Tag Archives: Floridan Aquifer

Lowndes County has been talking to Sabal Trail since July 2026-08-10

Is anything sacred to a pipeline company?

Apparently not, since Sabal Trail wants to drill through a cemetery, McIntyre Family Cemetery, aka Old Redland Cemetery, on Knights Ferry Road. See below.

That’s in addition to through the old landfill site on Madison Highway, where Lowndes County granted Sabal Trail an easement for only one pipeline back in 2016; see also below.

What “new high-volume customers” can you think of that would be enough to cause a whole new pipeline? I can’t think of any except hyper-scale AI datacenters.

[Lowndes County has been talking to Sabal Trail since July, about a second pipeline through McIntyre Cemetery on Knights Ferry Road, and the landfill on Madison Highway]
Lowndes County has been talking to Sabal Trail since July, about a second pipeline through McIntyre Cemetery on Knights Ferry Road, and the landfill on Madison Highway

A lobbyist for Sabal Trail met with Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter about “potential expansion of Sabal Trail” on Tuesday, July 21, 2026,

This apparently irritated Lowndes County Manager Paige Dukes, because the lobbyist’s firm apologized to her the next day for “confusion on Monday around our meeting request.”

Sabal Trail Intro from Joel Wiggins to Lowndes County Manager

Belinda Lovern

From: Joel Wiggins <wiggins@thesoutherngroup.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2026 11:24 AM
To: County Manager
Subject: Sabal Trail Intro

Attachments: Sabal Trail Expansion and Extension Initial Project Fact Sheet 07092026.pdf; IMG_1985.jpeg

EXTERNAL EMAIL: Do not click any links or open any attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.

Good Morning Paige,

I apologize for the confusion on Monday around our meeting request. Dante on my team is a former ACCG employee and reached out directly to Chairman Slaughter due to his personal relationship. Typically, I would reach out to you directly and I apologize for any confusion.

We were able to meet with the Chairman yesterday and update him on our potential expansion along the Sabal Trail. We are in the early stages of a proposed expansion and are meeting with local leaders in all counties. We anticipate that any improvements would take place within the ROW of the existing pipeline, but we wanted to touch base before landowner notices go out on 8/1.

Please see attached for Continue reading →

Rezoning materials for REZ-2025-11, potential datacenter site, on Coleman Road North 2026-08-03

Lowndes County offered to charge up to $250 for rezoning materials related to the 2025 rezoning on Coleman Road North for the potential datacenter site across the Withlacoochee River from Langdale Park. Materials such as many other counties put in their board packets and put on their own website.

They actually charged $40.85.

They provided a heap of files on a USB stick, with little indication of which request each file was supposed to address.

[Rezoning materials, REZ-2025-11, potential datacenter site, Coleman Road North, Withlacoochee River @ LCC 2025-07-08]
Rezoning materials, REZ-2025-11, potential datacenter site, Coleman Road North, Withlacoochee River @ LCC 2025-07-08

This is what I asked for, plus links to what Lowndes County provided in response, as near as I can decipher what they sent.

This is a Georgia Open Records Request (GORA) for materials related to the rezoning application for REZ-2025-11, Langdale Capital Assets, N Coleman Road, as required by Lowndes County Unified Development Code (ULDC).

The rezoning request, evidence of payment, evidence of ownership, and the other items were not in the board packets for the June 30, 2025, Planning Commission meeting, nor for the July 8, 2025, Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, at each of which REZ-2025-11 was heard, at least not as returned in response to open records request by LAKE requesting those board packets.

In this present GORA request I am asking for: Continue reading →

Packet: Utilities in Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting 2025-03-06

See also 2025-03-26: River water and groundwater interchange interacts with drinking water treatment 2025-03-26.

Update 2025-03-24: Packet: Lowndes County Fire Rescue for Lowndes County Commission Retreat 2025-03-07.

Here is another chunk of the board packet for the March 5-7, 2025, Lowndes County Planning Meeting on Jekyll Island, Georgia. This one is for the Utilities Department, which was on the agenda for March 6.

[Utilities Department, Lowndes County Retreat 2025-03-06, Projects, Floridan Aquifer, River water infiltration & Nanofiltration]
Utilities Department, Lowndes County Retreat 2025-03-06, Projects, Floridan Aquifer, River water infiltration & Nanofiltration

These Utilities materials include an org chart, lists of projects completed during 2024, ongoing, and future, and some details on river water infiltration into the Floridan Aquifer producing a need for improved nanofiltration to get rid of harmful chemicals formed by interaction with chlorine.

Both the lists of projects and the nanofiltration information are pretty clear that they are mostly to support private for-profit subdivisions.

While posting the rest of the board packet I noticed there were pieces missing.

So on March 14 I sent a request for the rest: Continue reading →

Video: Solar panels, heck yeah! –Tom Fanning, CEO, at SO stockholder meeting 2017-05-24

Tom Fanning, our genial CEO host, said some things I’ve never heard him say before like Southern Company is “pivoting towards wind” and SO’s board soon has to decide whether to go forward with Plant Vogtle “or not” probably by August. Fanning gets the first and last word in this blog post, plus a complete transcript of what I asked and Tom Fanning’s response, along with summaries of the other questions and answers.

