Update: 4610-foot explored cavern under McIntyre Spring.
Blue Spring between Quitman and Valdosta has been known since the settling of Brooks County, when it was used as a reference point in building roads starting in 1859. Here’s an early 20th century report, with a much later picture postcard (probably not the same building) and location map.
A Preliminary Report on the Underground Waters of Georgia, by S. W. McCallie, State Geologist, Continue reading
Your calls are working!
Sabal Trail’s allies failed three times to whip up
enough votes to pass this travesty.
Now please keep calling your state legislators and ask them to stay strong voting against SR 954 until Sabal Trail and Transco easements are taken out of it. It’s currently postponed until next Tuesday, March 22nd, so there’s time to call them through the weekend.
If Georgia Power, the EMCs, and GDOT want their easements, they should also be helping us strip Sabal Trail and Transco out of this bill. A fracked methane pipeline drilling under Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee, Ochlockonee, Flint, and Chatthahoochee Rivers is no advantage to anybody in Georgia. Or the Suwannee River in Florida: if you’re in Florida, you probably know somebody in Georgia you can ask to call their Georgia legislator.
If you missed it in Live Oak last night, or in one of the previous premieres along the Georgia coast,
you can see the movie online:
At What Cost? Pipelines, Pollution and Eminent Domain in the Rural South,
by Mark Albertin.
And yes, he’s happy for it to be shown elsewhere; just ask.
Thanks to Push Back the Pipeline for getting this movie made about Kinder Morgan’s proposed petroleum products pipeline from South Carolina across the Georgia coast to Jacksonville, Florida. Special thanks to Eileen, Lori, and Debra and the Woman’s Club of Live Oak for the movie showing last night, and to SpectraBusters, Our Santa Fe River, and Gulf Restoration Network for helping promote it. Don’t forget the hike to the Suwannee River Sabal Trail crossing 8:15 AM Thursday 28 February 2016 with Suwannee and Hamilton County Commissioners.
Most of the issues are the same for the invading Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline which Continue reading
Please join us for a documentary about property rights and the environment vs. pipelines (PDF; facebook event; meetup event). Yes, FERC has issued certificates for Sabal Trail, but the fight is not over.
When: 6:30 PM Friday February 12th
Where: Live Oak Womans Club,
1308 11TH St SW, Live Oak, FL 32064
What:
View the film:
“At What Cost? Pipelines, Pollution and Eminent Domain in the
Rural South”
A documentary film by Mark Albertin
Video Trailer
Thanks: to Push Back the Pipeline for getting this movie made
This film is about the Kinder Morgan petroleum products Palmetto Pipeline proposed across coastal Georgia to Jacksonville, but the issues are the same for Spectra Energy’s proposed fracked methane Sabal Trail pipeline from Continue reading
EPA stepped back, while opposition ramps up against Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline
Hahira and Albany, Georgia, December 18, 2015— (PDF) Mysteriously contradicting a substantive October letter from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 in Atlanta, a different EPA branch last Friday sent a brief and sketchy letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uncritically accepting what Sabal Trail’s attorney’s told it, even as multiple environmental and landowner organizations filed objections with the Corps and multiple state agencies against that invading natural gas pipeline.
Tim Carroll, Valdosta City Council member, said, “I don’t understand how EPA and FERC can say there will not be a negative impact on our environment, aquifer, streams and rivers. A number of experts testified and spoke up saying the likelihood is very high that there could be damage to the aquifer and the environment. Why would we want to allow this to happen, to run the risk of seriously degrading one of the best water resources in the world.,” Valdosta, Moultrie, and Albany, the three biggest cities along the pipeline path in Georgia, all passed resolutions against Sabal Trail, as did the counties of Terrell, Dougherty, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes, in Georgia, and Hamilton and Suwannee Counties in Florida.
“The one government agency actually defending our drinking in the Floridan Aquifer and the many rivers in Georgia and Florida just stifled itself,” Continue reading
The invading pipeline would pass within about one mile of Clyattville Elementary School
where it would cross
Clyatt Mill Creek and then Railroad Avenue, at about
30.680638, -83.326501.
This would be after crossing the Withlacoochee River from Brooks into Lowndes Counties just north of US 84, and before crossing Jumping Gulley Creek and the state line into Hamilton County Florida, where the hearing was held in Jennings for WWALS v. Sabal Trail & FDEP.
You can see the general route in the Cover Map. After crossing the Withlacoochee River, Sabal Trail would cross Martin Lane and Tiger Creek, then Continue reading
Giving away state land rights under the Chattahoochee, Flint, Ochlockonee, and Withlacoochee Rivers Wednesday in Atlanta,
far from any of the rivers or counties affected,
that’s what GA-DNR has on its agenda.
Land Committee – Tab D
Dwight Davis, Chairman
Members: Mobley, Vt Chairman, Bagwell, Evans, Jones, Leebern, Phelps, Sawhill, Shailendra
- Granting of Revocable License Agreements and Permanent Easements totaling 0.27± acres by the State Properties Commission and General Assembly to Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC to install and maintain a natural gas pipeline under navigable waters of the State, Stewart, Dougherty, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties
When, where, and who (PDF): Continue reading
The main point:
“I’ve got an independent route: let’s cancel this pipeline, and the Sunshine State should go directly to solar power.”
Here’s the video: Continue reading
A paddle so brief we went past and had to float back
down the Withlacoochee River
to
where the Sabal Trail pipeline proposes to cross.
Winnie Wright of WCTV interviewed us at the US 84 bridge median while we were preparing to put in; don’t know if it aired.
Update 2015-08-28: WCTV story online.
See previous post for pictures of the put-in. It has everything: steep rocks, thorny Smilax vines, poison ivy, and wasp stings! Yes, this is Continue reading
Halfway between Quitman and Valdosta, the Withlacoochee River
forms the border between
Brooks and Lowndes Counties, Georgia.
Parking on the median on the east, Lowndes County, side, you can climb down the highway rocks and down a creek bed to the river. Continue reading