Canada’s National Energy Board just ordered Spectra Energy to fix chronic
corrosion and leak problems after numerous fines, as did U.S. PHMSA before, yet
Florida’s DEP plans to trust Spectra to build the Sabal Trail pipeline
on top of our Floridan Aquifer, drilling under the Suwannee and Santa Fe
Rivers.
This in the Notice of Intent to Issue Sabal Trail Transmission of 10 July 2015 sounds good without that context: Continue reading
This letter is for today’s Monday 20 July 2015 SSRWPC meeting, at Aniston’s Restaurant, 1404 W. Baker Highway, Douglas, GA. See also the LAKE videos of last month’s SSRWPC meeting. -jsq
Dear Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council,
WWALS Watershed Coalition is the WATERKEEPER® Affiliate
representing the watersheds of the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers,
which are in the proposed paths of the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline
through Lowndes, Brooks, and Colquitt Counties Georgia.
WWALS has long opposed that pipeline from Alabama to Florida, which is funded by NextEra Energy of Florida and Duke Energy of North Carolina for construction by Spectra Energy of Houston, Texas. WWALS is an intervenor against it with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on docket CP15-17.
A Spectra is haunting Atlanta!
Apparently Spectra is feeling the heat about its proposed Sabal Trail
fracked methane pipeline and has pushed the revolving door to get some lobbyists in Atlanta. We tried to warn you that you are surrounded, Atlanta!
So much for FERC being the only deciding body. Don’t forget to sign the Petition to GA Gov. Deal to oppose Sabal Trail pipeline.
Greg Bluestein, AJC Insider, 7 July 2015, Trio of bipartisan Atlanta lobbyists opening up new shop, Continue reading
Investment firms owned by Bill Gates have bought thousands of
acress of agricultural land in counties in or near WWALS watersheds
in south Georgia and north Florida, all above the Floridan Aquifer,
near the Alapaha, Alapahoochee, Withlacoochee, and Suwannee Rivers,
as part of a nationwide buying spree of a quarter million acres.
Here’s a summary of what we’ve found thus far. Any more recent posts should be found through this search.
These purchases of hundreds and thousands of contiguous acres are all after Bill Gates announced in 2012 he was going to “fix” agriculture in conjunction with Monsanto and Syngenta.
And it’s not just Bill Gates. Continue reading
Pope Francis makes a religious, ethical, humane, scientific, and practical case for stewardship of this earth and its waters, with moral and ethical bases for “the choices which determine our behaviour”. His case does not require any reader to be Catholic or Christian, as the Pope integrates his faith with the science of an integral ecology. You don’t have to agree with everything he wrote (I don’t) to agree with the gist of it, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:
“all life is interrelated”
Pope Francis’ letter to the world is long but well worth reading in full, and these excerpts I hope will encourage everyone to do that.
ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI’ OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE FOR OUR COMMON HOME, 18 June 2015, Vatican City. Continue reading
Adel, (June 12, 2015) — The Waterkeeper Alliance Board of
Directors approved WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. as a Waterkeeper
Affiliate on June 4th, 2015. WWALS Watershed Coalition, a
Waterkeeper Affiliate, will work to conserve our central south
Georgia and north Florida watersheds by combining firsthand
knowledge of the watersheds with an unwavering commitment to the
rights of the community and to the rule of law.
“Waterkeeper Alliance is thrilled to have WWALS as the eyes, ears, and voice for this vital watershed and community,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Waterkeeper Alliance President. “Every Continue reading
With the artesian level as much as 100 feet above sea level and the land surface
is seldom more than 200 feet, a
Sabal Trail pipeline drilling frac-out wouldn’t
have to go far to get into the Floridan Aquifer
groundwater used by wells around here.
We already saw such water contamination would go underground is
hard to predict.
This is not news: here’s a paper from 1966 with the main points.
Artesian Water in Tertiary Limestone in the Southeastern States, By V. T. Stringfield, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 517, 1966. Continue reading
Who could have suspected that
corrosion caused the crude oil pipeline rupture still pollution
California’s coastline from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles,
according to PHMSA’s amended corrective order
as reported by Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk, Santa Barbara, 3 June 2015?
Right after TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot, as reported Julie Dermansky, Desmogblog, 30 April 2015?
Both pipeline companies claimed they used cathodic protection, which is supposed to detect and prevent such leaks.
Kinder Morgan, proposing to gouge its Palmetto petroleum products pipeline across South Carolina and the Georgia coast to Jacksonville, also claims to use cathodic protection and other measures, yet is no stranger to many incidents of corrosion and leaks.
There’s lots more evidence that such preventative measures don’t work, and often aren’t even applied, not for oil pipelines and not for fracked methane (“natural gas”) pipelines. You can sign the petition to help stop Texas pipelines from invading Georgia. Continue reading
Please sign this petition to
Please Ban The Sabal Trail Fracked Gas Pipeline.
Congratulations to Push Back the Pipeline for convincing GA Gov. Deal and Lt. Gov. Cagle to oppose Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto Project and the Georgia Dept. of Transportation to deny KMI a permit.
Now it’s time for the same for the Sabal Trail Pipeline. The permitting process is different, but opposition from the state of Georgia could stop this invader, too.
While Sabal Trail has moved off our Withlacoochee River in Florida,
it still wants to
cross the Withlacoochee in Georgia
at the Continue reading
Boating on our rivers and water trails for them,
issues and education: 
you can help with the fun and work of WWALS!
Here’s much of what can be done laid out in a list of a dozen WWALS Goals for 2015.
The board has at least one opening right now,
and the committees always could use more members. You can apply through the online form.
See also the monthly newsletter, the news about WWALS, and of course the website with blog, facebook the page and group, and WWALS on twitter, Youtube, and the membership google group. You can become a member or corporate sponsor of WWALS online right now.
The WWALS Executive Committee 11 March 2015 recommended Continue reading