Well see how it develops --Tom Fanning
Please hear me! I think renewables are exceedingly important in the future.
— Tom Fanning, CEO, Southern Company

In SO’s own meeting video of the 25 May 2017 Stockholder Meeting, you can see much praise about solar power and wind and R&D and a smart grid, along with stockholders wondering: Continue reading →

Videos: Sewage, Coal Ash, Historic Preservation, a dead cat, and turkeys @ VCC 2016-03-09

The Valdosta City Council heard from citizens about coal ash, wastewater, and toxic waste in the landfill. Mayor John Gayle offered to answer later in his office Eric Howard’s question about wastewater in his yard. The Mayor expressed his opinion that he and the council couldn’t do anything about the landfill, and read for yourself what he said about the Florida county resolutions about Valdosta wastewater. George Boston Rhynes told a droll tale about a dead cat and turkeys.

The Historic Preservation appeal was long and contentious, with the Mayor twice breaking a tie because only four City Council members were there: the appeal was approved. A citizen spoke about that afterwards, as did Council Tim Carroll.

Council Robert Yost recommended all the Hospital Authority Board should resign.

They unanimously approved both of the rezoning items; ditto the right of way maintenance bids.

And Firefighter Michael Penland is employee of the month.

Below are links to the LAKE video of each item, with a few notes (some drawn from Valdosta’s own SUMMARY OF ACTIONS), followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda.

Brief agenda plus Water @ VCC 2016-03-09

No water on the agenda, but there’s a WWALS event for those who want to speak about water issues.

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, March 9, 2017
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL

Valdosta City Council

  1. Opening Ceremonies Continue reading →

Pipeline in Floridan Aquifer is total insanity –Marcellus Shale drilling veteran @ FERC Lake City 2015-10-01

“If you go through with this, you stand a very good chance of destroying this [the Floridan Aquifer] the rest of our lifetimes. And in many lifetimes to come.” Said Marcellus shale drilling veteran Rocky Stewart to FERC in Lake City, Florida, October 1st 2015. Transcript and video:

I am a homeowner in Suwannee County, by Boys Ranch, I currently do not live there, I live in Corpus Christi [Texas]. I’m sure some people here regard me as the enemy, but I am in total opposition to what you all have planned.

By profession, I’m what’s known as Continue reading →

Insanity: Sabal Trail pipeline in karst sinkhole Floridan Aquifer @ FERC Lake City 2015-10-01

“What you all have proposed is total insanity…. experts lie… The companies, they don’t care. It’s just greed and arrogance,” said a Marcellus Shale drilling veteran. Karst mitigation won’t work according to Sabal Trail’s own FERC filings, children downwind of compressor, Sabal Trail quashing evidence of its unwanted, unneeded, and unsafe Sinkhole Pipeline, and FERC is cigarette companies pushing cancer cigarettes: on the wrong side of history. We aren’t your test subjects and we can win!

Videos from previous FERC meetings:

-jsq

Videos: Trash, Vallotton agriculture, animals, body armor, HEAT, water, and a canopy road @ LCC 2015-04-14

ADS trash collection price and performance wasn’t on the agenda, but even former Commissioner Richard Lee stood up to speak about it, along with two other citizens David Eaton and me. See also VDT trash story. The VDT didn’t pick up on Ann Swayze’s smoke and soot concerns also being related, because nobody stood up to complain about burning in Foxborough before the collection centers closed.

Commissioners did the right thing and unanimously rezoned Vallotton Farms back to Estate Agriculture, like it was before county-wide rezoning happened. It wasn’t like the County Planner said, “it has developed around it in an urban way”. The subject land and landowners didn’t do that: other people have built subdivisions around it the the county’s active promotion. And for once agriculture won, after landowner attorney Bill Langdale, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, and I spoke up for it. They’re even going to preserve the canopy on Boring Pond Road and I thanked the County Engineer for that. Continue reading →

Videos: Trash, Vallotton agriculture, animals, body armor, HEAT, water, and a canopy road @ LCC 2015-04-14

ADS trash collection price and performance wasn’t on the agenda, but even former Commissioner Richard Lee stood up to speak about it two weeks ago at the April 14th 2015 Regular Session, along with two other citizens David Eaton and me. See also VDT trash story. The VDT didn’t pick up on Ann Swayze’s smoot and soot concerns also being related, because nobody stood up to complain about burning in Foxborough before the collection centers closed.

Commissioners did the right thing and unanimously rezoned Vallotton Farms back to Estate Agriculture, like it was before county-wide rezoning happened. It wasn’t like the County Planner said, “it has developed around it in an urban way”. The subject land and landowners didn’t do that: other people have built subdivisions around it the the county’s active promotion. And for once agriculture won, after landowner attorney Bill Langdale, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, and I spoke up for it.

They’re even going to preserve the canopy on Boring Pond Road and I thanked the County Engineer for that.

The two Sheriff’s requests for Continue reading →