Category Archives: Pipeline

GWC win over Sabal Trail in Georgia Trend

Water and property rights are the same when fighting a natural gas pipeline: Georgia Trend understands what Georgia Water Coalition is doing to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

Ben Young, Georgia Trend, June 2016, Sustainable Georgia: Collecting Water,

…Nearly every county can claim scenic waterways — some 15 established water trails are highlighted by the Georgia River Network, with another 17 in the works.

But clean water is vital for more than tourism — as evidenced by the continuing news out of Flint, Mich., and the spectacle of that state utterly failing to provide basic services to residents in a way we are more used to seeing in the Third World.

Closer to home, Georgia lawmakers Continue reading →

Pictures of high school student photography contest winners, Serenity at Lime Run Spring

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Live Oak, June 4rd 2016 — The photographers of these inspirational pictures were themselves photographed by a local photographer.

“It’s so important to engage young people in respecting and appreciating nature. Hopefully they will want to protect it.” said Deanna Mericle, WWALS member from Hamilton County, who organized this contest along with Eileen Box of Suwannee County and the Live Oak Woman’s Club, two weeks ago in Live Oak, Florida. Continue reading →

Videos: Elected Officials see sinkholes where Sabal Trail would cross Suwannee River State Park 2016-05-15

You can see U.S. Congress member Ted Yoho FL-03 and a staffer for Sen. Bill Nelson discuss water, air, energy, growth, and past and future generations with local citizens environmental groups, including Suwannee County residents plainly saying they’re in the incineration zone. You can see for yourself sinkholes Sabal Trail omitted from what it told FERC. Soon we hope to see letters from Ted Yoho and Bill Nelson to the Corps and to FERC.

Below are links to the WWALS videos of the event, with many notes. For handouts, still pictures, and more information about this event of Sunday morning May 15th 2016, see Continue reading →

Sanford Bishop GA-02 requests Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement for Sabal Trail from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2016-05-27

Rep. Sanford Bishop GA-02 just stood up again against the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline invader, for the Flint River, the Floridan Aquifer, and his constituents in Albany, and Dougherty and Terrell Counties, pointing out FERC shouldn’t have issued a certificate before all the state Clean Water Act Section 401 permits were in, and asking for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

Many counties and county seats have passed resolutions against Sabal Trail I’m sure we’re all looking forward to similar requests from Austin Scott GA-07, in whose Congressional district Sabal Trail would cross Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee River, and in which Moultrie, Valdosta, and the counties of Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes passed resolutions against the pipeline. And especially from Ted Yoho FL-03, in whose district Sabal Trail would cross the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers through the most vulnerable recharge area of the Floridan Aquifer in the Florida Springs Heartland, and in which the counties of Hamilton, Suwannee, and Marion have already sent letters to the Corps, like Rep. Bishop just asked for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

We know the Corps did a SEIS for Keystone XL. The Corps should do a SEIS for Sabal Trail, so Continue reading →

Prizes awarded to high school students, Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest 2016-05-23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Live Oak, May 24th 2016 — A Hamilton High student took $100 home for first place, and Branford High took the rest of the prizes, at the Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest, last night in Live Oak, Florida, organized by the Live Oak Woman’s Club and WWALS Watershed Coalition. Boys and girls were equally represented in the four prizes awarded, and grades ranged from 10 to 12.

[Prizes awarded to high school students, Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest 2016-05-23]
Prizes awarded to high school students, Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest 2016-05-23

Anyone of any age or gender or county can enjoy the beauty of the Florida Springs Heartland. We hope recognizing these students and their photographs will help bring awareness to the fragile beauty of Lime Run Spring, located in Suwannee River State Park, and will help preserve this spring in accordance with the Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act.

