More about that in a previous post.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
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Brooks County Comprehensive Plan Workshop
Tag Archives: Okapilco Creek
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]](/pictures/2007-01-01--brooks-compplan/small/Brooks_County_Community_Assessment-0091.jpg)
Map D-4 Water Resource Protection Districts
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, QuitmanIn 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
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.
Condolences to the survivors of the recent storms
As our community begins the long path of recovery, WWALS Watershed Coalition extends deepest sympathy and condolences to those who have lost family, friends, possessions, and a sense of security in the recent storms and tornadoes.
The first two tornado fatalities were in Brooks County west of Barney,
with seven more in Cook County and two in Berrien County,
plus four in Dougherty County.
Lowndes County got off light this time, with nobody injured,
although there is extensive property damage in all these counties
and others.
Cook County Probate Court (Judge Chase Daughtrey) has set up a fund to which you can donate directly. That Court has also supplied contacts for other methods of donation: a bank account, and dropoff locations for school supplies. That page announces a memorial service tonight: 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.
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.
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
What is Sabal Trail sending into the WIthlacoochee River between Quitman and Valdosta, GA? WWALS PR 2016-11-09
Update 2016-11-14: GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD 2016-11-16
Update 2016-11-13:Sabal Trail still leaking drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River at US 84 in GA 2016-11-12
Update 2016-11-11: Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud up into the Withlacoochee River.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, GA, November 9th 2016 — Sabal Trail appears to have contradicted itself in its recent responses to WWALS, perhaps admitting it may be dumping drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River, which would explain the picture below of a black pipe coming from Sabal Trail’s Brooks County HDD site into the river. WWALS had to wait two weeks just to get those non-answers, so WWALS now asks for a written response by email tomorrow. In addition, at least two Sabal Trail yards (a contractor yard in Moultrie, GA and a pipe yard near Lake City, FL) appear never to have been approved by FERC.
About 2000 feet upstream (north) of the US 84 bridge.
Many more pictures here.
“FERC granted permission in less than a week for Continue reading
CY3-6 full less than a day after FERC approval: Sabal Trail Moultrie contractor yard 2016-10-22
Less than a day after FERC rubberstamped (or did it?) Sabal Trail’s request for a new contractor yard on the east side of Moultrie, Georgia, WWALS saw that yard already full of materials. Did Sabal Trail really move everything in that fast, or were those things already there, like the notorious Lake City, Florida pipe yard that never has gotten any formal FERC approval that we’ve seen?
Here’s what we saw from the Southwings flight for WWALS on Saturday October 22nd 2016:
Compare with the overview map Sabal Trail filed with its request to FERC of Monday October 17th 2016: Continue reading
Sabal Trail requests variance to Colquitt County, GA creek 2016-10-17
Monday Sabal Trail asked FERC
to
add a contractor yard in Colquitt County,
and to change routing
under a small stream.
No rush: Sabal Trail wants approval by tomorrow,
Thursday, October 20th 2016.
Presumably because they’re racing hell-for-leather to meet their May 2017
in-service drop-dead date, after which (according to FPL’s RFP)
they could forfeit a $200 million bond or lose the contract.
Here, courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), are Sabal Trail’s October 17th 2016 maps of that stream, plus Sabal Trail’s April 2016 maps of where it wants to cross the stream it flows into, Hog Creek and that stream’s downstream Okapilco Creek.
We’ve already seen where Sabal Trail is drilling under the Withlacoochee River between Valdosta and Quitman, Georgia and under the Suwannee River in Suwannee River State Park. Plus there’s an encampment of water protectors in Suwannee County.
Contractor Yard CY3-6
Continue readingAll 527 Sabal Trail alignment maps from April 2016
Courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, you can now see small, big, huge, and PDF versions of all 527 alignment maps Sabal Trail filed with FERC in April 2016: follow this link.
![[STA. 11870+00 TO STA. 11923+00, (UT OKAPILCO CREEK), 11881+44 CL SPAIN ROAD, 11871+70 CL GOLDING ROAD, BROOKS COUNTY, GEORGIA]](https://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/ferc/2016-04-07--stt-supp/small/20160407-5081-31369074-0012.jpg)
Having these maps online like this makes it easier to see what’s in them. Sabal Trail told FERC Okapilco Creek was not among the streams for which the Georgia legislature denied river-drilling easements (and for which Sabal Trail got the easements later anyway by suing the state in county Superior Courts). Yet Sabal Trail’s alignment maps from April 2016 seem to say that fracked methane pipeline crosses Okapilco Creek a couple of times in Brooks County, Georgia.
Here’s one of those times, in which the road names don’t match Continue reading