Tag Archives: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Okefenokee news in the Georgia runoff elections 2020-12-29

The mine and the Swamp and the Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs are in the news, in the Albany Herald, the Saporta Report, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, plus my op-ed last week in the Valdosta Daily Times.

You can also contact the governor, the runoff candidates, and other elected officials:
https://wwals.net/?p=54109#howtocomment

For why, see the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen.

[Mine, Swamp, River, Bird]
Mine, Swamp, River, Bird

So far, the only statement we’ve seen from any Georgia runoff candidate is in the AJC article:

Jenni Sweat, a spokeswoman for Perdue, said the office received regular updates on the Twin Pines project as they do with many other Corps projects. “This presents an economic development opportunity in rural Southeast Georgia that local officials support, and our office has monitored its status through the federal and state regulatory process,” said Sweat in a statement.

Let’s also hear from the other U.S. Senate candidates, Jon Ossoff, Kelly Loeffler, and Raphael Warnock. And let’s hear from candidates for Public Service Commission, Daniel Blackman, and Lauren Bubba McDonald. If nothing else, the miners will probably want more electric power for their mine site, so that makes it a PSC issue, too.

Albany Herald

Staff reports, Albany Herald, 29 December 2020, Environmental groups ask governor to stop mine near Okefenokee,

HAHIRA — Environmental groups, including the Suwannee Riverkeeper and the WWALS Watershed Coalition, have sent a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp asking him to stop the proposed titanium strip mine from being allowed within a few miles of the Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia and north Florida.

The letter, which lays out evidence to support the groups’ request, states: Continue reading →

Twin Pines Minerals mining equipment still on site near Okefenokee Swamp 2020-02-13

The miners didn’t go away from their site near the Okefenokee Swamp after they withdrew their permit application, so expect another application soon.

[Equipment zoom]
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS, Equipment zoom 2020-02-12.

The miners said they would be back, in Mining company withdraws permit application for project near Okefenokee by Nedra Rhone, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 9, 2020,

“In an effort to be even more conservative in our approach than we were in our initial application, we have agreed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the size of the permit area and resubmit new documentation for Continue reading →

Twin Pines Minerals withdraws application to strip-mine near Okefenokee 2020-02-07

They could resubmit at any time. But for now, the Alabama mining company that is already under a Florida Consent Order along with Chemours for four mines in north Florida, Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) has withdrawn its application to mine in Georgia near the Okefenokee Swamp, the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Marys Rivers.

[Tribal Grounds west along GA 94 to TPM equipment, 12:38:38, 30.5257540, -82.0411100]
Photo: John S. Quarterman for https://wwals.net/blog/?p=51549&preview=trueWWALS, Tribal Grounds west along GA 94 to TPM equipment, 12:38:38, 30.5257540, -82.0411100, on Southwings flight for Suwannee Riverkeeper, pilot Allen Nodorft, 2019-10-05.

Nedra Rhone, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 7, 2020, BREAKING: Mining company withdraws permit application for project near Okefenokee,

Twin Pines Minerals, the Alabama-based company that hopes to mine acres of land near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, has withdrawn its permit application, said Billy E. Birdwell, spokesman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Savannah district.

Continue reading →

Moody dummy bomb report from Suwannee Springs –WCTV 2019-07-02

Will Moody AFB find the dummy bombs an A-10C Warthog dropped near Suwannee Springs the other day?

[Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't]
Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t

Moody AFB said sometimes they search for them, and sometimes they don’t, depending on an ongoing safety examination.

[Location Map]
Location Map

That is as reported by Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 2 July 2019, Moody jet hits bird, drops 3 dummy bombs over N. Florida.

She also interviewed me.

What else is in it? What are the pyrotechnics? What kind of environmental damage could it cause? We don’t really know. We’d like to know.

