Category Archives: River

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 →

Video of Chris Beckham radio show about BIG Little River Paddle Race 2016-05-21

You are invited this Saturday morning to Reed Bingham State Park (between Adel and Moultrie) for a morning of sun, fun, cypress, turtles, and don’t pet the alligator at the fourth annual BIG Little River Paddle Race. You can register online (follow the link) or at the site (also follow the link for details). And Phil Hubbard’s special offer is still open: he will pay for two free registrations. If interested, send email wwalswatershed@gmail.com; first two received win.

Lots of prizes in numerous categories, including $100 for first prize. Plus Phil Hubbard also made and we have available the WWALS Fallers Plaque, which you may win if you inadvertently fall into the water. Thanks again to Bret Wagenhorst of Tifton for organizing the paddle race.

Here’s video of me talking about that on Chris Beckhams’s radio show, WVGA 105.9 FM the morning of May 16th: 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 →

BIG Little River Paddle Race on Chris Beckham drive-time radio WVGA 105.9 FM 8:00 AM 2016-05-16

Update 2016-05-19: video of the radio interview, and don’t forget the paddle race is this Saturday!

Everybody listens to the radio in the car on the way to work, and Monday morning 8:00 AM I’ll be talking about the BIG Little River Paddle Race: community, water, trees, birds, fish, sunshine, and fun! $50 cash prize for first place, plus awards in numerous categories, or just paddle leisurely. It’s the fourth annual at Reed Bingham State Park, between Adel and Moultrie, on the border of Cook and Colquitt Counties, only 40 minutes from Valdosta. The Paddle Race is weekend after next, Saturday, May 21st, and you can sign up online or at the event. Before that, a radio show to talk about the paddle race.

When: 8:00AM Monday May 16th 2016

Where: 105.9 FM WVGA, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia

What: 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 →

Drowning at Pafford’s Landing on the Alapaha River 2016-05-07

One version of the Saturday drowning on the Alapaha River near Lakeland is being carried all over the country, Lanier Parks, Inc. Parcel 030 0038B from Richmond to Texas, and there is another version.

Terry Richards, valdosta Daily Times, 9 May 2016, UPDATE: Father dies saving Lanier child from drowning,

A small child wandered away from a group of adults and into the Alapaha River at Pafford’s Landing, he said. When the father noticed what had happened he jumped in, swam to his daughter who was struggling to keep her head above water and held her up until someone took her from him, Norton said. The father never resurfaced.

Pafford’s Landing is at 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 →

Nankin to Madison Highway, Withlacoochee River, 2016-07-09

Shoals, creeks, and help us find MacIntyre Spring on the Brooks County side of the Withlacoochee River just before Florida.

When: 8AM Saturday July 9th 2016
facebook event.

Put in: Nankin Boat Ramp, 6899 Clyattville-Nankin Rd, Valdosta, GA 31601, 30.675192, -83.394143.

Take out: Madison Highway Boat Ramp, Madison Highway at the Florida State Line in Lowndes County, Georgia, 30.635933, -83.311103.

Duration: 9.1 miles, about 5 hours.

Shuttle: Continue reading →