Tag Archives: limestone

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

WCTV on Sabal Trail pipeline activism


300x151 Sabal Trail Right of Way, in One Year After Sabal Trail Announces Pipeline Plans, Activists Begin Monthly Protests, by WCTV, 21 October 2014

Going on a year after

Sabal Trail opened an office in Valdosta,
WCTV used the latest protests to do a retrospective.

Winnie Wright reported for WCTV today, 22 October 2014,

One Year After Sabal Trail Announces Pipeline Plans, Activists Begin Monthly Protests,

Time may have passed, but opinions haven’t changed much here in
Valdosta, where people..who are against the pipeline say there are
countless reasons why it doesn’t belong in their backyards.


300x154 Gretchen Quarterman, in One Year After Sabal Trail Announces Pipeline Plans, Activists Begin Monthly Protests, by WCTV, 21 October 2014
“There’s a moral obligation to leave the world as beautiful and
majestic as we found it, and the pipeline; it does not do that”,
says Gretchen Quarterman, President of the Lowndes County Democratic
Party.

LCDP statement against the pipeline.

WCTV
video: Continue reading →

Sinkhole under houses in The Villages, Florida, 20 miles from Sabal Trail pipeline path

Yet another sinkhole in Florida.
And guess what goes within 20 miles of that Florida retirement community?
The proposed Sabal Trail Transmission methane pipeline.
Does poking holes in the already-fragile karst limestone
that holds up houses and contains our drinking water,
anywhere in Florida or south Georgia,
sound like a good idea to you?

Susan Jacobson wrote for Orlando Sentinel, 19 April 2014,

Sinkhole in The Villages threatens 2 homes,



This sinkhole was growing April 19, 2014 near 2 houses in The Villages.
(Helicon Property Restoration)

A large sinkhole has opened under two houses in The Villages.

A picture provided by Helicon Property Restoration, which is working
to stabilize the hole, shows a house teetering at the edge.

Video in report by Lisa McDonald for WKMG, Orlando, 19 April 2014,

Crews fill sinkhole that threatened 2 homes in The Villages:

Continue reading →

Water issues under Moody Family Housing –Dr. Michael Noll @ LCC 2014-03-11

Water issues still need to be investigated and resolved under
the proposed Moody Family Housing,
said Dr. Michael Noll,
presenting a public comment by him and two other VSU professors about the recent

evironmental assessment
to the

11 March 2014 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Here’s

the video:



Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC)

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 March 2014.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Appended is the text of the VSU professors’ letter,
and here it is in
PDF.

Continue reading →

What causes sinkholes?


Fake and real sinkholes form in the same porous limestone underground
here in the Floridan Aquifer, and we get an explanation of that from
another limestone area in western New York.

Nalina Shapiro wrote for WIVB.com yesterday,

What’s behind sinkholes in WNY?

So what causes these sinkholes to form?



University at Buffalo Geology Professor Dr. Marcus Bursik says there
are two types of sinkholes. One type is caused by aging
infrastructure, like old pipes that burst underground and eventually
cause a collapse on the surface. This is more common and is
sometimes called a “fake sinkhole.”

Like the
Sinkhole on US 82 near Tifton August 2012,
caused by a broken water main, and since filled in.
The other type is much more common: Continue reading →

South Ga. officials expecting sinkholes after rain while NYTimes plays down the risk



Sinkholes aren’t just
for Florida anymore: Albany’s got them.
Are sinkholes risky?
You may think so if one is under your house.
And here above the Floridan Aquifer you probably won’t know that
until your foundations starts cracking.
Maybe we should do something to prevent the problem,
and to help people who are affected by it.
Perhaps the Lowndes County government till pay attention when
somebody’s house falls into a sinkhole.

Jim Wallace wrote for WALB 9 March 2013,

Expect more sinkholes,

Some sinkholes have opened up in South Georgia since the recent
heavy rains.

And engineers and public works experts say they expect more
sinkholes to develop in the coming weeks. It’s just nature at work,
but it can really cause some problems.

Really?
Does “nature at work” include

sinkholes predictably forming after
massive water pumping to sprinkle strawberries during a cold snap?

The WALB story pooh-poohs the possibility of anything like that Sefner
sinkhole showing up in south Georgia, and then details two Albany sinkholes:

Continue reading →

Suwannee County sinkholes —WCTV



Sinkholes in

Seffner, Fort Myers,
Tallahassee,
and now even closer.
Follow the Withlacoochee River south to the Suwannee River,
and two counties south of us in Suwannee County, Florida,
they’ve got dozens of sinkholes,

one of them massive, with another one this month,
including apparently a cavern under some yards.
This is in the same Floridan Aquifer that underlies Lowndes County,
where we had

a road drop into a sinkhole three years ago
and sinkholes were discovered under a man’s garage and yard last year.

Greg Gullberg 4 March 2013,

The Science Behind Sinkholes,

Mikell Cook says he and his neighbors have learned more about
Geology than they ever cared to since last summer when Tropical
Storm Debby swept through much of Florida leaving Live Oak and
surrounding areas peppered with sinkholes.

He and his neighbors live in the town of McAlpin, where

Continue reading →

Tallahassee sinkhole

Even closer than
Tampa Bay
or
Fort Myers,
Tallahassee has sinkhole problems in our same Floridan Aquifer
just across the state line.
Will the Lowndes County Commission do anything about our sinkhole
problems before people start losing their insurance and get sucked
into holes in the ground?

Andy Alcock wrote for WCTV Wednesday,

Tallahassee Woman Faces Sinkhole Problem,


Imagine living in a home you can’t insure, no one wants to buy and
it may not be safe.

A Tallahassee woman is currently facing that problem.

At first glance, her home in Tallahassee’s Mission Manor
neighborhood on the city’s northwest side doesn’t look much
different from any of the other homes in the neighborhood.

Then about two years ago, homeowner Vickie Gordon found a problem.

“I started noticing that the doors were getting stuck in the
bathroom, couldn’t open them,” said Gordon.

Then the issues became more noticeable.

Cracks started showing up all over the house.

After Gordon contacted her insurance company, investigators found
sinkhole activity at her home.

I wish this part was a joke:

Continue reading →

Florida sink hole evicts church

More

sinkholes in Florida in the same Floridan Aquifer that’s under us,
this time evacuating a church.
Maybe sinkhole safety should be important here, too.

WCTV carried an AP story today,

Suspected Sinkhole Forces Church Move



Pastor Rick Shuck told WBBH in Fort Myers on Monday the sinkhole has
caused uneven floors, cracks in the walls and a hole in the ground
so large that a landscaper fell into it.

Shuck says they had to end Faith Community Church’s Sunday service
early because “it’s just not safe anymore.” He says some cracks in
the walls are a half-inch wide and part of the auditorium floor has
dropped about 4 1/2 inches.



Geological engineers say it’s definitely a sinkhole. But the
church’s insurance company sent engineers who determined there is no
problem. So next month the two sides are heading to mediation.

That second picture above was taken in Lowndes County,
showing

printouts of analysis by a VSU professor of sinkholes
under a yard in Lowndes County.


And they’re

under Michael McCormick’s shed (see picture on the right),
and they’re

in his garage.

The same Floridan Aquifer is underground here as in Florida.
Perhaps something needs to be done about sinkholes right here in Lowndes County?

-jsq