[Doesn't encourage people to get on the rivers]
Doesn’t encourage people to get on the rivers

Continue reading →

AJC at Moody AFB about groundwater contamination 2018-12-07

A month ago at Beatty Branch:

“Everything in this area depends on groundwater,” said John Quarterman, the Suwannee Riverkeeper in Lowndes County, where Moody is located. “I’m not saying that Moody necessarily did make enough contamination to be a problem, but I can’t tell from this report, and I don’t think it’s our responsibility to determine that they didn’t.”

[Photographer Hyosub Shin and Reporter Meris Lutz]
Photographer Hyosub Shin and Reporter Meris Lutz, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, online today and in Sunday’s Atlanta paper newspaper, Contaminated groundwater, a toxic legacy of Georgia’s air bases, 3 January 2019.

Moody Air Force Base tested their own wells, and found them clean. Which is good, but

[Figure 2 AFFF Area Locations]
Figure 2 AFFF Area Locations
PDF

their wells are much deeper than the wells the rest of us use in the country around here. Moody did not test any of those wells; Continue reading →

DNR board ignores people of Georgia, unanimously approves invading Sabal Trail pipeline easements for Withlacoochee and other rivers

DNR board unanimously gave away river crossings to Sabal Trail for the Withlacoochee, Ochlockonee, Flint, and Chattahoochee Rivers. But the legislature would also have to approve, and the AJC just turned this obscure board meeting into an earned media event for pipeline opponents.


VALDOSTA: Professor Don Thieme, Valdosta State University, checks the water color and clarity in a sinkhole called Shadrick’s Pond by the Withlacoochee River. The sinkhole is near the site of a proposed pipeline that would cross the Withlacoochee River. Curtis Compton / ccompton@ajc.com
See video.

Dan Chapman, AJC, 23 September 2015, South Georgia pipeline moves forward,

The proposed Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline cleared another regulatory hurdle Wednesday with state approval for the pipeline to pass under five Southwest Georgia rivers and creeks.

The unanimous vote by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ board doesn’t sanction the pipeline to run 157 miles across Georgia while crossing the Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee and Ochlocknee rivers. Additional state and federal reviews, and votes, are necessary before digging begins.

Pipeline opponents, though, hoped that the board would slow Sabal Trail’s seemingly inexorable push to deliver gas to Florida. They cited ongoing safety, environmental and property rights concerns held by thousands of Southwest Georgia residents.

Those opponents included Continue reading →

AJC video: Proposed Natural Gas Pipeline Through 9 Counties

Most people are opposed to the Sabal Trail pipeline, as the Colquitt County landowner says. Drilling in our fragile karst limestone “could potentially carry any contamination down into our groundwater source”, as VSU Geology Prof. Don Thieme says. Why should we risk that for profit for companies from somewhere else and no benefit for here?

Atlanta Journal Constitution, Proposed Natural Gas Pipeline Through 9 Counties, Continue reading →

South Georgia pipeline plan fuels fight –AJC

Atlanta is surrounded by pipelines, says the AJC reporter and photographer who came to to Dougherty, Colquitt, and Lowndes Counties in February.

Dan Chapman, AJC, 3 April 2015, South Georgia pipeline plan fuels fight,

300x225 Dan Chapman and Don Thieme at Cherry Creek Sink, in Sinkholes near the Withlacoochee River, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 18 February 2015 Valdosta — Southwest Georgia is roiling mad over a proposed gas pipeline to Florida that virtually nobody in Atlanta, except Ted Turner, has heard about.

Electric Light & Power has more of the text: Continue reading →

Shadrick and Cherry Creek Sinks on the Withlacoochee River near Valdosta

300x225 Don Thieme and Dan Chapman at Shadrick Sinkhole, in Sinkholes near the Withlacoochee River, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 18 February 2015 Yesterday Prof. Don Thieme, WWALS member Dan Coleman, and I showed a reporter around some sinkholes near the Withlacoochee River, including one that’s been there for decades, leaking into the Floridan Aquifer, and one that opened up within a couple of months only a few years ago.

Dan Coleman says Shadrick Sinkhole has been there probably at least Continue reading →