WWALS and Suwannee-St Johns Group of Sierra Club Florida are cooperating on outings now, and Sierra Club Florida is holding a Rural Office opening in October.
Category Archives: Aquifer
What WWALS Does: watershed advocacy from outings and water trails to wastewater and pipelines
Water trails, wastewater, corporate agriculture, solar power, fracking, and pipelines: WWALS works with many issues in many ways,
as part of our advocacy for conservation and stewardship through education, awareness, environmental monitoring and activities such as our monthly paddle outings.
Here’s an introduction to WWALS for the many new members and even more people following WWALS on facebook and twitter.
WWALS Watershed Coalition, or WWALS for short, is an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation about everything related to water in the watersheds Continue reading
Sierra Club protest at Lake City today 2016-08-18
Sierra Club Campaign Organizer Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson has taken the Lake City pipe yard ball and run with it. Monday she got TV coverage at that illicit Sabal Trail storage yard for 36-inch fracked gas pipe, and today she’s called a press conference and protest there. Plus Sierra Club has filed two legal actions. Here’s how you can help.
Haley Wade, WCJB-TV, Gainesville, Florida, 15 August 2016, New pipeline has protestors,
There is something you can do: you can say no.
Federal permits inflame opposition to Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle WWALS PR 2016-08-16
PDF FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, Georgia, August 16th 2016 — There is no excuse for $3
billion down this rathole of a 20th century dying fossil fuel
industry now that there are more solar power jobs than in all of oil
and gas extraction. One federal permit Friday and another federal
go-ahead impending for the Sabal Trail invasion of private property
and wetlands in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama stiffens the resolve
of the rapidly expanding opposition. WWALS Watershed Coalition
(WWALS) has revealed
apparent wetlands violations and
federal rule violations by Spectra Energy, the Houston, Texas pipeline company
that wants
to gouge under our Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers,
risking our water supply for its profit. Sierra Club has vowed to
use
“all legal means necessary to stop this fracked gas
pipeline.” Opposition across Georgia continues as dozens of new
groups joined the fight
a week ago in Gainesville, Florida. News
Friday
of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) wetlands permit has
inflamed opposition across the country to this latest fossil fuel
land and water grab.
Last month WWALS reported to USACE and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that Sabal Trail already has Continue reading
USACE refuses Madison County’s request for a Sabal Trail SEIS 2016-07-29
They didn’t even bother to fill in the year on the date, and “File with original letter”. Here’s what the Corps wrote (PDF) in response to Madison County’s request for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) about Sabal Trail.
File with
original letterDEPARTMENT or THE ARMY
JACKSONVILLE DISTRICT CORPS 0F ENGINEERS
POST OFFICE BOX 4970
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32232-0019July 29, 201
Reply to attention of
Regulatory Division
North Permits Branch
Jacksonville Permits Section
SAJ-2013-03030Madison Board of County Commissioners
Attn: Mr. Brian Kauffman, County Coordinator
Post Office Box 539
Madison, Florida 32341Dear Mr. Kauffman:
Please accept this correspondence as Continue reading
Madison County, FL asks USACE for a SEIS 2016-07-18
This request for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), mentioning Madison Blue Spring in particular, was sent July 18th or 19th 2016, one copy to each of the Corps addresses. (PDF). That’s the fourth Florida county to make such a request, after Hamilton, Suwanee, and Marion Counties. The Corps already responded to Madison County.
Board of County Commissioners
Madison County, Florida
Jacksonville Permits Section
U.S.A.C.E. Regulatory Division
Attn: Mark R. Evans,
Senior Project Manager,
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232Commander, U.S.A.C.E.,
Savannah District
Attn: Mr. Terry C. Kobs
1104 N. Westover Boulevard, Unit 9
Albany, GA 31707U.S.A.C.E.
Mobile District Reg. Div.
Montgomery Field Office
Attn: Mr. James S. Cherry II
605 Maple Street
Building 1429 Room 105
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6017
Norman C. Bay, Chairman Continue reading
Videos: Many speakers against Sabal Trail @ SRWMD 2016-08-09
The Chair said they would send a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and everyone applauded,
in the middle of a record number of people speaking
Tuesday morning to the
board of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD),
most against Sabal Trail, among other topics.
Please send names of the unidentified speakers to contact@wwals.com.
And you can still send your message to the SRWMD board via
Robin Lamm, Coordinator, rrl@srwmd.org; in the Subject say SRWMD Board Members; and remember to copy Noah Valenstein, Executive Director, NVD@srwmd.org NDV@srwmd.org.
(Thanks to Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson for the updated Coordinator name and address.)
Below are links to each of the videos, followed by a video playlist. These are the complete videos of everything before the lunch break, except for a camera failure at the beginning of one talk. See also the Agenda and board packet.
Continue readingStop Florida ERC from raising water toxin levels 2016-07-26
Update 2022-12-23: EPA gives Florida 12 months to fix its water quality standards 2022-12-05.
FDEP could have stuck with U.S. EPA’s recomendations for water quality,
but instead did a complicated statistical analysis to excuse raising
the amounts of benzene and other toxins in Florida’s waters.
Drinking, fishing, swimming: all are affected.
The decision may be made
9AM this Tuesday morning, July 26th 2016,
by the
Environmental Regulation Commission (ERC) in Tallahassee.
Please call or write its members, your newspaper or TV stations, or come to the meeting early for the demonstration and then attend (see below for details).
The ERC has cancelled all its other monthly meetings so far this year, yet Continue reading
Sabal Trail Georgia Section 401 Water Quality Permit
Received today from GA-EPD, although they issued it three weeks ago.
Basically, they believed Sabal Trail, with a few requirements,
and issued the permit.
GA-EPD sent three documents, which are inline below with links to the PDF copies that were attached: Continue reading
SRWMD listens about Sabal Trail easements, chooses unfortunately, yet offers assistance 2016-07-12
Attached are my comments to the SRWMD Governing Board today (July 12th 2016) in regards to the Sabal Trail crossing site over the Falmouth Cathedral Cave System.
I was the first to speak at the public comment period followed by Jim Tatum then Merrillee. Jim and Merrillee echoed my concerns. The three of us set the tone for the meeting! The Board was interested and engaged asking questions to better understand what impacts Sabal Trail poses for the cave system and the District. About Time!
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Sierra Club Florida speaking to SRWMD 2016-07-12
Photo credit:
Our Santa Fe River
Executive Director, Noah Valenstein offered to personally call the ACE to request Continue reading