I went to their board meeting and they invited me back to present slides on Earth Day:
When: 9AM to noon, Earth Day, Friday, April 20, 2018
Where:
Lower Suwannee Wildlife Refuge
16450 Northwest 31st Place, Chiefland 32626
Who: Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges
PR from the Friends says: Continue reading
See also: Nutrien (PCS) mining phosphate and water in Hamilton County and soon in Columbia County? 2018-07-11.
Hamilton County citizen and WWALS member Chris Mericle sent this Friday, with permission to post.
Hey John,
I just wanted to relate to you the status of the 5 year mining permit renewal for Nutrien (formerly PCS).
I was in a long teleconference yesterday afternoon where we were trying to negotiate for several modifications to the mining permit.
Figure 4. Location of existing and proposed Phosphogypsum Stack Systems (PGSS), in
FINAL REPORT: Review of PCS Phosphate — White Springs;
Activities and Operations Related to
Five-Year Renewal of Special Permit 03-1.
Review Period: January 2013 through December 2017
Prepared tor:
Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners.
February 23, 2018.
Prepared by:
Lampl-Herbert
In attendance: Continue reading
How can there be soil mixing yet zero noncompliance incidents?
Randy Dowdy asked directly to FERC, following up his
call in AgWeb for an independent investigation of Sabal Trail’s
destruction of his
world-record-holding soybean fields in Brooks County, Georgia.
Dowdy doesn’t trust Sabal Trail or anybody it sends to investigate that soil mixing. He’s hardly the first to say Sabal Trail’s inspectors don’t; see for example FERC’s Moultrie Scoping Meeting 2015-09-29 where James Bell said pipeline inspectors stood around until they noticed him watching, Sandra Jones said the surveyors were not qualified, and Attorney Daniel Dunn said Sabal Trail operates under darkness of misinformation. Dowdy may be late to the opposition, but he is determined.
Sabal Trail is still a stagecoach line in an electric car world, except stagecoaches didn’t destroy farmers’ fields.
Dear pipeline companies: if you gouge through a rock-star farmer’s world-record-holding soybean fields, you may find he gets national coverage.
Bryan Mitchell, March 6, 2018 08:16 AM, AgWeb powered by Farm Journal, Pipeline Nightmare: Randy Dowdy Calls For Independent Investigation,
Randy Dowdy’s soil death is no mystery, insists the Georgia producer, and now a federal inspection report appears to back his claims of soil damage on record-breaking farmland due to pipeline construction. A letter (Feb. 6) from the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) to the Sabal Trail Pipeline Project describes “topsoil and subsoil mixing” on Dowdy’s farming operation, yet significantly does not address issues of noncompliance.
GA-BR-029.000 Dowdy south field, Little Creek, MP 217, 1657-PL-DG-70197-219, 30.9439700, -83.6154600Dowdy signed Continue reading
Yesterday Sabal Trail filed with FERC a sketchy plan to investigate the subsoil and topsoil mixing it caused on four farmers’ lands in two Georgia counties. The tail wagging the dog, Sabal Trail demanded FERC rubberstamp this plan within one week.
GA-BR-028.000 Dowdy north field, Little Creek, MP 216.4, 1657-PL-DG-70197-218, 30.9503000, -83.6217700
Needless to say FERC didn’t supply the GPS coordinates, nor the county parcel numbers, nor the related Sabal Trail alignment maps: WWALS did that, to figure out things are in what Sabal Trail filed.
The details are on the WWALS website, also including maps by WWALS.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Remember the Florida bill with the bad amendment, withdrawn because you called? Well, the bill itself, HB 1149, is bad enough, and near to a vote.
Please sign Margaret Tolbert’s petition against that and another bad bill, HB 1308.
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS, from the Suwannee River, of Saturday crowd at Madison Blue Spring, 2017-06-24.
According to a March 1, 2018, Tampa Bay Times article:
“Cynthia Barnett, the author of three books on water and an environmental fellow in residence at the University of Florida’s Bob Graham Center for Public Service, said the bills are based on a faulty assumption concerning how much water Florida needs for its future growth.
The bills say that Florida will need Continue reading
Received today. -jsq
PUBLIC NOTICE:
SUWANNEE-SATILLA
REGIONAL WATER PLANNING COUNCIL MEETINGAnnouncement Date: March 5, 2018
TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:
The Suwannee – Satilla Regional Water Planning Council is holding its
next council meeting
at the following date, time, and location:Thursday, March 22, 2018
Registration: 10:00 A.M. — 10:30 A.M.
Meeting: 10:30 A.M. — 2:00 P.M.Flyin’ Cowboy
1645 South Peterson Avenue (Hwy. 441 S)
Douglas, GA 31535
For additional information Continue reading
Thanks to all who helped get HB 879 out of one committee and into the Rules Committee. It needs to get out of there to the full Georgia House by this Wednesday February 28, 2018.
So please contact your Georgia state legislators to ask them to back both bills that will help keep coal ash off our lands and out of our waters.
Here’s an easy way to send email to your Georgia statehouse Representative and Senator.
There’s more about the bills below. Continue reading
Please contact your Georgia state legislators to ask them to back two bills that will help keep coal ash off our lands and out of our waters.
Mercury from Coal Plant Scherer north of Macon goes up in the air and comes down in our Alapaha River. Coal ash from Tennessee and Florida is in the landfill in Lowndes County, Georgia that is a quarter mile uphill from the Withlacoochee River. Even the landfill owner doesn’t want any more coal ash, because it costs extra to keep it separate from other waste to prevent chemical reactions.
Here’s an easy way to send email to your Georgia statehouse Representative and Senator.
There’s more about the bills below. Continue reading
Yesterday’s Valentine’s Day present from the Georgia House was passing HR 158 with 166 yea and only 1 nay (6 not voting, and 7 excused). Except for district 175, which just finished a Special Election, every Georgia House member from the Suwannee River Basin voted yea. Thank you, Patty Bentley, John Corbett, Buddy Harden, Penny Houston, Dominic LaRiccia, Clay Pirkle, Jay Powell, Ed Rynders, Dexter Sharper, Jason Shaw, Jason Spencer, and Sam Watson!
Onwards to the Georgia Senate. We look forward to every Georgia State Senator from the Suwannee River Basin voting yea. WWALS members and others may want to give them a ring to remind them to do so. Senators Ellis Black (District 8) and Tyler Harper (District 7) please note that local governments in your districts have passed resolutions supporting HR 158.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!