Monthly Archives: September 2016

Video: #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail –WWALS 2016-09-10

“WWALS, the Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the upper Suwannee and Withlacoochee Rivers, supports the Standing Rock Sioux against D.A.P.L.”

So say we all about the oil Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota and the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, in this video. You can join us today at 5:30 PM on the Suwannee River in Florida or Saturday morning on the Withlacoochee River in Georgia. News media are invited. We’ll be taking more video for social media: have your say!

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Sabal Trail, Bell Bros, WWALS, Solar in APN 2016-09-12

The Bell brothers, Flint Riverkeeper, and John S. Quarterman of WWALS all against Sabal Trail in an Atlanta publication. Come on down to the Suwannee River Tuesday near Jasper, FL or to the Withlacoochee River between Quitman and Valdosta, GA 9AM Saturday Sep. 17th to see for yourself what we’re protecting and to say your piece on video.

Gloria Tatum, Atlanta Progressive News, 12 September 2016, Proposed SabaL Gas Pipeline runs through aquifer, wetlands, sinkhole territory, Continue reading →

Successful Cleanup at Berrien Beach on the Alapaha River 2016-09-10

We collected many bags of trash and four mattresses (not pictured) Saturday in the Rivers-Alive Cleanup at Berrien Beach Launch on the Alapaha River. Special thanks to the three members of Valdosta State’s Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.) for joining in!

Group picture

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Bill Gates, Suwannee Farms, Lakeland Sands, examples from the air 2016-06-21

Here are a few pictures of some Bill Gates properties from the MIDS Southwings flyover of June 21st, 2016, including Lakeland Sands 208th St. to Suwannee Farms 30.0667640, -82.9828050 Suwannee Farms which we previously discovered a Gates subsidiary had bought.

Notice how close these lands are to the Suwannee River or the Withlacoochee River and Madison Blue Spring. Some of them look freshly cleared. Many of them are probably also in Floridan Aquifer recharge zones. There is more identification work to be done. And we have more aerial pictures (and video).

See also the WWALS web page on Corporate Agriculture.

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

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Protest Sabal Trail at Suwannee River Crossing 2016-09-13

Update 2016-09-24: Video from the river and pictures from the bluff.

You are invited to protest Sabal Trail and the Dakota Access Pipeline this Tuesday 5:30 PM! News media are invited. Walk with signs along the bluff to the proposed Sabal Trail Suwannee River HDD crossing, or paddle downstream and back.

Gathering at Sabal Trail proposed pipeline crossing 30.4071464, -83.1569366 We aim to get pictures and video of people on the bluff, beach, and river at the same time demanding the Army Corps re-evaluate its permit for Sabal Trail just like its permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Both pipelines should be canceled: keep it in the ground!

This WWALS Outing is part of the #NoDAPL Day of Action — Tuesday Sep. 13, tying the Dakota Access oil Pipeline to the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline through their ownership by the same companies. This outing is also a followup to Continue reading →

Same owners, DAPL and Sabal Trail

Update 2016-09-23: Not quite: Energy Transfer backed out of buying Williams Co..

DAPL and Sabal Trail: now part of the same pipeline companies.

DAPL owners Energy Transfer, Enbridge, own Williams and Spectra of Sabal Trail The pipeline companies behind the Sabal Trail fracked methane boondoogle through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida are now owned by the companies behind the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) that wants to pump oil through North Dakota where the Standing Rock Sioux have attracted an encampment of thousands of people who have successfully and nonviolently stopped pipeline construction at least for the moment. WWALS was one of 93 Waterkeeper organizations worldwide that co-signed a letter from Waterkeeper Alliance in support of the Standing Rock Sioux. Opponents of these pipelines, including native Americans in Florida and Georgia as well as North Dakota, are no longer just fighting the same industry: they’re fighting the same companies.

The pipeline companies behind DAPL are Continue reading →

Cleanups at Berrien Beach on the Alapaha and on the Suwannee River 2016-09-10

This weekend, it’s Rivers-Alive Cleanup at Berrien Beach Launch on the Alapaha River, 4PM Saturday September 10th 2016; follow the link for details.

And a group out of Gainesville, Florida, Current Problems, has an annual Great Suwannee River Cleanup 2016:

It’s time to register for the Great Suwannee River Cleanup! This is number 7! You may schedule your cleanup for anytime in September, October, or November. The first week of December is okay, too. We hope river conditions will be good this year and encourage lots of you to join in. Our goal this year is to pass the 100,000 pound mark. We’re close enough we can do it!

-jsq

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

No new Florida electricity needed, says FPL, so why Sabal Trail?

FPL admits Florida needs no new electricity, so why should Sabal Trail get eminent domain?

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Hahira, GA, September 6th 2016 — Two Georgia brothers are stuck with paying almost ten times as much in Sabal Trail’s legal fees as they spent defending their property against that invading fracked methane pipeline, even though FPL apparently admitted this year that all three of its 2013 excuses for that pipeline are no longer valid. Two federal agencies and numerous state agencies issued permits based on those excuses. Sabal Trail used those permits to get eminent domain, including to drill under rivers in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama and through the fragile limestone containing our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer. It is time for this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous boondoggle to be shut down and its $3 billion in FPL ratepayer money to be used for solar power in the Sunshine State.

James Bell, one of the brothers stuck with having to pay Sabal Trail attorney fees, says:

"First and foremost, this is a multi-billion dollar company that is for profit. In my personal opinion I don’t see how a private for-profit company should be allowed eminent domain. I don’t understand that. That makes no sense to me. I might could understand it if it was for the greater good of the country but this is not. And it is certainly not the federal government or the state government building some road or highway."

Florida Power & Light claimed Continue reading →