10-03: Clean Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Santa Fe Rivers before rains 2026-10-02.

Update 2026-09-27: Why spoiled milk into Lakeland oxidation pond? 2026-06-12.

Two days after the dirty milk water spill on US 84 into the Bowen Mill Pond branch of Pride Branch, the downstream landowner wrote on September 25, 2026:

I have kept a close eye on this branch, the deep Purdue Sinks, pond at River of Hope all fed from Pride branch and so far I’ve not noticed any physical impact on these waters from the dirty milk spill.

[Apparently no effect 2026-09-25, of dirty milk water spill 2026-09-23, downstream to Pride Branch, upstream of Piscola and Okapilco Creeks]
Apparently no effect 2026-09-25, of dirty milk water spill 2026-09-23, downstream to Pride Branch, upstream of Piscola and Okapilco Creeks

Of course there could be effects that are not visible. Milk could change the dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water, but apparently it did not do that enough to cause a fish kill, which would be noticeable.

Bob Gufford owns the property outlined in yellow in the map above from the Brooks County Tax Assessors.

The spill was on US 84 at Refuge of Hope, seen in the left of the map, into the pond Bob mentions, then through the branch that runs along his south property line, into Pride Branch proper, which is on the right of the map.

I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing the Purdue Sinks are the depressions south of the triangle property, even more visible in this Google Earth Pro map from March 11, 2026, when water levels were even lower than now.

Notice what appears to be another sinkhole in the field north of US 84, on the left of the map. Continue reading →

Camelot Crossing Drainage Pipe into neighboring Sinkhole 2026-08-23

Update 2026-10-07: Two Notices of Violation on Camelot Crossing –GA-EPD 2026-10-07.

Why did somebody at the Camelot Crossing subdivision run a pipe from a big pump by their detention pond across onto somebody else’s property into a sinkhole?

This is in an aquifer recharge zone, which means that water will come back up somewhere else. It may be an externality to the developers, but it’s not to the rest of us.

If Lowndes County can’t prevent a developer from doing this, how would it be able to stop a trillion-dollar hyperscale datacenter AI company from violating conditions on its property?

[Camelot Crossing Drainage Pipe 2026-08-23 into neighboring Sinkhole, not same owner]
Camelot Crossing Drainage Pipe 2026-08-23 into neighboring Sinkhole, not same owner

I didn’t take these pictures, but I have gone by there and seen the pump and the pipe.

Here’s that pipe in a drone overflight video:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSYNf0GvJWSM&si=w8_CxATWVR2Jg13p Continue reading →

Camelot Crossing subdivision water issues @ Lowndes County Commission 2026-06-23

Update 2026-09-19 Camelot Crossing Drainage Pipe into neighboring Sinkhole 2026-08-23.

Lowndes County Commissioners had little discussion about water issues for the Camelot Crossing subdivision, considering the site has at least wetlands and probably sinkholes on it, and next to it, and is located in an aquifer recharge zone.

They also never satisfied a requirement county staff noted for the subdivision to have two means of ingress and egress.

Here’s a walk through the rezoning and related processes in Lowndes County for the Camelot Crossing subdivision.

[Camelot Crossing subdivision, Sinkholes, Aquifer recharge, Draining, No second egress @ GLPC & LCC 2022-2026]
Camelot Crossing subdivision, Sinkholes, Aquifer recharge, Draining, No second egress @ GLPC & LCC 2022-2026

This information is drawn from posts and videos by Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

March 2022

Camelot Crossing appeared in the board packet for the March 28, 2022, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC).

https://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/2022/04/hahira-withdrawn-4-valdosta-3-lowndes-glpc-2022-03-28.html

The agenda sheet, written by county staff, notes, “The property is within a medium groundwater recharge area, and contains large areas of wetlands, which act as natural dividers between the proposed zoning districts.” Continue reading →