WWALS is raffling off a Perception Swifty Deluxe 95 Angler Sit Inside Kayak.
You can donate for a raffle ticket online here, or you can get paper tickets at numerous festivals throughout the spring, starting today Continue reading
Stigma and market fear count, says jury over Sabal Trail
A jury slapped Sabal Trail’s pet consultants with the stigma of market fear:
Sabal Trail contended that there are no damages to market value based on market fear or stigma.
…the jury rendered a verdict in the amount of $309,500. This, of course, is over five-times the amount offered by Sabal….
Perhaps farmer Randy Dowdy is also right to object to Sabal Trail’s soil mixing consultants. And I wonder how this precedent might affect other property takings cases.
Photo: Mark Skogman for WWALS on Southwings flight 2 February 2017 of
Sunderland Groves on Lake Erie Road near Bay Lake Road,
28.4775900, -81.9026000
Brigham Property Rights Law Firm ( http://www.propertyrights.com), PRWeb, 20 March 2018, Jury Sides with Property Owners in Eminent Domain Suit with Sabal Trail Pipeline, Continue reading
Nutrien (PCS Phosphate mine) 5-year permit renewal 2018-03-16
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
Live Oak Committee meeting for Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018-03-21
Wednesday in Live Oak, the organizing Committee meets for the First Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. You can even write about the Ockolocoochee River!
When: 3PM Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Where: Brown Lantern Restaurant, 417 E Howard St, Live Oak, FL 32064
What:
WWALS Songwriting Committee
planning the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.
Like last week in Valdosta, you can also participate by telephone;
inquire within for how.
The Contest
Continue readingFarmer Randy Dowdy objects to Sabal Trail’s soil mixing evaluation plan 2018-03-13
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.
Letter from Randy Dowdy to FERC
Continue readingWWALS at A Day in the Woods 2018-04-21
At Heather Brasell’s annual outdoor event at the Gaskins Forest Education Center, WWALS will have a table as usual, thanks to WWALS Ambassador Dave Hetzel.
When: 1PM-5PM Saturday, April 21, 2018
Where:
Gaskins Forest Education Center
3359 Moore Sawmill Rd., Alapaha
What:
A Day in the Woods:
FREE Community Event Activities for all the family
Photo:
WG Bailey of Dave Hetzel at WWALS table, 2015-04-18.
The GFEC backs up to several miles of the Alapaha River on the Alapaha River Water Trail, and is itself an excellent example of native longleaf and riparian forest.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Ockolocoochee, Little River 1889-01-29
Update 2023-12-28: Revised version..
Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west. You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee. Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer.
Irwin County, 1885a, GeorgiaInfo, Rand McNally Map of Georgia, 1885
Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Pg 12., quoted in Ray City History Blog, 18 October 2010, More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River,
THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER.
VALDOSTA, Ga., January 19. -[Special.]- Away up near the northern limit of the great wiregrass section there is a big cypress swamp. They call them bays there. From this bay emerges Continue reading
FERC rubberstamps reinstatement of Sabal Trail permit, with two dissents 2018-03-14
Just as for PennEast, Commissioners LaFleur (not even voting no, “dissenting in part”) and Glick (actually dissenting) weren’t enough to stop rubberstamping a renewed permit for Sabal Trail. Yet after a pathetic whimper a few days ago, Sabal Trail, as so often these recent six months, is shipping no gas.
Graphs by WWALS, using data from
Sabal Trail’s own FERC-required Informational Postings.
About Commissioner Glick’s dissent
Commissioner Glick sure got one thing right, at the end of his statement: Continue reading
GA HB 879 coal ash dewatering up for full Senate vote 2018-03-15
A Georgia Senate Committee Chair from the Suwannee River Basin, Tyler Harper of Ocilla, got HB 879 out of his committee and onto the full Senate floor for a vote soon. Please remind your Georgia state Senator to vote for it so we’ll get to know more about when Georgia Power (or anybody else) is dewatering a coal ash pond, planning to shop it to local landfills.
Wes Wolfe, Brunswick News, 15 March 2018, Coal ash notification bill heads to full Senate,
The coal ash pond dewatering bill authored by state Rep. Jeff Jones received unanimous committee approval Tuesday afternoon, moving the public notification legislation one step closer to law. By making it through the state House of Representatives before the crossover deadline, and now ready for a vote by the full Senate, puts it in a rare group of bills to be so successful this session.
Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee Chairman Tyler Harper, Continue reading
Randy Dowdy calls for independent investigation of Sabal Trail soil mixing 2018-03-06
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