Category Archives: Quantity

Water and property rights should trump pipeline profits –WWALS op-ed in Gainesville Sun

Third newspaper and still counting, 28 August 2014, Gainesville Sun, John S. Quarterman: Water and property rights should trump pipeline profits.

The WWALS op-ed also appeared in the Moutrie Observer 1 August 2014 and the Ocala StarBanner 3 August 2014.

This comes after the 18 August 2014 OSFR v. FPL: head to head in the Gainesville Sun.

-jsq

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

Resolution No. 14-10, Hamilton County, FL, 19 August 2014

Other Florida, Georgia, and Alabama counties could do what Hamilton County, Florida just did in this this resolution. Even before it got this resolution, FERC yesterday directed Sabal Trail to deal with what Chris Mericle had been saying, including proposing routes to minimize crossing the Withlacoochee River or to avoid crossing it entirely.

Chris Mericle sent a PDF copy of the resolution with its attached hydrogeological report. I’ve added links to the other referenced documents.

Chris is the local host for the September WWALS Outing on the Withalacoochee and Suwannee Rivers, where you can come float past that same area Sunday 21 September, and see many local springs, sinkholes and shoals that need to be protected from that pipeline.

RESOLUTION NO. 14-10

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
HAMILTON COUNTY, FLORIDA Continue reading

Sabal Trail avoid sensitive karst regions –Hamilton County FL Commission to FERC

Last Friday a resolution to FERC saying the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline should avoid sensitive karst limeston regions affecting water resources passed the Hamilton County, Florida Commission.

Joyce Marie Taylor has added the following to her article in the Suwannee Democrat 25 August 2014, Hamilton fights back against Sabal Trail pipeline,

A special meeting was called on Friday, Aug. 22, and the board voted to pass Resolution 14-10 that expressed their concerns about the proposed pipeline route across the Withlacoochee River that forms the western boundary of Hamilton County.

A portion of the resolution states, Continue reading

Protect the Withlacoochee River from the Sabal Trail Pipeline –Chris Mericle at the Hamilton County Commission

Chris Mericle, local host for the September WWALS Outing, spoke to the Hamilton County Commission last Tuesday about the same section of the Withlacoochee River, where the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is proposed to cross. You can come float past it yourself Sunday 21 September, and see many local springs, sinkholes and shoals that need to be protected from that pipeline, continuing on to where the pipeline would cross the Suwannee River.

Joyce Marie Taylor wrote for the Suwannee Democrat 25 August 2014, Hamilton fights back against Sabal Trail pipeline, Continue reading

Nestle and Madison Blue Springs

That magic word “jobs” sucked up water from one of north Florida’s most famous springs: Madison Blue Spring, very familiar to many people from south Georgia. Will it do the same about a pipeline?

Joseph Trento wrote for DC Bureau 20 July 2009, Nestlé: Draining America Bottle By Bottle: How Nestlé Got Millions and Millions of Dollars From a $230 Permit. Continue reading

Alapaha River Sink and Rise

The ‪Alapaha River‬ is an ‪intermittent river‬ for its last eighteen miles.

A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In some rare cases a river could flow into the ground and dry up completely at the end of its course, without reaching another body of water.
River, on Wikipedia

Stewart Tomlinson, USGS, public domain: Alapaha River Sink

Cross the Suwannee River: Sabal Trail permit application with FL-DEP

After an application for an exemption for the Withlacoochee River and the Santa Fe River, here’s Sabal Trail’s application to drill under the Suwannee River in between. Should we also expect an “HDD CROSSING” permit application for the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers? And watch out, The Villages in Sumter County, Florida! Sabal Trail has applied for a permit in your county, too. Continue reading

Flint Riverkeeper to GA Senate Aquifer Storage Study Committee

The same Floridan Aquifer underlies the Flint River, and our Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and other rivers, all of Florida, and across south Georgia all the way to the coast, where Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, explained it to the Georgia Senate’s Long-Term Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Study Committee, 4 August 2014 on Jekyll Island. The ASR idea of pumping treated water into the ground for later retrieval is a bad idea, as Gordon spelled out.

See especially this part in Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers’ Comments to the Senate ASR Study Committee,

In central south GA, eastern and coastal GA, Floridan water is thousands of years old, quite pristine, and is so slow to recharge that essentially it does not recharge in comparison to human uses.

Remember, the Flint River basin where the Georgia legislature keeps trying to implement ASR is the next one to the west 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