Honorable Mention, Mallory Stevens, Branford High School, 11th grade

Continue reading →

Cave Diving Workshop, Lake City, 2016-05-21

If you can’t get to the BIG Little River Paddle Race Saturday at Reed Bingham State Park Saturday morning between Adel and Moultrie, GA, there’s a cave diving workshop in Lake City, FL. And yes, the Paddle Race is still on unless there’s actually lightning, hail, or torrential rain tomorrow morning, and so far that seems unlikely. But you can still paddle at Reed Bingham and go to the social in Lake City tonight, the afternoon part of the Workshop tomorrow, and the rebreather demonstration or spring tours Sunday.

What’s NCS-CDS? National Speleological Society, Cave Diving Section.

Social: 7PM Friday May 20th 2016 at 313 NW Commons Loop, Lake City, FL

Workshop: Continue reading →

Sinkholes and Sabal Trail: Elected Officials Hike, Suwannee River State Park 2016-05-15

Sunday morning May 15th 2016, nine and more environmental organizations showed U.S. Congress member Ted Yoho FL-03 and a representative from Sen. Bill Nelson Chris Mericle showing Ted Yoho two geology reports 30.3861389, -83.1693420 saw sinkholes much closer to Sabal Trail’s proposed drill path under the Suwannee River than the pipeline company told FERC, along with two reports by local practicing geologists explaining how fissures and caverns underground extend the problem far past the artificial distance of effects Sabal Trail claimed.

Update 2016-05-17: Thomas Lynn reported in the Suwannee Democrat and Valdosta Daily Times.

Both Rep. Yoho and Suwannee River Water Management District Executive Director Noah Valenstein said at the end of the expedition that Continue reading →

We have a right to expect waterways and groundwater to be clean –Dennis J. Price

Another letter against Sabal Trail and for the rivers and the aquifer in the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th 2016.

In response to Jason Bashaw’s, Chairman of the Suwannee County Commission, article in the Suwannee Valley Times, I have this to say. Why is it that if people are concerned about the environment they live in, they are automatically placed into this environmental left category? Like many, many people in our surrounding counties, I hunt, fish, hike and paddle our local rivers. I use the environment as do we all.

I use the environment as do we all. So, for working and paying taxes all my life — as a Vietnam Veteran, as a person who chose to live in this rural part of Florida and raise his kid, as a person who is not now nor ever will be wealthy — I count our public lands, our woods and rivers as a reward for doing the right thing. I do not mind my tax dollars going towards public lands. Mr. Bashaw uses the environmental left in a derogatory manner as a means of denigrating them, and he is including me in it and I resent it. I resent it for my friend’s in WWALS and others who show concern for the pipeline route. I have not met an environmental lefty among them.

WWALS is, Continue reading →

Suwannee M&R Construction Permit Application to FDEP

Sabal Trail proposes a metering and regulation (M&R) station about 10 miles from Ichetucknee Springs State Park or the Santa Fe River, Directions from Ichetucknee Springs State Park to connect with Florida Gas Transmission and FGT’s proposed Jacksonville Expansion Project.

The permit notification says “in Suwannee County near the intersection of State Road 247 South and County Road 49 South in Lake City, Florida.” That’s at 30.031970, -82.852732, which according to the Suwannee County Property Appraiser is Parcel Number 19-05S-15E-0110100.0020,
Owner’s Name: SABAL TRAIL TRANSMISSION, LLC
Mailing Address: 5400 WESTHEIMER CT, HOUSTON TX 77056

Which is about 15 miles by road across from Fort White, FL.

Suwannee Democrat, 4 May 2016, PUBLIC NOTICE OF INTENT TO ISSUE AIR PERMIT, Continue reading →

Leadership is supporting the county’s own people against the Sabal Trail invader –WWALS in Suwannee Democrat

In the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th, 2016.

A company from Houston, Texas wants to fill our earth, water, and air with violence. WWALS Watershed Coalition showed Suwannee County Commissioners sinkholes in the middle of the pipeline path that Sabal Trail didn’t mention to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). All of them, except Jason Bashaw, studied a report by a local geologist and showed leadership by voting to tell that “truth that exists in the middle” to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The quotation above is a reference to Continue reading →