Pretty low at Hagan Bridge, the start of the WWALS outing down the Withlacoochee River to Franklinville, February 2, 2018.
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.
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,
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.
Text version of Union County mining amendment schedule
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
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
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.
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.
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
NMBWG and BAC going for paydirt of paid paddle permits
Remember, you can object to paid paddle boat permits before the Tuesday morning meeting of the Florida Boating Advisory Council (BAC). More below on what you can do, plus still more apparent term limit overruns, paddle boaters represented by a yacht business owner, the last NMBWG meeting, the paydirt of paddlers pay (for marinas), and what that would cost.
After a decade of BAC attempts to charge people for paddling (see yesterday’s installment), in 2015 the BAC decided it needed a sub-group:
“The Non-Motorized Boat Working Group (NMBWG) was created by the Boating Advisory Council at its May 18, 2015 meeting. The purpose of the working group is to address four core areas of non-motorized boating: access, education, safety, and user pay/user benefit.”
It doesn’t take much reading of the NMBWG minutes to infer that the whole goal of this group was not access, education, safety, nor (non-motorized boater) user benefit, but “user pay”.
Yacht Octopus by Peter Sleeckx, 2 December 2006,
CC BY-SA 3.0.
Term limits apparently don’t apply
Continue readingMore than a decade of attempts to charge permits for paddle boats
Remember, you can object to paid paddle boat permits before the Tuesday morning meeting of the Boating Advisory Council.
For more than a decade, at least half its lifetime, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), Boating Advisory Council (BAC) has been trying to find a way to charge permit fees for registration of non-motorized boats. Here’s the story so far, which will make clear there’s no reason to believe such efforts will stop. Also including not one, but two BAC members mysteriously serving longer than state-mandated term limits would seem to allow. Is it really about the children? Or is it about marinas, that paddle boaters don’t use? With a special appearance by the Florida state rep. who sponsored the law that expedited WWALS vs. Sabal Trail & FDEP.
The Boating Advisory Council (BAC) was created Continue reading