Tag Archives: quality

Dust Storm on Lakeland Sands land in Hamilton County, FL

300x225 Dust right up to dirt road, in Dust Storm on Lakeland Sands land in Hamilton County, FL, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 25 March 2014 Received yesterday. -jsq

These pictures are of a dust storm that occurred earlier this year. The dust is from Bill Gates’ farms. Look closely, there is a power transmission tower in the picture. Continue reading

Hamilton County, FL and Bill Gates

300x265 Parcel 5069-010 aerial, in Lakeland Sands and Bill Gates in Hamilton County, FL, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 25 October 2014 Two dozen agricultural parcels owned by a shell of a shell of a shell company investing for Bill Gates in Hamilton County, Florida. Two parcels are in the Withlacoochee River watershed and within the blast radius of the original path of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

The Hamilton County, Florida, Property Appraiser shows these results for a search for Lakeland Sands: Continue reading

Bill Gates gobbling up Georgia farmland, too

300x567 Aerial of Southwest Echols County, in Cottonwood Ag Management in SW Echols County, by John S. Quarterman, 22 October 2014 Update 2015-01-11: People seem confused as to what Bill Gates is doing. However, since he announced in 2012 he was going to “fix” agriculture in conjunction with Monsanto and Syngenta, and he’s buying up hundreds and thousands of contiguous acres at a time, it seems pretty clear he’s promoting corporate pesticided GMO agriculture.

Update 2015-01-13: More Gates purchases in more counties.

Add Echols County and Lowndes County, Georgia, including much of Lake Park, and Hamilton and Madison Counties, Florida, in addition to what Amber Vann wrote in the VDT and other papers today 22 October 2014, Bill Gates gobbling up Florida farmland

LIVE OAK, Fla. — The investment company that manages the wealth of the world’s richest man, Bill Gates, has been acquiring gobs of farmland in north Florida the past two years, real estate records show.

Lakeland Sands Florida, a subsidiary of Cascade Investments LLC, which oversees the Gates fortune, recently bought more than 4,500 acres in Suwanee County near McAlpin, an unincorporated community just south of here.

300x529 Southwest Echols County, in Cottonwood Ag Management in SW Echols County, by John S. Quarterman, 22 October 2014 Meanwhile, Bill Gates owns Cascade Investment LLC, which owns Los Arboles LLC, which changed its name to Cottonwood Ag Management LLC, which bought land in Echols County on the Alapahoochee River, a year after Bill Gates said he was going to fix agriculture in conjunction with Monsanto and Syngenta.

Cottonwood Ag Management LLC does not own any land in Lowndes, Hamilton, or Madison Counties. But Lakeland Sands does: Continue reading

GWC DD#9: Sabal Trail pipeline threatens Withlacoochee River and Floridan Aquifer

300x388 DD#9 2014 Page 1 of 2, in GWC DD#9: Sabal Trail pipeline threatens Withlacoochee River and Floridan Aquifer, by Georgia Water Coalition, for WWALS.net, 22 October 2014 Here is the WWALS item #9 in the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen 2014; I added the links and the illustrations. -jsq

2014’s
Worst Offenses Against 
GEORGIA’S WATER

WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER & FLORIDAN AQUIFER

Gas Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Water, Way of Life

INTRODUCTION:

Southwest Georgians are fighting an invader—one every bit

as worrisome as the boll weevil that destroyed cotton harvests in the 1900s, except this one takes farmers’ land as well as crops. Continue reading

Withlacoochee River & Floridan Aquifer: Gas Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Water, Way of Life, GWC Dirty Dozen

The Withlacoochee River and the Floridan Aquifer affected by the Sabal Trail pipeline is #9 in the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen 2014: A Call to Action, and here’s the press release,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 22, 2014 — Today, Georgia’s leading water coalition named its “Dirty Dozen” for 2014, highlighting 12 of the worst offenses to Georgia’s waters. The annual Dirty Dozen shines a spotlight on threats to Georgia’s water resources as well as the polluters and state policies or failures that ultimately harm—or could harm—Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers.

