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
Proposed HPSII phosphate mine in Union and Bradford Counties, Florida
Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
The proposed HPSII phosphate mine on the New River in Bradford and Union Counties, Florida, features in Dave Wilson’s talk from April. HPSII would be upstream from the Santa Fe River, and thus upstream from the Suwannee River.
WWALS Watershed Coalition opposes the HPSII phosphate mine. We see no benefit in Union and Bradford Counties suffering effects such as those outlined in Dave Wilson’s slides, and looking like Hamilton County in these aerials: Continue reading
PotashCorp Field Trip Summary –David Wilson 2017-04-13
The moonscape that seems to go on forever while flying over Hamilton County, Florida in a small plane is the PCS phosphate mine, as seen in some WWALS aerials in these slides that David Wilson presented at a Santa Fe River Springs Protection Forum April 13, 2017 at Otter Springs, Florida. Dave is Treasurer of the Board of Florida Springs Institute, and a WWALS member. His slides are published on the WWALS website with his permission.
According to the slides, perhaps JEA is responsible for the low water levels at White Sulfur Springs, formerly a famous resort, now bone dry: Continue reading
A fine day on the Withlacoochee River from Sullivan Landing to Madison Blue Spring 2017-06-24
Nineteen paddlers had a good time on a breezy summer Withlacoochee River Saturday from Sullivan Launch to Madison Blue Spring. The water was a foot higher (41.27 feet) than two years ago (42.56 feet at the USGS Madison (FL 6) gage), but there were still plenty of rapids, which gained us three new Fallers!
Say water bottle!
No, don’t, you’ll fall in!
Hm, but then
you’ll win a Fallers Award.
Every WWALS outing is also a cleanup, and we collected Continue reading