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
Setbacks, he says.
The Commissioners voted unanimously to table the amendments to the Union County Comprehensive Plan, after attorneys for the opponents submitted many suggested modifications and attorneys for the proposed miners asked for more time.
WWALS videos of most of the numerous speakers will follow.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Sent today (as PDF) before this afternoon’s 4:30 PM Union County BOCC meeting at Union County High School.
September 18, 2017
To: James Tallman, Chairman
Union County Board of County Commissioners
15 NE 1st Street, Lake Butler, FL 32054
(386) 496-4241
ucbocc@windstream.netCc: Scott R. Koons, Executive Director
North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
2009 NW 67th Pl, Gainesville, FL 32653
(352) 955-2200
koons@ncfrpc.orgRe: Aerial photographs of Phosphate Mine site
Dear Chairman Tallman, Commissioners, Staff, Director Koons, and NCFRPC,
Sometimes it helps to see the problem from a different point of view, so on September 1st Suwannee Riverkeeper organized an overflight of the proposed HPS II mine site. Here are a few aerials from that flight. I hope they help encourage you to rezone to prevent mining in Union County, regardless whether from the current proposals or from others.
In addition to the few examples below, a few hundred more pictures are online here:
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/issues/phosphate/2017-09-01–southwings-phosphate/
The Howard mine site at the corner of CR 231 and the New River includes Five Mile Creek and other wetlands. Between there and the Pritchett mine site many people own land that could be affected. Just beyond is Worthington Springs, downhill and thus downstream from the mine.
W across Howard mine site, Five Mile Creek, SW 48th Path, CR 18A, Pritchett mine site, Worthington Springs, 09:53:54, 29.9461300, -82.3565700From the air, Union county looks Continue reading
See from the air the land the Union County, Florida, Commissioners will be voting on tomorrow.
When: 4:30-9PM, Monday, September 17, 2017
Where: Union County High School, 1000 S. Lake Avenue, Lake Butler, FL 32054
What: Voting on Union County Comprehensive Plan with much stronger restrictions on mining
Event:
Two facebook events, by
Citizens Against Phosphate Mining in North Central Florida (CAPM)
and by
Our Santa Fe River (OSFR).
WNW from Compressor Station up FGT pipeline to Columbia Co., 10:18:14, 29.9114200, -82.3324080
I took these pictures in Union and Bradford Counties, Florida, of the proposed HPS II phosphate mine site, on a Southwings flight for WWALS Watershed Coalition 1 September 2017. You can help figure out what some of them show.
The main conclusion, already published in much briefer form by Jim Tatum with a few pictures he took, is that Continue reading
The good news: no wastewater spills from Valdosta since January.
And Valdosta has a new Utilities Director: Darryl Muse, formerly of Ocala, Marion County, Florida.
While at Ocala, Muse handled converting septic tanks to city sewer
and a wastewater plant upgrade,
both to protect springs.
Maybe he will be more sympathetic to people downstream in Florida than
certain officials still with the City of Valdosta.
Having completed the installation of the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant and the the force main at the Y on Gornto, Continue reading
Jim Gross showed at WiLFest in Orlando Gainesville what he described later in the Orlando Sentinel:
“It was known by everyone in the agency that we had more demand than groundwater. Did the science completely change overnight? Now, ‘Presto! There’s plenty?’”
Jim Gross showing central Florida as far over sustainable withdrawals at WiLFest in Orlando Gainesville 2017-06-17
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS
Lauren Ritchie, Orlando Sentinel, 30 June 2017, Commentary: Stop letting developments such as The Villages suck up water, Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2017, Hahira, GA — Citing the sea change of solar power overtaking natural gas in new U.S. electricity last year, and generational damage to the fields of farmers such as Randy Dowdy, WWALS Watershed Coalition today filed more evidence and reasons to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline from going into service and to revoke its permit. WWALS filed the same Monday that Sabal Trail Friday asked FERC to authorize turning on the gas. Plus WWALS explicitly requested FERC do a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to take into account LNG export from Sabal Trail, copious environmental permit violations, and especially new scientific evidence about the Floridan Aquifer.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said: “Such irreparable harm outweighs a few billion dollars spent in error by a few companies.”
And that’s without even getting into risks to education, such as
Sabal Trail only a mile from Clyattville Elementary School.
WWALS filed the document today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The WWALS cover letter is included below in this message, and the FERC filing is available online.
WWALS wrote in Attachment 1:
“Solar power has actually more than doubled every two years since 2013. Yet FERC only counts utility-scale solar power. Adding rooftop and community solar panels, already a sea change has occurred.
Continue reading