Monthly Archives: April 2016

No new sewer spills from Valdosta or Lowndes County 2016-04-14

Nothing new since April 4th is good news today from Utilities at both local governments, since the Valdosta spills into both the Withlacoochee and Alapaha watersheds of April 2nd and 3rd, and the Lowndes County spill into the Withlacoochee River of Aprll 4th. So Suwannee River people at the moment only have those spills, arriving downstream about now, to look forward to for the moment.

Valdosta is sometimes a little slow posting a report, and Lowndes County never posted one on its website last time, so I called both of them just now. Tuesday I asked Lowndes County to post such reports on its website and send them through their agenda alert system. It’s possible they may start doing that.

-jsq

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

Videos: WWALS asks Lowndes County to invite Army Corps of Engineers to investigate Sabal Trail discrepancies @ LCC 2016-04-12

Delivered to the Lowndes County Commission Tuesday 12 April 2016 on paper and then by email (PDF, plus 1-page Suwannee County, FL request to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and 28-page WWALS invitation to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), following up from two previous addresses to the same Commission.

See also the Carter Way item in that same Commission meeting, also related to Sabal Trail. Continue reading →

WRWT Pamphlet

Update 2018-04-19: Map includes Tifton.

Cover, Sides This pamphlet for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail is easy to print (PDF), fold, and hand out until we get a fancier brochure printed up. We already have a substantial contribution towards that from the Valdosta-Lowndes Tourism Authority. Who will be next?

I think the WLRWT logo by logo contest winner Eboni Patterson makes the cover look especially nice.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

Continue reading →

Suwannee County requests Army Corps of Engineers to inspect Sabal Trail discrepancies 2016-04-06

Here’s the letter the Suwannee County Commissioners voted 4:1 on 5 April 2016 to send to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (PDF), following the one Hamilton County already sent. Other counties in Florida and Georgia can do the same.

SUWANNEE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

(386) 364-3450
FAX (386) 362-1032

COUNTY OFFICES
13150 8001 Terrace
Live Oak, Florida 32060

In the Heart of the Suwannee River Valley

SBOCC to USACE April 6, 2016

Attn: Mark R, Evans, Senior Project Manager,
Jacksonville Permits Section
US Army Corps of Engineers
Regulatory Division
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232

RE: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC
       FERC Document No. CP15-177000

Dear Mr. Evans:

The Board of County Commissioners of Suwannee County recently received the Environmental Geology report prepared by Dennis Price and dated 10/25/2015, a copy of which is attached hereto.

If you will note, Continue reading →

Agenda, WWALS Board Meeting 2016-04-13

Draft Agenda (PDF)
WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting
7:30 PM Wednesday 13 April 2016
Farmhouse Restaurant, 5123 Mill Store Rd, Lake Park, GA 31636-5103
That’s at I-75 Exit 5 Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676
Related Materials

All WWALS Board Members are expected to attend in person or by telephone.
The more done on the board list, the less time we’ll have to spend on them in this meeting.

All WWALS members, especially committee members, are invited to attend, as is the general public.

Board Members: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail Contractor Fair, Moultrie, GA 2016-04-15

Not just for compressor station counties, also apparently also for where Sabal Trail has promised side taps, including Moultrie, Georgia, as seen today in the Tifton Gazette and the Valdosta Daily Times.

Southern Regional Technical College, Seminar Center, 361 Industrial Drive, Moultrie, GA 31788 When: 11AM – 2PM Friday, April 15th 2016

Where: Southern Regional Technical College, Seminar Center, 361 Industrial Drive, Moultrie, GA 31788

This Moultrie job fair is scheduled one month after Colquitt County sent FERC exorbitant claims of benefits in property tax revenue, wildly high and out-of-context construction jobs claims, and discounted safety and environmental concerns, with no mention whatever of agriculture, nevermind Colquitt County’s letter to FERC two years before about agricultural concerns.

The Colquitt letter to FERC made no mention of lowered property values reducing tax revenue, cited no source, just “It is estimated that”. However, in the same paragraph: Continue reading →

Thanks for a historic victory against Sabal Trail –WWALS in VDT 2016-04-10

In today’s Sunday April 10th 2016 Valdosta Daily Times:

The Georgia House on March 22nd by an unprecedented 34 ayes to 128 nays rejected easements for Sabal Trail Sunday VDT to drill our Withlacoochee and other Georgia Rivers. This was a historic victory by the Georgia Water Coalition, including Georgia Sierra Club, WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, plus SpectraBusters, and thanks to all of you who called their state reps.

That same day, Continue reading →

Contractor Fair, Sabal Trail, Ocala and Live Oak

Update 10 April 2016: And Moultrie, GA April 15th.

Update 9 April 2016: And Albany, GA April 21st.

Sabal Trail plans to entice locals by offering jobs week after next in Ocala and Live Oak, SabalXadX001 ignoring river easements slapped down hard by the Georgia legislature, and both Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, Florida, inviting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come see what Sabal Trail didn’t tell FERC,

Sabal Trail admitted two years ago in Gilchrist County that it had already retained the main contractors for pipeline installation. Should a few temporary leftover jobs for local people be enough to outweigh taking local property by eminent domain and gouging under our rivers and through the most sensitive area of the Floridan Aquifer, source of all our drinking water?

Those are private venues, but they have public roads outside.

Ocala

Continue reading →

Lowndes County spills sewage into Withlacoochee River 2016-04-05

Lowndes County spilled sewage this time, a day after Valdosta fixed all its spills from last weekend. EPA MyWaters Mapper Downstream it ends up in the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers, where people are already hopping mad because of Valdosta, and not making a lot of distinctions among local governments up here.

The County Clerk told the VDT the “county does not forsee this as a reocurring event”, which is odd, since it happened two years ago, and that time the City of Valdosta had to tell Lowndes County about it. Just like that time, and unlike Valdosta, there’s nothing about this spill on Lowndes County’s News Flash web page, nor the County Clerk’s web page, nor the Lowndes County Utilities web page. Apparently the county only contacted selected news media, not the public directly, and definitely not WWALS, the Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the Withlacoochee River.. And the county only told the press three days after the sewer break.

Lowndes County PR, ValdostaToday.com, 7 April 2016, Pipe Break Spills 225,000 Gallons of Sewage into the Withlacoochee River, Continue reading →

Ask your federal representative to ask GAO to investigate FERC and rubberstamps like Sabal Trail

You can send a message to your member of Congress asking them to support a petition from hundreds of organizations and even more individuals asking them to:

Help secure an independent investigation by the Government Accountability Office into the abuses of power, process and law by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) when it comes to interstate natural gas pipelines and LNG export facilities. Write your congressional representative now to urge their help in securing this necessary independent review.

Abuses like Continue reading →