Monthly Archives: November 2016

WWALS against Sabal Trail in VDT 2016-11-18

“Demonstrators gathered to protest the Sabal Trail pipeline and participate in the “Dirty Dozen” waterways conference call.” VDT front page That was on the front page of the newspaper of record of the biggest city in the Suwannee RIver Basin. There’s a petition for Georgians to sign, lots of protests in Florida to assist with, and you can help us all watch Sabal Trail to catch their next violation.

Online last night, Derrek Vaughn, Valdosta Daily Times, 17 November 2016, WWALS Watershed Coalition hold demonstration,

WWALS Watershed Coalition sponsored the demonstration.

Members and demonstrators met in the median of Highway 84 at the Withlacoochee River Bridge to listen to the Georgia Water Coalition’s “Dirty Dozen 2016” conference call.

The “Dirty Dozen” list is an attempt to “put a spotlight on ongoing pollution problems, pending threats to Georgia’s water as well as state and federal policies and failures that ultimately harm — or could harm — Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers,’ according to organizers. Continue reading →

The Big Splash: St Marys Riverkeeper Roll-Out 2016-11-19

The only other Waterkeeper to straddle the GA-FL line, the new St Marys Riverkeeper Rick Frey, is hosting a big do in Florida Saturday, WWALS will be there to help Ask Rick Frey why a rhinoceros “celebrate the roll-out of this non-profit effort to engage and educate our community about the benefits of a clean St. Marys River and to conserve this historic and scenic natural resource now and for generations to come.”

This is the same day after Okefenokee Pioneer Day with Satilla Riverkeeper. Lots of Riverkeepers will be at this St Marys Bash.

When: 5-9PM Saturday 19 November 2016

Where: White Oak Conservation,
581705 White Oak Rd,
Yulee, Florida 32097

Tickets: Sold out.

-jsq

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

WWALS with Satilla Riverkeeper at Okefenokee Pioneer Day Festival 2016-11-19

Cane syrup boiling, mule grinder, endangereed species puppetry, and more at the Okefenokee Pioneer Day Festival. With the froggie toss game, WWALS will be on the east side of the Okefenokee Swamp Saturday November 19th 2016, travelling out of WWALS territory to visit our good neighbor to the east, Satilla Riverkeeper.

When: 9AM – 3PM, Saturday, November 19th 2016

Where: Richard S. Bolt Visitor Center
Suwannee Canal Recreation Area (East Entrance)
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
30.73870100, -82.14000600

Directions: Continue reading →

GWC Dirty Dozen and Sabal Trail pipeline drilling mud leak on WALB 2016-11-16

People and news media turned out from Florida and Georgia at the Withlacoochee River US 84 bridge in cross-state-line solidarity about the Sabal Trail pipeline and its recent drilling mud leak. They heard the Georgia Water Coalition announce that Sabal Trail is, for the third year running, on the Dirty Dozen 2016.

Ashlyn Becton, WALB, 16 November 2016, Environmentalist raise awareness about Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Folks from North Florida and South Georgia held a protest at the Withlacoochee River Wednesday and listened to a news conference announcing the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen.

The report highlights the worst offenses and greatest threats to Georgia’s bodies of water.

And the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is on the GWC Dirty Dozen 2016, as Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee Rivers and Floridan Aquifer: Gas pipeline company, federal agency run roughshod over state, local residents property rights, with this What Must Be Done: Continue reading →

WWALS: “It did happen”, Sabal Trail: “inadvertent”, WUSF, Tallahassee

Do you think Sabal Trail’s excuse that it was “inadvertent” is enough? Come on down to the US 84 bridge 9:30 this morning, hear more, and have your say.

Turbidity curtains with human for scale (Chris Mericle) Nick Evans, WUSF, 14 November 2016, Drilling Mud Leak In South Georgia Raises New Sabal Trail Pipeline Concerns,

Water activists are raising the alarm over a South Georgia drilling leak in the Withlacoochee River. Sabal Trail is drilling beneath the river to build a more than 500-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Alabama to Florida.

