Tag Archives: railroad

Pictures: Arriving Floyd’s Island, Okefenokee Swamp 2023-11-04

Update 2023-11-19: Floyds Island 1838, Hebard Cabin 1925, Okefenokee Swamp 1925-01-01.

Alligators and pitcher plants on the Suwannee River to Floyds Island, logging railroad, Indian mound, and tents there, and somebody fell over in a chair.

[IG: Collage, SCFSP to Floyds Island, Okefenokee Swamp, 2023-11-04]
IG: Collage, SCFSP to Floyds Island, Okefenokee Swamp, 2023-11-04

People came to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from as far away as Miami, Alabama, South Carolina, Savannah, and Atlanta, as well as from Williston, White Springs, Pearson, Douglas, and Hahira.

Thanks to Shirley Kokidko for organizing, and for Randy Madison for leading when Shirley could not go. Continue reading

No LNG by Rail Rule –WWALS to PHMSA 2020-01-13

Update 2023-11-16: LNG by Rail suspended by PHMSA and FRA 2023-08-31.

One of seventeen reasons for PHMSA to reject its own proposed rule for LNG in rail tanker cars:

  • The solution to risks of leaks, wrecks, and explosions of LNG truck tankers is not to add another source of risk in LNG rail cars, no matter what design.

[FEC Timetable North from Miami to Jacksonville]
FEC Timetable North from Miami to Jacksonville

Many thanks to Maxine Connor and Cecile Scofield for comments, corrections, and additions of this WWALS comment, sent to the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) yesterday, which was the deadline for comment on PHMSA Notice of Proposed Rulemanking (NPRM HM-264) Hazardous Materials: Liquefied Natural Gas by Rail, PHMSA Docket No. PHMSA-2018-0025.

Cecile also had already filed her own excellent comment. Both hers and this WWALS comment draw on a fascinatingly wrong and inadequate document Cecile previously obtained via FOIA: Continue reading

Valdosta sewage from Sugar Creek to Florida 2019-01-01 2020-01-01

Update 2020-01-03 Valdosta Sewage Public Meeting, Valdosta City Hall Annex, 2020-01-08.

You can see Valdosta’s sewage going down the Withlacoochee River as the high red numbers in these composite tables WWALS has cobbled together from various data sources (all acknowledged below).

Early on, the sewage apparently mostly sat in Sugar Creek downstream from the spill site, due to low water and no rain.

[Early (12/10-12/18)]
Early (12/10-12/18)

Most of the Georgia numbers in above table are from Valdosta Utilities data. The ones marked with a W are WWALS data using the Georgia Adopt-a-Stream 3M Petrifilms method.

Fecal coliform numbers started dropping in Sugar Creek at Gornto Road on December 14, and were much more acceptable by December 15 and 16th. Where did the sewage go? Continue reading

Gornto Road, Valdosta, access to Withlacoochee River 2018-01-24

It could use some markers to keep people on it and off private property, and maybe some loaner kayak wheels, but there is public access to the Withlacoochee River off of Gornto Road in Valdosta.

Tea-colored water, 16:22:37,, Withlacoochee River
Tea-colored water, 16:22:37,, Withlacoochee River 30.8623900, -83.3224600

And a very nice blackwater river it is. Continue reading

Bonus paddle to Spook Bridge on Withlacoochee River, 2017-11-11

After the One Mile Branch Cleanup at VSU, let’s head west on US 84 to the Withlacoochee River and paddle (or hike) downstream to Spook Bridge: if you’ve seen the locally-made movie, come see the bridge! In between we may see the river part of Wade Spring, and we will see the railroad bridge and the old, closed, Blue Springs road bridge, aka Spook Bridge. Then we will paddle (or hike) upstream to the Sabal Trail pipeline crossing, also less than a quarter mile. If you don’t want to do either, we will tell you how to get to Spook Bridge by land to greet us when we get there.

When: 1PM, Saturday, November 11, 2017

Put In: US 84, park between the bridges on the Lowndes County side.
We will climb down the steep rocky embankment between the bridges, seen from the Brooks County side in this picture:

Under US 84 bridge across to Lowndes County
Photo: John S. Quarterman, From Brooks County to Lowndes County, under the US 84 bridge, 85.2 on the Quitman Gauge, May 22, 2017.

Anyone in reasonable shape can climb it.

GPS: 30.793608, -83.451435

Bring: mud boots, plus the usual personal flotation device, boat paddles, food, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.

Free: This outing is Free! And we recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup Continue reading

Sabal Trail, Withlacoochee River, Lowndes and Brooks Counties, GA 2017-05-21-22

How long until it leaks?

WARNING WARNING So if it’s not a safety problem, why does the sign say “Above All … Safe”?

Sign and bridge. Continue reading

Cancer in Waycross and the upper Suwannee River watershed

At least the Waycross cancer problem is finally getting some news media attention. Brenda Goodman and Andy Miller, Georgia Health News, October 20, 2016, Why are kids in Waycross getting cancer? (Part One of Special Report),

Fourteen-year-old Lexi Crawford was attacked by lower back pain so sharp that she couldn’t even sit up to eat. Her mother had to bring her food while she was lying flat on her back. Doctors in Waycross, GA, the town where she lives, thought it was a kidney infection. But after months of antibiotics didn’t clear it up, a visiting doctor in the local ER suggested an X-ray.

What he saw on the scan was terrifying.

Continue reading

Ray’s Mill Pond; was Withlacoochee River: Langdale Park to Little River Boat Ramp 2016-04-03

Update 2016-03-31: Rescheduled for Ray’s Mill Pond, due to flood stage on the Withlacoochee River.

Back on the Withlacoochee River in Valdosta, by popular demand from last weekend’s outing! Shuttle: 10 miles or 15 minutes each way We’ll continue next weekend on the next leg down the Withlacoochee River on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Event: facebook or meetup.

When: 9AM Sunday April 3rd 2016

Put in: Continue reading

Pictures: Lakeland to Hotchkiss Road, WWALS Outing –Gretchen Quarterman 2015-07-11

Update 2023-06-22: More Pictures: WWALS on The Rocks between Lakeland and Hotchkiss, Alapaha River 2015-07-11.

Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman of the 11 July 2015 WWALS outing on the Alapaha River. 11709767_999285253417010_7438073058688354664_n.jpg Happy paddlers and an owl!

Lots more outings coming up, from the Little River to the Suwannee, the Alapaha again (continuing our exploration of the Alapaha River Water Trail), to Grand Bay, the Okefenokee Swamp, and of course the Withlacoochee River, where we went most recently last month.

-jsq

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

From Gretchen’s facebook album.

Gretchen Quartermans photo. Continue reading

Sabal Trail now aims to cross Withlacoochee River north of US 84

Drilling down in Brooks County, under the Withlacoochee River, 300x200 STA. 12189+00 TO STA. 12242+00, Withlacoochee River, US84, Brooks and Lowndes Counties, in Lowndes County, GA, by Sabal Trail Transmission, for WWALS.net, 14 August 2015 the CSX Railroad, and Old Quitman Highway, surfacing in Lowndes County, Sabal Trail has moved its proposed Withlacoochee HDD crossing upstream. The actual river crossing appears to be at about 30.795273, -83.452722.

This is all according to Continue reading