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: Law
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
Judge Gives Sabal Trail Withlacoochee River Easement 2016-07-29
0.03 acres under the Withlacoochee River sold by the State of Georgia to Sabal Trail, operated by Spectra Energy of Houston, Texas, for $5,000, or $166666.66/acre.
That easement must be very valuable to Sabal Trail.
But it’s more valuable to us who live here and swim, fish, and boat on that river
and drink from the Floridan Aquifer.
If we’d known this was going on, some of us might have filed other documents in this case.
Also, I would have thought 666 once would have been enough.
Here are some things you can do to help stop this boondoggle, and background about why this pipeline is a bad idea when there are already more solar jobs than in oil and gas extraction, and Georgia is the fastest-growing U.S. solar market.
Here’s the judge’s final order (PDF), followed by the other court documents in this case: 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
Lake City Sabal Trail pipe yard in cleared wetlands
Update 2016-08-10: Videos of all the speakers.
You are invited to come ask SRWMD why it hasn’t
responded to WWALS’ request about the unregistered
Sabal Trail Lake City apparently on fill in wetlands.
You can speak in person Tuesday morning,
or write them a letter saying how Sabal Trail would affect you,
no matter where you are elsewhere on the pipeline path, in the Floridan Aquifer,
or for other reasons.
When: 9AM Tuesday August 9th 2016
Where: SRWMD District Headquarters,
9225 CR 49, Live Oak, FL 32060
Or write to: Noah Valenstein, Executive Director, SRWMD, NDV@srwmd.org.
Update 2016-08-07: You may also send a letter to all Board members of the SRWMD by writing to their
senior Board assistant:
Lisa Cheshire,
LMC@srwmd.org
Robin Lamm, Coordinator, rrl@srwmd.org
In the subject header to Lisa include the following info:
SRWMD Board Members:
Then cc here, too:
Noah Valenstein, NDV@srwmd.org
Sabal Trail is not on the agenda, but people can speak in Continue reading
Florida Congress members ask EPA to stop ERC toxic water level hikes
One Senator and eight representatives want
the EPA to fix what ERC broke last Tuesday.
Two of them are running against each other for Senate
yet they signed this letter together:
that’s how serious this situation is.
Here’s
PDF and the text is below.
Congress of the United States
Washington, DC 20510July 26, 2016
The Honorable Gina McCarthy
Administrator
US. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460Dear Administrator McCarthy,
We’re writing to alert you to our serious concerns with a problematic public health proposal in Florida that will soon be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval.
Continue reading
Confirmation of unregistered Sabal Trail Lake City Pipe Yard 2016-07-29
Caught red-handed with an unregistered pipe yard north of Lake City, Florida,
Sabal Trail tried today to make excuses to FERC.
Here’s the response WWALS
filed with FERC today, 29 July 2016,
as
Accession Number 20160729-5198,
“Evidence of unregistered Sabal Trail Lake City Pipe Yard and Request of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. for rescinsion of FERC approval of pre-construction activities under CP15-17-000.” (PDF)
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Continue reading