This you call finished, Sabal Trail?
Gene McQueen Road, Moultrie, GA
Yearly Archives: 2017
More than 100,000 acres and Billy’s Island in West Mims Fire 2017-05-03
We got smoked here in western Lowndes County yesterday and this morning 60 miles from the West Mims fire as it went up to 107,846 acres in and around the Okefenokee NWR. Many of the fire-fighting numbers went down since last post: remember, the goal is not to put the fire out, rather to contain it. As I write, a big storm just went over here heading that way, so maybe mother nature will take a hand today.
The Valdosta Daily Times has been covering this fire right along, most recently by Terry Richards, VDT, 2 May 2017, Rain barely felt at massive swamp fire,
FARGO — A mild rainfall Monday had little to no impact on the West Mims Fire burning through the Okefenokee Swamp, according to a firefighter.
The blaze, which had burned more than 100,000 acres by Tuesday afternoon, received about a tenth of an inch of rain from a weak cold front that moved through South Georgia Monday.
“It didn’t help,” said Leland Bass, a firefighter and public information officer for the Georgia Forestry Commission.
Maybe they’ll get more rain in the swamp today. Continue reading
Randy Dowdy interviewed by Valdosta Daily Times
Tom Potter, WWALS, Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, Sierra Club; Daniel DeMersseman, Valdosta Daily Times; Randy Dowdy, the farmer whose fields were destroyed by Sabal Trail
The VDT story.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Record-holding farmer, land destroyed by Sabal Trail, in Valdosta at pipeline safety meeting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Valdosta, May 3, 2017 — U.S. corn production record holder and world soybean record holder Randy Dowdy, whose record-producing fields were severely eroded in rains after Sabal Trail’s pipeline construction destroyed his terraces and caused massive erosion of his cropland, will be at the Rainwater Conference Center in Valdosta 11:30 AM this morning at a pipeline safety exercise to talk about the implications of Sabal Trail’s destruction for pipeline safety and his livelihood.
Randy Dowdy is the 2014 50-year record holder for U.S. corn production and the world record holder for soybean production. Sabal Trail gouged its pipeline through his terraces on the land he used for those soybeans in Brooks County. Despite his warnings, they left that damage unfixed until rains in January caused massive erosion, washing his topsoil into a nearby creek. Beyond immediate damage, this destruction affects Dowdy’s ability to grow such record yields, and the basic productivity of his fields. What further economic damage has Sabal Trail done to other farmers and landowners? Where else will Sabal Trail’s pipeline cause erosion, perhaps in some places exposing the pipe and risking corrosion and breaks?
The event 11:30 AM this morning at Rainwater Conference Center in Continue reading
Sabal Trail to export through Jacksonville, FL
Let’s connect the dots from Sabal Trail to LNG export through Jacksonville. To cut to the chase: Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy is already exporting LNG from Jacksonville, and is authorized to get LNG from both Floridian Natural Gas (FLiNG) in Martin County at the end of the Transco → Sabal Trail → FSC pipeline chain, and from Florida Gas Transportation (FGT)’s Jacksonville Expansion Project from Sabal Trail in Suwannee County to Jacksonville.
Working backwards, look at Jaxport’s own website, Corporate, Major Growth Projects, Liquifed Natural Gas:
EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES
Crowley-owned Carib Energy has already begun small scale exports of LNG to Puerto Rico and has plans for expansion to a number of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.
That JAXport page links to Crowley Maritime’s LNG Overview web page, which brags: Continue reading
Chicken hatchery coming to Quitman, GA
Update 2017-05-06: More on ownership of Aviagen.
In Brooks County south of Quitman, draining into Piscola Creek and the Withlacoochee River, in the same industrial park where WWALS caught Sabal Trail illegally burning, a poultry breeder will be setting up shop.
News Desk, Area Development, 9 March 2017, Aviagen Plans $18 Million Hatchery In Quitman, Georgia,
Aviagen, a leading broiler breeding company, will create 100 jobs and invest approximately $18 million in a new parent stock hatchery at Brooks County Industrial Park, 17 miles west of Valdosta, in Quitman, Georgia.
The Quitman facility will be Aviagen’s eighth Continue reading
Charges dropped against Sabal Trail protestors in Suwannee County, FL
How about the state of Florida drop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and get on with solar power in the Sunshine State?
Thomas Lynn, Suwannee Democrat, 30 April 2017, Charges against pipeline protesters dropped,
LIVE OAK — Charges against three Sabal Trail pipeline protesters who were scheduled to be tried in court this week were dropped by the state attorney’s office.
Jeff Siegmeister, state attorney for Florida’s third judicial circuit, said the decision was made for a couple of reasons.
“We made a decision to not give the protesters a platform and not waste the taxpayers money,” Siegmeister said.
How about the waste of taxpayer money on arrests and going this far in those cases? How about the state providing dozens Continue reading
All the way to GA 177: West Mims Fire 2017-04-30
Well, this keeps escalating, now 96,248 acres, including some on Billy’s Island, opposed by 499 personnel, 6 helicopters, 57 wildland fire engines, 6 dozers, 37 tractor plows, and 2 interagency hot shot crews, according to InciWeb today. Some crews came from as far away as Denver, according to CBS Denver 26 April 2017, and the smoke has spread as far as North Carolina.
InciWeb map, West Mims Fire, 2017-04-30
Today’s InciWeb release does claim Continue reading
BIG Little River Paddle Race 2017-04-29
Here are a few pictures (also on facebook) and videos (video playlist) from the
Fifth Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race.
Later you’ll see pictures of each winner coming in and being awarded. Winners posted, plus news coverage.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Check in at Red Roberts Landing 31.1920876, -83.5208021
Finish in sight
