Category Archives: Law

Not in our county, state, or aquifer: Valdosta votes against Sabal Trail pipeline tonight

Tonight at 5:30 PM the Valdosta City Council will vote on a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline they discussed Tuesday at their Work Session. Valdosta added a clause about the Floridan Aquifer to the clauses already in the resolution Lowndes County passed Tuesday evening that Valdosta is supporting. Valdosta’s aquifer clause reads:

WHEREAS, the City of Valdosta has concerns regarding any potential effect the proposed pipeline or its construction might have on the Floridan aquifer, the primary source of the drinking water supply for our City, County and the south Georgia area; and

As VSU Prof. Don Thieme remarked yesterday, Continue reading →

GWC DD#9: Sabal Trail pipeline threatens Withlacoochee River and Floridan Aquifer

300x388 DD#9 2014 Page 1 of 2, in GWC DD#9: Sabal Trail pipeline threatens Withlacoochee River and Floridan Aquifer, by Georgia Water Coalition, for WWALS.net, 22 October 2014 Here is the WWALS item #9 in the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen 2014; I added the links and the illustrations. -jsq

2014’s
Worst Offenses Against 
GEORGIA’S WATER

WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER & FLORIDAN AQUIFER

Gas Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Water, Way of Life

INTRODUCTION:

Southwest Georgians are fighting an invader—one every bit

as worrisome as the boll weevil that destroyed cotton harvests in the 1900s, except this one takes farmers’ land as well as crops. Continue reading →

New Georgia law bans riding ATVs in riverbeds.

Terry Dickson and Walter C. Jones wrote for the Florida Times-Union Saturday, May 22, 2010, New Georgia law bans riding ATVs in riverbeds,
IMG_8139.JPG

The measure should increase safety and reduce environmental damage.

Riding all-terrain vehicles in stream beds is against the law in Georgia with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s signature on legislation Friday that has been long sought by environmentalists, property owners and safety advocates.

House Bill 207, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail trying to avoid Withlacoochee River

Chris Mericle got the appended letter from Sabal Trail through Congressman Yoho’s office (FL-03). -jsq

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Norfleet, Jessica
Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 10:41 AM
Subject: FW: Comment on Filing submitted in FERC PF14-1-000 by Individual No Affiliation,et al.

Here is the context of the information I just spoke to you about,

Jessica and Clay, I want to provide you a quick heads up regarding the Withlacoochee River crossing. Continue reading →

DuPont withdraws permit application for Jesup mine –Riverkeepers and Greenlaw

Land use planning can make even a $60 billion market cap company think again about a mine in our sensitive karst limestone aquifer. details here. Greenlaw pictures here. -jsq

Press Release

For Immediate Release: August 27, 2014

Public Outcry Against Proposed Mine Continues to Grow, Mining Company Withdraws Permit Application

JESUP, GA-After hundreds of local residents, conservation groups, and elected officials expressed concerns Continue reading →

Moultrie Observer: WWALS op-ed against Sabal Trail pipeline

Bigger type than the rest of the page, and in the editorial column position: Haley Hyatt, who took these pictures, noticed that about how the Moultrie Observer printed the WWALS op-ed Friday 1 August 2014, as “Much opposition”.

So that’s at least two newspapers so far, the other being the Ocala StarBanner. Continue reading →

WWALS op-ed against Sabal Trail pipeline published

The Moultrie Observer printed the WWALS op-ed Friday 1 August 2014; that’s still not online. But the Ocala StarBanner has it online, Sunday 3 August 2014, Water, property rights over pipeline profits. Several more newspapers are considering it.

-jsq

Water and property rights more important than methane pipeline profits

This is a long version of the op-ed sent to many newspapers in WWALS’ watersheds; there is also a short version. -jsq

Protesters drove as far as nine hours to Leesburg, GA July 10th, where Spectra Energy lost its eminent domain demand for its Sabal Trail 36-inch, hundred-foot right-of-way natural gas pipeline, and local landowners countersued. Spectra hobbled back to Houston, Texas bound by strict conditions for surveying that one Mitchell County property, and bound to haunt south Georgia again for a trespass jury trial.

The ensuing flurry of newspaper op-eds by Spectra’s Andrea Grover plus a page-long Sabal Trail interview in the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), didn’t mention numerous Sabal Trail downsides. Continue reading →

Water and property rights over methane pipeline profits

This is an op-ed submission sent to many newspapers in WWALS’ watersheds and beyond. There is also a longer version. -jsq

Protesters drove up to nine hours to Leesburg, GA July 10th, where Spectra Energy lost an eminent domain demand for its Sabal Trail 36-inch, hundred-foot right-of-way natural gas pipeline, and local landowners countersued. Spectra hobbled back to Houston, Texas, bound by strict conditions for surveying that one property, and bound to haunt south Georgia again for a trespass jury trial.

Spectra bragged in op-eds about 50 public meetings, never mentioning overwhelming public opposition in Moultrie, Valdosta, Clyattville, Madison and elsewhere to that gash through our fields, forests, and wetlands, and under our Withlacoochee River twice.

Sabal Trail’s air quality permit application with Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division met immediate Continue reading →

EPA hearings Tuesday and Wednesday in Atlanta and Climate Rally by Sierra Club

Mercury in the Alapaha River probably comes from coal Plant Scherer near Macon. EPA is holding public hearings on its proposed Clean Power Plan next week, 29-30 July 2014, in Atlanta. You can also comment online until 16 October 2014 on Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602. And you can express your opinion outside with Georgia Sierra Club at the Atlanta Climate Rally Tuesday at high noon. Maybe you want to mention shifting from coal to “natural” gas (fracked methane) actually may make matters worse here, so EPA needs to go further.

While that proposed carbon rule may help clean up coal plants like Scherer, it says nothing about methane, which EPA says is Continue reading →