A fine day, good food, raffles, and lots of interest in water trails, cleanups, outings, etc. at Brooks County Skillet Fest.
In addition to the then-ongoing kayak raffle, Gretchen bought a skillet that we raffled off. Continue reading
One of the original explorers revisited south Georgia’s only known extensive underground spring cave system forty years later: McIntyre Spring on the Withlacoochee River.
Photo: Guy Bryant
Who would have thought that off the Withlacoochee River under Brooks County, Georgia there were caves so big you can hardly see both the diver and the edge: Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, Georgia, December 13, 2017 — People got kayak raffle tickets for three months at festivals from Alapaha, Georgia to Live Oak, Florida, and online, until the drawing at a Suwannee Riverkeeper outing Sunday at the top of the Suwannee River in the Okefenokee Swamp. The lucky winner of a kayak donated by Malibu Kayaks is Chris Newton from the Atlantic coast of Florida. “No way!” he said.
At Stephen C. Foster State Park, Fargo, Georgia, Gretchen Quarterman, Acting Executive Director for WWALS Watershed Coalition, said:
“These are all the tickets that we sold. And these are the ones that Shirley [Kokidko, WWALS board member] sold. These are the ones that came from Phil [Hubbard, WWALS board member of Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia]. These are the ones that came from Hulaween [Live Oak, Suwannee County, Florida]. These are the ones that came from Skillet Fest [Quitman, Brooks County, Georgia, suggested by WWALS member John Horton of Quitman and Suwannee, Dixie County, Florida] ….”
WWALS board member Shirley Kokidko of Pearson, Atkinson County, Georgia, had the video camera at Continue reading
We made it to Spook Bridge from US 84! It was a small group, four of us, on a cold November afternoon. And we saw the sad remains of Wade Spring.
Paddling upstream was not practicable, Continue reading
The travelling WWALS booth will be in Quitman, Georgia, this Saturday at the Skillet Festival. We will have buttons and stickers (WWALS, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Water Trails, Water Is Life) and the raffle kayak. If you like, bring a piece of cast iron for WWALS to raffle off, as well.
When: 9AM-3:30 PM, Saturday, October 21, 2017
Where: Brooks County Courthouse, 100 Screven Street, Quitman, Georgia 31643
What: Brooks County Skillet Festival, quilts, cooking, fashion, dogs, clogging, skillet toss, race, and parade
Schedule: Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(See also PDF and previous blog post.)
Live Oak, FL, October 5, 2017 — Sabal Trail, operating without a permit, is at risk from a new sinkhole within 60 feet of its 36-inch diameter, high-pressure, fracked methane pipe under Suwannee River State Park (SRSP), between the Suwannee River and the drill site in Hamilton County. Such sinkholes are among the geological risks WWALS warned about that have happened in the fragile karst limestone containing our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer. We were assured in October 2015 by Sabal Trail and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) that sinkholes and frac-outs would not happen or would be detected and fixed. They keep happening, and Sabal Trail has done nothing about this one. Sabal Trail should not even be continuing operations after the DC Circuit Court vacated its permit six weeks ago.
Suwannee
Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman at new sinkhole in Suwannee River
State Park, 2017-10-03.
Photo:
Christopher J. Mericle, Chair, N. Florida Working Group,
Suwannee-St. Johns Group, Sierra Club Florida.
In WWALS vs. Sabal Trail & FDEP (October 2015), FDEP’s one witness, Lisa Prather, said under oath (see https://wwals.net/blog/?p=27799):
“Well, the Suwannee River crossing doesn’t, in fact, have any impacts to an outstanding Florida water, because the directional drill commences in uplands and terminates in uplands. So there are no surface water impacts at that crossing that would affect the outstanding Florida water.”
“Well, any work within, or could have adverse effects on OFW, is considered.In this case, we determine that there would be no impacts to the OFW.”
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman says:
“Email to Ms. Prather’s address now comes back with an error message, while the rest of us are left Continue reading
Nitrates, agriculture, and silviculture were already in, and sewage, phosphate mines, and the Floridan Aquifer got added yesterday afternoon in Live Oak in public comments on updates to SRWMD’s SWIM Plans, plus new SRWMD E.D. Hugh Thomas spoke.
Thanks to presenter Tom Singleton, the slides presented are on the WWALS website. Here are a few notes and pictures.
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Sierra Club Florida noted Continue reading
Quitman, Georgia also spilled sewage during Tropical Storm Irma, next to Okapilco Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River, then the Suwannee River.
According to John Thursby with Quitman Utilities, the lift station at Quitman’s main wastewater treatment plant lost power, and Continue reading
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