Cattle, sinkholes, and digups vs. Sabal Trail: Janet Barrow 2017-11-20

Sabal Trail apparently doesn’t know cattle.

cattle go rogue over Sabal Trail pipeline markers

The pipeline company claimed they know restoration, but that’s not what the ground looks like now, with sparse vegetation and erosion. They say they love wildlife, but they drove off a heron and who knows what else. They’re driving down property values. What are those bubbles? Which milepoint is which, anyway? Janet Barrow lives in Marion County, but she also reports on Citrus County. For 54 pages, with a summation.

For the rest of FERC Accession Number 20171120-5026, “Comment of Janet L Barrow under CP15-17, et. al.; A Citizen’s Supplemental Information Regarding Sabal Trail’s October, 2017 Monthly Report” on the WWALS website, follow this link.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

EPA perfunctory Lack of Objections to FERC Sabal Trail DSEIS 2017-11-20

EPA doesn’t even remember when it sent its own greenhouse gas (GHG) comments to FERC, forgets that it already told FERC nevermind, and now says, despite copious evidence filed by Senators, professors, Riverkeepers, and environmental organizations from multiple states as far away as Colorado, that FERC’s incorrect and inadequate Draft Supplementary Environmental Impact Statemen (FSEIS) rates “Lack of Objections or “LO””.

EPA to FERC, Re: SMPP This latest EPA letter is dated November 20, 2017, but FERC didn’t inform intervenors about it until today, two weeks later. The EPA letter claims:

The EPA commented on the FEIS on January 25, 2016. In those comments the EPA provided several recommendations including that the FERC consider a detailed evaluation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in future analyses.

Yet FERC’s Docket CP15-17 shows no comment by EPA in January 2016. It does show this same G. Alan Farmer, Director, Resource Conservation and Restoration Division, EPA, wrote a letter to FERC filed 1 December 2015 as Accession Number 20171201-0034 (see also WWALS blog post), in which he said nothing I can see about greenhouse gases, but he did basically say “nevermind” to EPA’s extensive letter of October 26, 2015, filed as Accession Number 0151102-0219 (clean text on the WWALS website), which October letter did include: Continue reading

Hagan Bridge Landing, Withlacoochee River, GA 122 2017-11-26

Pretty low at Hagan Bridge, the start of the WWALS outing down the Withlacoochee River to Franklinville, February 2, 2018.

Hagan Bridge, River bank

I took these pictures Saturday a week ago, November 26, 2017, when the Skipper Bridge gauge read Continue reading

Sabal Trail low gas 2017-12-02

Not just one week anymore, more than two weeks: for seventeen days or more than half a month Sabal Trail shipped no gas, and it’s at less than ten percent of its stated operational capacity today.

2017-06-14 to 2017-12-01, Sabal Trail Operational Capacity
Sabal Trail Operationally Available and Nominated Capacity, 2017-06-14 to 2017-12-02, graphed by WWALS from Sabal Trail’s FERC-required online reports.

Also, on October 30th Sabal Trail went down to 14 Million Dekatherms a day (MDTH/day) nominated capacity out of 779 MDTH/day operationally available capacity. Both that and the drop to zero on December November 14th were shortly after Sabal Trail ramped up nominated capacity. Did you bust something, Sabal Trail? Continue reading

FERC Chairman running scared of pipeline opposition

Especially scared of Sierra Club’s DC Circuit Court win against FERC and Sabal Trail. He said the “sea change” in sophistication of the opposition reminded him of the No Nukes movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Maybe he forgets: we won! And solar and wind power are already winning against pipelines.

John Siciliano, 30 November 2017, Washington Examiner, FERC chairman takes a break from discussing coal plan to slam pipeline protesters,

FERC Chair Neil Chatterjee

There has been a “sea change in the identity, volume and goals of stakeholders participating in our proceedings, as well as in the nature and tone of the rhetoric of those who oppose pipeline projects.”

Adding to the national activist groups are the Continue reading

A year of opportunities to stop phosphate mining in Union County, FL

Union County, Florida apparently takes its duties to the public seriously, with a series of meetings through the next year about mining (including phosphate mining) in its Comprehensive Plan and Land Development Regulations (LDR). People in Union County and everywhere who don’t want another phosphate mine leaching into groundwater, rivers, and springs and driving away other jobs, please show up at the meetings or write to the Union Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). For example, start by advocating the Commissioners extend their moratorium against phosphate mining.

Jim Tatum of Our Santa Fe River (OSFR) has turned that schedule into an image, and I’ve included it below as text, with a link to Union County’s own PDF.

Union County, FL Mining Moratorium Schedule

Text version of Union County mining amendment schedule

Union County Continue reading
Union County
Proposed Schedule
Mining Moratorium,
Comprehensive Plan Amendment &
Land Development Regulations Amendment
November 20, 2017
(PDF)

Third Regional Plan Update: SGRC in Tifton 2017-12-07

If you haven’t been to one, here’s another chance to get your input into the SGRC regional comprehensive plan.

When: 10AM to 12:30 PM, Thursday, December 7, 2017

Where: Tifton-Tift County Chamber of Commerce,
100 Central Avenue, Tifton, GA 31793

What: 3rd Regional Plan Update Workshop

Specific Areas, Threatened regionally important resources
Page 19, SGRC Regional Plan Update Workbook

The notes in red look familiar.

Reminder received yesterday: Continue reading

Two public meetings about the new Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park

Today (Tuesday) and Thursday, public workshops about Florida’s newest state park, Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park.

When: 5:30-8PM, Tuesday,
November 28, 2017

Where: 23760 NW 187th Avenue,
High Springs, FL 32643
Santa Fe Room,
Old School Community Center

When: 5:30-8PM, Thursday,
November 30, 2017

Where: 105 NE 11th Avenue,
Trenton, FL 32643
Gilchrist County
Public Library

Flyer, FDEP

A COPY OF THE AGENDA MAY BE OBTAINED BY Continue reading

Mt Zion United Methodist Church Spring, Clyattville, GA

Aaron Sirmons sent these pictures. He was tipped off by Guy Bryant.

Spring reflection, Clyattville, GA

Apparently the church used to use the spring for baptisms. Continue reading

WWALS to FWC BAC against paid permits for paddle boats 2017-11-27

Sent today. See also PDF, and previous posts about what you can do. -jsq


To: Nick Wiley, Executive Director
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 South Meridian Street
Tallahassee, FL  32399-1600
850-488-2975
nick.wiley@MyFWC.com
Emily Herschman Davis:   850-617-9577
emily.herschman@MyFWC.com

Colonel Curtis Brown, Chairman
Boating Advisory Committee (BAC)
Curtis.Brown@MyFWC.com


Captain William Griswold, Chairman
Non-Motorized Boat Working Group (NMBWG)
WSGriz@aol.com

Re: Paid permits for non-motorized boats

Dear E.D. Wiley, Chairman Brown, and Chairman Griswold,

As the head of an organization that holds many paddle outings in Florida, I thank you for holding a public meeting tomorrow of the Boating Advisory Council that could finally put to rest the ill-advised idea of charging permit fees for paddle boats or boards. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend, so I am sending this letter.

population density map of Florida
Stean Rayer, Ying Wang, Bureau of Economic and Business Research (BEBR), University of Florida, 30 October 2014, Measuring Population Density for Counties in Florida

Thank you, FWC Executive Director Wiley, for saying back in February Continue reading