Monthly Archives: October 2018

Sabal Trail leaked odorless gas, Suwannee County, FL 2018-09-29

Sabal Trail didn’t tell the state of Florida until a week later that it had leaked odorless gas from its Hildreth Compressor Station site in Suwannee County, Florida. And 10,405.5 pounds of Volatile Organic Compounds. What were those possibly hazardous substances, Sabal Trail?

Apparently they weren’t prepared for lightning. Where’s your vaunted cathodic ionization now, Sabal Trail? You and all the other pipeline companies claim that will detect leaks.

Hildreth Compressor Station Natural Gas Release Incident
Continue reading →

Kit to Water Quality Testing Committee Chair at WWALS Board 2018-10-21

E.D. Gretchen Quarterman delivered the first complete WWALS water quality test kit to Water Quality Testing Committee Chair Bobby McKenzie at the WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting Sunday. Now we are waiting for delivery of analysis materials, which should all arrive any day. Then we will start water quality testing in Georgia.

Photo: John S. Quarterman, L-R: Gretchen Quarterman, Bobby McKenzie, Carolyn Selby (WWALS Member), Shirley Kokidko, Ronnie Thomas; on the phone: Bret Wagenhorst (in Tifton), Eileen Box (in Live Oak), WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting 2018-10-21.

We haven’t forgotten about Florida, and we will be doing Florida training soon. We’re just starting with the biggest problem area.

Also on order is a second test kit, the rest of whose parts should finish arriving soon. WWALS paid for these first two kits out of funds from memberships.

We are applying for grants to buy more kits. Suggestions for more places to apply are welcome.

Your donations to WWALS help with this and other WWALS programs.

For much more about why we need to test, see Valdosta (and other) Wastewater.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting, Draft Agenda 2018-10-21

Draft Agenda
WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting
2:00-4PM, Sunday, 21 October 2018
South Georgia Regional Library, 2906 Julia Dr, Valdosta, GA 31602
Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676
facebook event

Water quality monitoring, water trails, WWALS Boomerang Paddle Race, Paddle Georgia, Alapaha Quest, festivals, projects and programs, pipelines, LNG export, phosphate mines, and more.

Invited to attend: WWALS members, especially committee members, and the general public.
All WWALS Board Members are expected to attend in person or by telephone.
The more done on the board list, the less time we have to spend in this meeting.

Board Members: Continue reading →

Ban drilling offshore Florida: vote yes on 9

On the ballot in Florida right now, is Constitutional Amendment 9, which bans offshore oil and gas drilling. Do you like Florida beaches, wildlife, clean water, and people? Please vote for this ban on offshore drilling.

Somehow banning vaping in enclosed indoor workplaces got tacked onto the same amendment, but that would also be a good thing.

Ballotpedia explains how this amendment got on the ballot and what’s in it.

Many environmental and business organizations throughout Florida support Yes on 9. You can, too. Please do.

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

October Hunter’s Moon Paddle, Banks Lake, 2018-10-23

Join us for a leisurely sunset paddle to watch the Hunter’s Moon rise over the lake.

Plan to arrive early enough to prep your boat so that we can launch by 6:15p. That will allow time to paddle around most of the lake before dark while we look for birds, gators and bats. Sunset on the lake is usually spectacular. If the sky is clear we will see the nearly full moon rise at 6:41p.

This is a leg of the Alapaha Quest, since Banks Lake is in the Alapaha River Water Trail.

When: 6 PM, September 11, 2018; be on the water by 6:15PM

Put In: Banks Lake Boat Ramp, 307 Georgia 122, Lakeland, GA 31635, in Lanier County.

GPS: 31.035097, -83.097045

Take Out: Banks Lake Boat Ramp

Bring: Bring a light for your boat or some type of light to have on yourself (glow stick, head lamp, or flashlight), and bring a rope for your boat. You must wear a PFD. A whistle is not required, but it’s a good idea in the dark. Mosquitos can be bad at the marina but bugs are usually not a problem on the water. Don’t forget boat, paddles, anacks, drinking water, warm clothes, and first aid kit. Also trash pickers and trash bags: every WWALS outing is also a cleanup.

