Draft Agenda
WWALS Annual Meeting
7:00 PM Wednesday 12 July 2017, followed by WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting
Wooden Nickel, 3269 Inner Perimeter Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602
Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Meeting ID: 855-676
Event: facebookPresentation of annual report, election of board members and selection of kayak raffle winner!
Until then, you can still get your raffle ticketLast chance to get a raffle ticket is at the Annual Member Meeting.
WWALS members can vote in this annual meeting, and the public is invited to observe.
Board members are Continue reading
Hardee Spring and Plantation, Withlacoochee River, Hamilton County, FL
Yes, Hardee Spring is accessible by land, off of 34th Street NW, Jennings, Florida, aka Hardee Camp Road, but it’s on private land. It’s on one of four parcels totaling 305 acres, with 8,000 feet (1.6 miles) of river frontage and a lodge, which can be yours for a mere $8.5 million. Maybe Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) should buy it, since SRWMD already owns the next properties upstream and downstream on the Withlacoochee River. Or maybe it should be turned into a state park. Or maybe somebody wants to donate it to WWALS for an office location.
Map from SRWMD
PARCEL ASSESSMENT SUMMARY.
Sabal Trail starts stagecoach line in an electric car world 2017-07-05
Let me fix some typos in Sabal Trail’s PR of yesterday, Sabal Trail Transmission Project Placed In-Service: New Pipeline System Increases the Reliability and Diversity of the Southeast U.S. Natural Gas Infrastructure.
Corrected headline: Sabal Trail starts stagecoach line in an electric car world.
Apologies to the 1877 Omaha Herald and
True West.
Adding a third natural gas pipeline merely makes Florida even more than 60% dependant on natural gas, as Sierra Club Alabama, Georgia, and Florida pointed out three years ago. The people of Florida voted for solar power twice last year. Yet Sabal Trail is wasting $3 or $4 billion on Continue reading
Banks Lake Outdoors 2017-05-05
Yes, there are kayaks for rent! And Tom says he’s happy to stay open this Saturday, July 8, 2017, for the Banks Lake Full Moon Paddle.
If the store’s not open, knock on the RV next to it. Continue reading
FERC down to 1 Commissioner, and you can help keep it without a quorum
On the way out before her last day at FERC Friday, Collete D. Honorable said “Bring on more renewables”. So why didn’t she do anything in the 2.5 years she was a FERC Commissioner? Oh, right, that’s forbidden at FERC; witness former FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff who predicted in 2013 that more U.S. electricity would come from solar power than any other source within a decade, and he got pushed out the door. Nevermind he was right.
Honorable at an EBA event in 2016 | © RTO Insider
Michael Brooks, RTO Insider, 28 April 2017,
No 2nd Term for FERC’s Colette Honorable
You can help keep FERC without a quorum by calling your U.S. Senator to oppose the two nominees so far.
And how about you, the one remaining Commissioner, Acting Chairman Cheryl A. LaFleur? Continue reading
Support the Clean Water Act for our rivers and aquifer
This Fourth of July holiday, you can help promote continued independence of clean water
by opposing the EPA’s attempt to repeal the Clean Water Rule and then undermine
the Clean Water Act.
FLoridians in
the seven counties that have asked the EPA to do something
about Valdosta’s wastewater:
here’s your chance to make sure the EPA can still do anything.
Georgians who don’t want coal ash in landfills or industrial waste in our waters:
you can help save the Clean Water Act.
Everybody in the Suwannee River Basin:
the water we drink from the Floridan Aquifer interchanges with surface waters,
and we need the EPA to help protect all those waters.
How to Comment
Continue readingPresto, there’s plenty of water in Florida? –Jim Gross @ WiLFest 2017-06-17
Jim Gross showed at WiLFest in Orlando Gainesville what he described later in the Orlando Sentinel:
“It was known by everyone in the agency that we had more demand than groundwater. Did the science completely change overnight? Now, ‘Presto! There’s plenty?’”
Jim Gross showing central Florida as far over sustainable withdrawals at WiLFest in Orlando Gainesville 2017-06-17
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS
Lauren Ritchie, Orlando Sentinel, 30 June 2017, Commentary: Stop letting developments such as The Villages suck up water, Continue reading
Video: Will you lead to sun and wind power? —John S. Quarterman to Tom Fanning, CEO, at Southern Company stockholder meeting 2017-05-24
Update 2017-07-28: See also VDT op-ed and letter to GA-PSC.
Five years ago I asked Southern Company (SO) CEO Tom Fanning what was his exit plan when the Big Bets on Kemper Coal in Mississippi and the two new Plant Vogtle nuclear units on the Savannah River go bad. This Wednesday SO stopped using coal at Kemper Coal after the MS PSC refused to authorize further cost overruns. Thursday GA PSC staff said Plant Vogtle is no longer economical. It is time for GA PSC to do for Plant Vogtle what MS PSC did for Kemper Coal.
As Suwannee Riverkeeper at this year’s meeting in May, I told Fanning we don’t want SO’s coal ash in any landfill on any river in the Suwannee River Basin; I asked him for solar panels at Moody Air Force Base to shut down a natural gas pipeline; and I questioned SO’s acquisition of Pivotal LNG with its deal to ship liquid natural gas in bomb trucks down I-75 and I-10 to Jacksonville, Florida.
I reminded our genial host of my question five years ago, with the handwriting already on the wall since the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had then just referred to Plant Vogtle as a financial quagmire. This time I asked Fanning to lead us all to sun and wind power.
In SO’s own video you can see them Continue reading
Gibson Park to CR 141, Suwannee River, 2017-08-13
A pleasant just over five mile Sunday paddle on the Suwannee River as we take a short upstream paddle to the Alapaha River Rise. Then enjoy the river’s current downstream past the Alapaha River Confluence (there may be water in the Alapaha) to County Road 141 Ramp. There are a couple of springs along the way. Those still feeling energetic can paddle a few more thousand feet down to the Sabal Trail crossing and back to CR 141.
Suwannee River beach, 2015-08-15, 30.4193954, -83.1344223
Bring the usual personal flotation device, water, snacks, first aid kit, and gloves, trash bag, and gripper because every WWALS outing is also a cleanup. If you do not have a boat, ask us, or contact one of the many outfitters.
When: 9AM, Sunday, August 13, 2017
Put-In: Gibson Park Ramp, SRWT MILE 135.4, 6844 SW CR 751, Jasper, FL 32052, From Jasper, travel southwest on SW CR 249 to SW CR 751; turn left and boat ramp is on the right in Gibson Park.
GPS: Continue reading
Sabal Trail with gas flowing needs even more watching
The fracked methane gas flowing has provided more evidence that there is no need for Sabal Trail. Now more than ever, you can watch that pipeline like a hawk, work on revoking its permits, and help stop FERC from rubberstamping any more boondoggles.
Jamie Wachter, Suwannee Democrat, 27 June 2017 (also Waterkeeper Alliance 28 June 2017, and Valdosta Daily Times page 8A 28 June 2017 but apparently not online), Gas now flowing through Sabal Trail pipeline,
Photo: Beth Gammie for WWALS, Suwannee County, Florida, 14 January 2017
Is this a good use of Florida local and state law enforcement?
Protecting an invading, unnecessary, pipeline from the unarmed public?
The pipeline’s first phase is supposed to provide service to Florida Power & Light to meet the start of its peak cooling season, Grover said.
Note Ms. Grover’s careful phrasing Continue reading