“The Dirty Dozen is not a list of the most polluted water bodies in Georgia, nor are they ranked in any particular order,” said Joe Cook, Advocacy & Communication Coordinator at the Coosa River Basin Initiative. “It’s a list of problems that exemplify the results of inadequate funding for Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD), a lack of political will to enforce existing environmental protections, and ultimately misguided water planning and spending priorities that flow from the very top of Georgia’s leadership.”

WWALS submitted #9 of the Dirty Dozen:

9. Withlacoochee River & Floridan Aquifer: Gas Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Water, Way of Life

The Sabal Trail pipeline’s path across Continue reading

Sabal Trail Withlacoochee River Alternative and Jasper Open House 21 Oct 2014

Due to fine work by WWALS members Chris and Deanna Mericle in Hamilton County, Florida, 300x391 Withlacoochee River Crossing Route Alternative, Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, Florida (bare), in Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 15 October 2014 Sabal Trail proposes to move its fracked methane pipeline off of the Withlacoochee River in Florida, and invites the public to an Open House in Jasper, FL Tuesday October 21st about that and other matters. We can ask them to move it off the Withlacoochee River in Georgia, too. And it’s still possible to file ecomments with FERC, and to contact your local, state, and national elected and appointed officials.

In FERC’s 15 October 2014 Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent and Route Alternatives, Continue reading

The Alapaha River, unspoiled, wild, and scenic –1979 Soil Survey

300x205 Alapaha, in oil Survey of Lowndes County, by USDA, for WWALS.net, 0 August 1979 The Alapaha River is the first illustration in the Soil Survey of Lowndes County of August 1979. This A+ gem of a blackwater river remains “unspoiled, wild, and scenic” and still “provides water sports and fishing for hundreds of people”. More people will know about it soon, due to the Alapaha River Water Trail. Come see an unuusal feature farther downstream: the Alapaha Sink, where the river goes underground. Come with WWALS to the Sink October 26th. Continue reading

Piscola Creek

300x388 Piscola Creek Watersheds, in Piscola Creek, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 2013 Running through Thomas and Brooks Counties, Georgia to the Withlacoochee River, Piscola Creek is on the USDA National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI) as two of the three Georgia Priority Watersheds, all of which are in WWALS watersheds.

Upper Piscola Creek Watershed encompasses 25,936 acres of land in the southeast part of Thomas and western part of Brooks Counties in southwest Georgia. The land around the watershed is about 75 percent photo by Georgia NRCS crop, pasture, range and other associated agriculture use. About 20 percent of the watershed is forested. The other five percent is commercial or communities.

Middle Piscola Creek Watershed encompasses Continue reading

KLVB Lowndes/Valdosta Rivers Alive Cleanup 2014-10-04

300x413 Flyer, in Lowndes/Valdosta Rivers Alive Cleanup, by KLVB, for WWALS.net, 4 October 2014 WWALS encourages people to participate in Keep Lowndes/Valdosta Beautiful (KLVB)‘s event:

Georgia’s Fifteenth Annual River Clean up

Saturday, October 4, 2014

8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Multiple Lowndes/Valdosta Cleanup Sites:

“Please call or emaiI to volunteer so that you can be assigned to ane of the sites“

For More Information Contact: Continue reading

Alapaha River Cleanup at US 82, 27 September 2014

300x229 Low water at US 82, in Alapaha River Cleanup @ US 82, by Bret Wagenhorst, for WWALS.net, 27 September 2014 Second WWALS outing this month, this time on land; facebook event.

If you enjoy paddling the Alapaha River, I hope you will consider coming out this Saturday to give back and help clean up along the river’s banks as part of a GA Rivers Alive cleanup. Starts at 0900 at the boat ramp at the Hwy 82 bridge just east of the town of Alapaha. I anticipate the cleanup will last about an hour. Bring work gloves and good cheer.

It is much easier to pick up trash along the banks Continue reading