Category Archives: Law

Filing petition with Florida Friday against Sabal Trail

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 27th, 2015, Hahira — Continuing to oppose the unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous invading Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline, WWALS Watershed Coalition will file Friday an amended petition with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FL-DEP) opposing that agency’s intent to issue a permit for Sabal Trail Transmission to bore its 36-inch pipeline from Hamilton County to Suwannee County under the Suwannee River in Florida.

Update 2015-08-28: Here is the amended petition filed today.

WWALS originally filed a petition on August 7th. FL-DEP denied that petition on August 14th, giving a list of reasons and fourteen days to amend. WWALS will file an amended petition at the end of that fortnight, on Friday August 28th. Numerous residents of Florida have become WWALS members, and some will be named in the new filing.

Deanna Mericle, of Hamilton County, Florida, notes, Continue reading →

WWALS hopes to block Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline –Ocala StarBanner

Add that many WWALS members, some pictured here on the Suwannee River at the proposed Sabal Trail crossing, live in Florida, and this article from that same day is a good summary of the situation a week ago. It was also picked up by Bakken.com, “Powered by Shale Plays Media”.

Christopher Curry, Ocala StarBanner, 15 August 2015, Georgia-based group hopes to block natural gas pipeline, Continue reading →

WWALS petition to FL DEP vs. Sabal Trail

This is the petition (PDF) WWALS filed Friday 7 Aug 2015 against FL-DEP’s intent to isue a permit for Sabal Trail to drill under the Suwannee River and otherwise destroy wetlands and add hazards for no benefit.

Spectra Energy of Houston, Texas also wants to drill the Sabal Trail pipeline under the Santa Fe River and the Withlacoochee south River (the one that flows from the Green Swamp to the Gulf). Sabal Trail also wants to drill under WWALS’ Withlacoochee River that flows into the Suwannee, but in Georgia, so that is not a topic of this petition.

Remember there are still plenty of things you can do to help stop this pipeline invader from destroying forests, fields, and streams, adding hazards for no benefit.

And you can come see where Sabal Trail proposes to cross the Suwannee this Saturday, August 15th, as we paddle down the river!

-jsq

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

STATE OF FLORIDA

DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Continue reading →

Please join the opposition to the Sabal Trail watershed invader –WWALS to SSRWPC

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

PDF

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.

Please ask FERC to deny a permit for Sabal Trail

Continue reading →

Adopted 2015 Goals, WATERKEEPER, Valdosta Wastewater: WWALS Board Videos and Minutes 2015-04-08

In April the WWALS board approved a dozen goals for 2015, reviewed upcoming outings and the since-approved WATERKEEPER® Affiliate application, as well as the Valdosta Wastewater and pipeline situations, and moved ahead on planning for the since-solidified Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail Committee, while adding to a couple of committees. Here are the Minutes of the 8 April 2015 WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting approved at last night’s Board Meeting, and videos of that April meeting.

Here’s a video playlist:


Adopted 2015 Goals, WATERKEEPER, Valdosta Wastewater:
WWALS Board Videos and Minutes 2015-04-08
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS),
IHOP, Adel, Cook County County, Georgia.

-jsq

Spectra hires new lobbying firm in Atlanta for Sabal Trail

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 →

EPA coal plant emission limits still in place during legal cost review

Justice Scalia never said the EPA emissions rule was struck down, rather the Supreme Court sent it back to a lower court to get a cost analysis from EPA. 300x305 Mercury, in Improving Air Quality in Georgia, by Georgia Power, 30 June 2015 Meanwhile, many of the emissions controls are already in place on coal plants (including Plant Scherer), other coal plants have closed or are closing, and investors are abandoning coal in droves. So what Scalia wants may or may not be impossible for EPA to deliver, but EPA actually already has helped sink dirty coal. Meanwhile, Georgia Power finally is helping the sun rise on Georgia. So the prognosis is good for less mercury in the Alapaha River.

Emily Atkin, ThinkProgress Climate, 29 June 2015, What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About The Supreme Court’s Mercury Pollution Ruling, Continue reading →

Supreme Court rules on cost against EPA coal plant emission limitations

The EPA should account for all costs before making a ruling on mercury or other coal plant emissions, according to a 5:4 majority of the Supreme Court. The dissenting minority points out not only are costs usually figured in during the follow-on process for specific limits, but that actual costs can’t even be computed without knowing those limits. So Coal Plant Scherer mercury in the Alapaha River can’t be limited without figuring all the costs first, says the SCOTUS majority, although EPA and the Court minority point to numerous well-known medical problems caused by mercury. Are profits for a few big utilities and coal companies more important than clean water and public health, especially now that there are cleaner, safer, faster-to-build, and less expensive renewable energy sources available in solar and wind power?

According to today’s SCOTUS ruling, Continue reading →

This sister earth now cries out to us –Pope Francis

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”

Tiber River, vatican.va

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 →

Petition GA Gov. Deal to oppose Sabal Trail pipeline

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 →