On the agenda for 6PM Monday 1 Feb 2016 in Live Oak:
9. Consider Agreement with Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC for temporary use of county owned property located on CR 252.
14. Discuss, scheduling a workshop to evaluate the proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline route near State Park on US 90 West. (Chairman Jason Bashaw)
17. Additional Agenda Items. The Chairman calls for Continue reading
Is less than 50 cents per person in Lowndes County enough to risk drinking water for all?
Noelani Mathews, 27 January 2016, Lowndes County Leaders Vote 4-1 for Sabal Trail,
A 4-1 vote Tuesday night has paved the way for the pipeline to run through part of Lowndes County, but some are upset about the Board’s decision.
“They’re suppose[d] to represent the people of the County, not the salesman for a pipeline company from Houston, Texas”, says John Quarterman, president of WWALS Watershed Coalition.
Continue reading
The Lowndes County Commission is voting tonight on an easement for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline through a mercury-contaminated closed landfill.
They only gave one day’s notice, and they didn’t mention the landfill.
Here is the letter (PDF) I just sent them asking them to reject that easement,
to support their own previous unanimous resolution against Sabal Trail,
and to contact state and federal elected and appointed officials and ask them
also to reject Sabal Trail.
You can write them, too, to commissioner@lowndescounty.com.
To: Lowndes County Board of County Commissioners, Continue reading
Update 2016-02-02: Dropoff locations and other updates.
It’s time to get local, state, and federal elected officials to put a stop
to the Sabal Trail boondoggle that risks our property rights, rivers, aquifer, and air.
You can sign a petition to Florida (or Georgia or Alabama) elected officials by
printing out the
PDF
for you and your neighbors.
See below for where to send them.
Or, to sign online, Gulf Restoration Network has put up a handy online form that will send your signature and personalized message directly to your members of Congress.
Here’s the text of the PDF: Continue reading
Apparently fracked methane is Sierra Club Georgia’s next fight now that Keystone XL is dead, since almost its entire January/February/March issue of Georgia Sierran is about opposing natural gas: PDF.
See for example “Why Natural Gas Is Not a Climate Solution”, by Joshua Hanthorn. And “LNG Puts Savannah at Risk”, by Karen Grainey and Stacey Kronquest. Karen is chair of the Coastal Group of Sierra Club Georgia. Pretty much everything in that article also applies to Jacksonville, and quite likely to Palm Beach and other locations in Florida very soon.
Mentioning WWALS is “Pipeline in Southwest Georgia and Central Florida Risks Drinking Water,” by Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper,
The Sabal Pipeline, a joint venture of Spectra Energy, Duke Energy, and NextEra Energy, poses threats to Georgia and Florida communities on multiple fronts. For southwest Georgia and north Florida residents it’s all risks and no rewards. However, so far federal and state authorities have thus far been unmoved by arguments against it.
During the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) public comment period, the agency received more than 1,000 written comments, mostly opposing the project, including resolutions against it from seven counties in Georgia and Florida, and three of the largest cities in its path (Albany, Moultrie and Valdosta).
The article talks about FERC’s FEIS, EPA, GA-EPD, and other matters, before turning to WWALS and Florida. Continue reading
The Commissioners for the one county on every Sabal Trail fracked methane path ever proposed, Suwannee County, Florida, meet tonight at 6PM in Live Oak. I can’t go, so I sent them this letter (PDF). If you can go, please do, or you can send them a letter, too.
To: Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners,
Dear Commissioners,
Thanks again for your hospitality at your meeting of December 15th.
Solar and wind can make coal go away with no need for natural gas.
The FPL representative who spoke didn’t seem aware of what Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning said about solar power last June: “If somebody wants to buy distributed generation, I want to sell it to 'em." See Herman K. Trabish, UtilityDive, June 11, 2015, “Inside Georgia Power's move into the residential solar market: The utility says it will offer solar through an unregulated business, but installers fear possible anticompetitive impacts”:
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/inside-georgia-powers-move-into-the-residential-solar-market/400562/That meeting gave me deja vu about a few years ago when Georgia Power and Southern Company were claiming Continue reading
Our rivers, creeks, swamps, lakes, and the Floridan Aquifer are part of that web of mutuality described on the north wall of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in DC:
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality,
tied in a single garment of destiny.
Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
It was the Alabama River they sought to cross on the Edmund Pettus Bridge when John Lewis, Continue reading
Sabal Trail pipeline meeting pavilion at SRSP
Approximately 40 people came out to get more information about the pipeline and to help strategize what steps to take to stop the pipeline. Attendees included people from as far away as Continue reading
Here’s WWALS video of
the radio interview this morning on WVGA 105.9 FM.
It’s an invitation to tomorrow morning’s events, both at 10AM:
Chris also got me to say a few words about why WWALS formed in the first place, and why you should all join WWALS; it has to do with the 700-year flood in 2009.
Plus some plugs for Valdosta’s wastewater fixes and their recent LiDAR flight.
The one thing I realized on the way out I forgot to mention, the one item that caused me to schedule this interview, was the workshop at VSU February 27th about the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, featuring the visual beauty of all WWALS’ rivers in an art exhibit and silent auction, the geology on display by Dennis Price, and the remains of past people and cultures still visible along the river by Tom Baird.
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow morning on the Little River, or other WWALS members look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning on the Suwannee River. If not tomorrow, there’s plenty more to do on our beautiful south Georgia and north Florida blackwater rivers!
Here’s the video:
Continue reading
Everybody listens to the radio in the car on the way to work,
and Friday morning 8:30 AM I’ll be talking about
paddling this Saturday morning 10AM on the Little River from GA 122 between Hahira and Barney to Lawson Millpond Road; it’s a nice brief 2.5 hour paddle along the Brooks-Lowndes County river border: you can do it!
When: 7:30AM Friday January 15th 2016
Where: 105.9 FM WVGA, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia
What: John S. Quarterman, president of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., on Chris Beckham drive-time radio show
How: Continue reading