WWALS Watershed Coalition works to protect Continue reading →

Cook County Landing (GA 76) to Folsom Bridge (GA 122), Little River 20162017-01-14

Not a great boat ramp but public access it is. In January the water should be up like a year ago at this three-hour tour of the idyllic Little River between Brooks County and Cook and Lowndes Counties, Georgia. There should be no need to drag boats, like there was in July.

When: 10 AM Saturday January 14th 2017

Put In: Cook County Landing (GA 76) between Adel, Cook County and Barney, Brooks County, Georgia

GPS Coordinates: Continue reading →

GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Withlacoochee River Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail #WaterIsLife 2016-11-16

Update 2016-11-22:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Turbidity curtains Hahira GA, November 14th 2016 (updated with directions and detail Nov 15th) — WWALS is holding an in-person press conference at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge to hear and participate in the announcement Wednesday morning of the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) Dirty Dozen 2016: a dozen of the worst threats to Georgia’s waters. WWALS will then offer a hike up the riverside to the Sabal Trail pipeline crossing location, where Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud leak up into the river.

Please arrive by 9:30 to be ready for the GWC teleconference at 10AM. On the phone call, details of the Dirty Dozen will be announced, with WWALS members assisting for one of them, and another also directly relevant to WWALS watersheds.

After the phone call, people from Florida and Georgia will have an opportunity to speak, because the Withlacoochee flows downstream into Florida, where Sabal Trail also plans to drill under the Suwannee River, as well as the Santa Fe, where 14 people got arrested recently protecting, and the other Withlacoochee (south) River. Let’s see a little cross-state-line solidarity against this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous fracked methane pipeline boondoggle. Call your local press before you come, and bring signs.

When: 9:30 AM Wednesday November 16th 2016

Where: US 84 bridge, east side, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA, 30.793747, -83.450167
It’s in the median of a busy highway, so be careful.

Screenshot 2016-11-14 15-14-56 What: Press Conference for Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen, with hike up the river.
It’s a rough hike, so come prepared with sturdy shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
Or just participate at the bridge. Bring signs if you’ve got them, or make them on the spot.
This is a completely peaceful nonviolent first-amendment press conference.

Event: facebook

Directions: from Live Oak or Gainesville, FL or farther south, or from Albany, Tifton, or Macon, GA or farther north, take I-75 Continue reading →

Sabal Trail still leaking drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River at US 84 in GA 2016-11-12

Update 2016-11-22:

Update 2016-11-14: GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD 2016-11-16

Steve Patterson, Jacksonville.com, 14 November 2016, Gas pipeline project headed to Suwannee River leaks into Georgia waterway; sparks environmental worries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Turbidity curtains with human for scale (Chris Mericle) Hahira, GA, November 13th 2016 — Apparently Sabal Trail continues to leak drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River, three weeks after it admitted to GA-EPD that its pilot hole under the river had leaked up into the riverbed.

WWALS members Deanna and Chris Mericle went to the US 84 bridge between Quitman and Valdosta, Georgia, and walked up the river to the site, about 2000 feet upstream. You can clearly see the water inside Sabal Trail’s turbidity curtains is not the same color as the river water.

“I am so angry because this is what we said would happen and we were assured the rivers wouldn’t be affected because they were drilling under them. The head woman at FDEP said exactly that! We told them it was likely because of our karst geology and we got patronized and patted on the head. You can guarantee they will downplay it and just drill another hole. I am pissed,” said WWALS member Deanna Mericle, who drafted the WWALS petition for last year’s four-month legal case and three-day hearing in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP. Continue reading →

Water Is Life Camp protecting Santa Fe River against Sabal Trail

It’s come to this: Protesters Arrested at Sabal Trail Construction Site, by Jim Tatum for Our Santa Fe River 13 November 2016, from Cindy Swirko, Gainesville Sun, 12 November 2016,

Protesters of the Sabal Trail pipeline were arrested at the Gilchrist County construction site Saturday, and opponents of the gas transmission line said protests will continue.

The Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office arrested 14 people, including one who had locked himself to a tanker truck that was delivering water needed for the construction, said Cara Jennings, a pipeline opponent.

The others who were arrested were on the roadside holding signs, she added.

Gilchrist County Sheriff car guarding Sabal Trail HDD site Jennings said the 14 remained Continue reading →