Not the answer I was looking for, but GA-EPD is still by far the most responsive agency regarding Sabal Trail.
Lisa Myler of GA-DNR called back Friday about 7PM saying Tom Fowler had been to the Okapilco Creek Sabal Trail sinkhole site I reported.
I called her back Monday, and after DNR’s web server came back up she forwarded Tom Fowler’s report today: Continue reading
Update 2017-09-21: Yes, I reported it to GA-EPD, et al. (PDF), and here are facebook photos of most of the images below.
How close to exposed is Sabal Trail’s pipe? This sinkhole is at least a foot deep, maybe two or more, and Sabal Trail only buried their pipe three feet deep, despite requests by Brooks, Colquitt, and Lowndes Counties to bury it deeper.
Is that fill material exposed Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Adel, Georgia, June 4, 2017 — Dwight Griner of Berrien County, Georgia won for the fifth time. A dozen other boats received prizes, as a record number of people paddled in the Fifth Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race, April 29, 2017. Tifton and Tift County had the most paddlers, but the awards show more boats from Moultrie and Colquitt County. Lowndes had the second most paddlers, and there were two people each from Cook and from far-away Houston and Harris Counties, and one from Thomas County.
This year’s BLRPR included three popular new attractions: Continue reading
Here are a few pictures (also on facebook) and videos (video playlist) from the
Fifth Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race.
Later you’ll see pictures of each winner coming in and being awarded. Winners posted, plus news coverage.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Check in at Red Roberts Landing 31.1920876, -83.5208021
Scott James had already been talking to WWALS Outings Chair Phil Hubbard
about the
BIG Little River Paddle Race Saturday morning at Reed Bingham State Park,
so he knew some good questions to ask on his Talk 92.1 FM Radio show this morning.
Scott also had this morning’s Valdosta Daily Times, which
has a nice writeup on the paddle race on the top of page 5A.
Remember to register online or at the event Saturday morning. On-site registration is at Red Roberts Landing, from Exit 41 on I-75.
You do not have to actually race, you can just paddle. But the long-time winner has some real competition this year, with multiple people training seriously to win that $50 first place prize. You could win one of many other prizes, for young, old, male, female, or single, double, or triple kayak or canoe.
Come on down and paddle, eat the lunch grilled by Phil Hubbard, and bid in the silent auction!
And you can get tickets for the kayak raffle, either at the race or online.
Here’s the video: Continue reading
At least three people are seriously training for the Fifth Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race. Maybe it won’t be the usual winner this time! Plus there are prizes in a wide range of categories (solo, double, male, female, ages, etc.) this Saturday April 29th, at Reed Bingham State Park between Adel and Moultrie, GA.
I’ll be on the radio 8AM this Thursday April 27th talking about that and related matters, such as WWALS is now also Suwannee Riverkeeper, with Scott James on his Talk 92.1 drive-time radio show, out of Valdosta, Georgia.
When: 8AM, Thursday, April 27, 2017
Where: You can listen on the air, or through the radio show’s own website, or through several online listening services.
Register: Don’t forget to register for the paddle race, either online or at the event. Continue reading
And they followed her down the road, as Sabal Trail’s hardhats usually do
when they see anybody watching their trail of destruction.
This was Wednesday 25 January 2017 on Cool Springs Road, Baconton, GA,
31.306085, -84.008770.
Pictures and video by Sherry Layton Gatewood: they didn’t scare her off, and they haven’t scared off the many other people throughout Florida, Georgia, and Alabama who are watching them like hawks, looking for violations.
Kind of hard to get to your fields to do agriculture with this in the way.
After the recent storms, water is standing on Sabal Trail’s
exotic invasive planted grasses, and sometimes on bare dirt,
some of it apparently eroded, in Colquitt County, Georgia
west of Moultrie towards Mitchell County.
Remember, that 3-foot fracked methane pipe is only 3 feet under the surface.
It wouldn’t take much erosion to expose it, increasing likelihood of corrosion,
leak, break, explosion, etc.
These pictures were taken Continue reading
The city of Moultrie also had a small wastewater spill Sunday during the storm, but it was tiny compared to Valdosta’s, and Moultrie’s WTP is on the Ochlockonee River, not in the Suwannee River Basin.
Like
Tifton,
Moultrie’s wastewater operator is not listed on Moultrie’s city website,
because its Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) is operated by the same private contractor,
ESG Operations, Inc.
That arrangement was announced in June 2015,
shortly before major Moultrie WWTF improvements by RTD Construction were announced in September 2015.
Pretty quickly I got through to Bryan Roland, Project Manager, who said yes, Continue reading
Georgia EPD found Sabal Trail out of its right of way at Okapilco Creek in Brooks County,
and an enforcement action is being prepared.
This was while investigating the
possible wetlands and water violations reported by WWALS.
So reports do sometimes work, although sometimes for violations different
than the ones you thought you were reporting.
Update 21 Dec 2016: Please report potential violations.
This afternoon GA-EPD called me to provide a preliminary report on what they found when they inspected the possible violations WWALS reported December 8th 2016. The call came from Tommy W. Fowler, Program Manager, Southwest District, Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD). These are my notes on what he said, in order from the WWALS complaint filing: Continue reading
![[Dwight Griner winner closeup]](/pictures/2017-04-29--blrpr-hubbard/dwight-crop.jpg)