This will be one night before the new moon. It will be dark once the sun goes down at 6:45 PM.

Free: This outing is free to WWALS members, and $10 (ten dollars) for non-members. We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!

Event: facebook, meetup

A previous Banks Lake paddle, 2018-07-27.

Continue reading →

WWALS at Brooks County Skillet Festival 2018-10-20

The WWALS booth will be back in Quitman, Georgia, this Saturday at the Skillet Festival, with buttons and stickers (WWALS, Suwannee Riverkeeper, Water Trails, Water Is Life) and the raffle kayak.

When: 9AM-3:30 PM, Saturday, October 20, 2017

Where: Brooks County Courthouse, 100 Screven Street, Quitman, Georgia 31643

What: Brooks County Skillet Festival, quilts, cooking, vegetable market, fashion, dogs, clogging, skillet toss, race, and parade

Event: facebook

WWALS at the Skillet Festival in 2017.

More: For more WWALS outings and events Continue reading →

LNG export through Tampa from Strom in Crystal River

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Crystal River, Florida, October 18, 2018 — Strom, Inc. now proposes exporting liquid natural gas (LNG) by tanker ship through the port of Tampa. That explosive cargo would get there by land from Crystal River through densely populated areas. LNG tanker ships would go out right by downtown Tampa and St. Petersburg, and under the I-275 bridge. Strom has always said some of this fracked methane would likely come from the Sabal Trail pipeline. Getting on with solar power for the Sunshine state makes a lot more sense than shipping gas under our rivers, through private property, and by major cities for corporate export profit. Clean energy for Florida and beyond is an issue in this election year.

Map: by WWALS, from federal and state filings of LNG export operations.

Strom “may elect to file an amendment to our application to allow transportation of LNG by LNG tanker,” according to its latest semi-annual report to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) (see https://wwals.net/?p=46497), According to Strom’s website it means LNG tanker ships, like this one: Continue reading →

Four weeks of fecal coliform 2018-10-09 2018-09-19 to 2018-10-09

This is why we alway say “as near as we can tell” or “according to the latest data” or words to that effect. The last data we had last week said fecal coliform at GA 133 on the Little River was below the state limit. But the actual most recent data, from last Tuesday, just received today, shows 610, which is three times the state limit of 200 cfu per 100 mililiters.

Meanwhile, on the Withlacoochee River, the count went up at US 41 and down at GA 133, with both still well above the state limit. But downstream of Valdosta and its Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WTP), at US 84 and at Horn Bridge at the GA-FL line, counts that were already within the limit Continue reading →

No Suwannee River Basin spills reported to Atlanta through 2018-10-15

Good news from GA-EPD! The forty spills reported to Atlanta since our last update included none in the Suwannee River Basin. So, according to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, no spills were reported since mid-September from Valdosta, Lowndes County, Quitman, Tifton, or anywhere else in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, not even during Hurricane Michael.

Little River below Troupville Boat Ramp 30.8484784, -83.3482902

Even more surprisingly, no spills were reported from Albany or Bainbridge during this period, despite their lack of power and extensive damage.

Wouldn’t you prefer to get this information updated daily, without waiting for me to pry it loose from GA-EPD and fight with spreadsheets? Your organization can sign up to ask GA-EPD to publish spill reports online the same day they get them.

No spills also does not mean no contamination, so maybe you’d also like to help with the new WWALS water quality testing program.

The data received from GA-EPD yesterday in response to a Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request is shown Continue reading →

Strom, Inc. LNG export quarterly report to DOE FE 2018-10-01

What’s this about LNG tanker, in Strom, Inc’s latest LNG export planning report?

Strom has insisted on liquid natural gas (LNG) in shipping containers since 2014, back when it tried to get FERC to state it wasn’t overseeing small-export LNG. Strom still aims to export through the Port of Tampa, and maybe other ports.

“As a direct result of recent Offtake and LNG supply requests, Strom may elect to file an amendment to our application to allow transportation of LNG by LNG tanker.”

Does that mean LNG tanker truck, such as I photographed rolling down I-75, and turning onto I-10 for Jacksonville, probably from Pivotal LNG in Georgia?

Or does it mean LNG tanker ship, like this one? Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.