WWALS be talking about how Alapaha RIver Water Trail, which starts at Sheboggy Landing on US 82 just east of Alapaha, GA, at the Alapaha Station Celebration. This the third year for WWALS at this festival located in the upper middle section of our watershed near the Willacoochee and Alapaha Rivers.
When: 9AM-5PM Saturday November 12th 2016
Where: 245 NE Railroad St, Alapaha, GA 31622
Some people wonder: what’s the station? It’s Continue reading
Less than a day after FERC rubberstamped (or did it?) Sabal Trail’s request for a new contractor yard on the east side of Moultrie, Georgia, WWALS saw that yard already full of materials. Did Sabal Trail really move everything in that fast, or were those things already there, like the notorious Lake City, Florida pipe yard that never has gotten any formal FERC approval that we’ve seen?
Here’s what we saw from the Southwings flight for WWALS on Saturday October 22nd 2016:
Compare with the overview map Sabal Trail filed with its request to FERC of Monday October 17th 2016: Continue reading
At least the Waycross cancer problem is finally getting some news media attention.
Brenda Goodman and Andy Miller,
Georgia Health News, October 20, 2016,
Why are kids in Waycross getting cancer? (Part One of Special Report),
Fourteen-year-old Lexi Crawford was attacked by lower back pain so sharp that she couldn’t even sit up to eat. Her mother had to bring her food while she was lying flat on her back. Doctors in Waycross, GA, the town where she lives, thought it was a kidney infection. But after months of antibiotics didn’t clear it up, a visiting doctor in the local ER suggested an X-ray.
What he saw on the scan was terrifying.
Continue reading
FERC reform as an initiative was one result of this year’s meeting, this time where Georgia Water Coalition usually meets, of the Riverkeepers and other Waterkeeper members and affiliates from Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and beyond as far as Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.
Front row by himself: Pete Harrison (Waterkeeper Alliance attorney).
Kneeling: Rick Frey (St Marys),
Dan Tonsmeire (Apalachicola),
Laura Jackson (Mobile),
Rachael Thompson (Satilla),
Dale Caldwell (Chattahoochee),
Kemp Burdette (Cape Fear),
Gordon Rogers (Flint)
Standing: Jason Ulseth (Chattahoochee),
Bill Strangler (Congaree),
Casi Callaway (Mobile),
Susan Wendel (Altamaha)
Earl Hatley (Grand),
Elena Fodera Richards (Savannah),
Emily Markesteyn (Ogeechee),
John S. Quarterman (WWALS),
Bart Mihailovich (Waterkeeper),
Bruce Bodson (Galveston),
Krissy Kasserman (Youghiogheny, wearing the blue and gray plaid shirt)
Henry Jacobs (Chattachoochee, wearing the beanie cap leaning against the wall),
Jacob Oblander (Lower Savannah River Alliance Affiliate, right behind Krissy),
Michael Mullen (Choctawhatchee, right next to Jacob),
Rebecca Jim (Tar Creek, right next to Krissy),
Tonya Bonitatibus (Savannah),
Matt Starr (Upper Neuse, right behind Gordon),
Cade Kistler (Mobile, against wall),
Sam Perkins (Catawba),
Lisa Rinaman (St Johns).
Not pictured: Kaitlin Warren, Seth Clark, and Jen Hilburn (Altamaha), Rachel Sliverstein (Miami), Kelly Cox (Miami), Neil Armingeon (Matanzas), Gretchen Quarterman (WWALS), Anna Alsobrook (French Broad), Bill D’Antuono and Harrison Langley (Collier), Misha Mitchell (Atchaflaya), Myra Crawford (Cahaba), John Paul (Caloosahatchee), Kevin Jeselnik (Chattahoochee), Frank Chitwood (Coosa), Hartwell Carson (French Broad), Rob Walters (Three Rivers).
That group picture was taken late after many people had left, and some never arrived, due to hurricane or other reasons. Some of the missing are below in pictures Gretchen took, including one of Altamaha Riverkeeper Jen Hilburn, in whose extensive watersheds we met. And of course FERC reform wasn’t the only initiative: trash, biological contamination, CAFOs, and others are on the agenda.
Bart Mihailovich, Waterkeeper Alliance, 3 November 2016, 2016 Gulf and South Atlantic Regional Retreat Recap, Continue reading
WWALS has been tying #NoDAPL to #NoSabalTrail
for some time, because water protectors here continue to fight Sabal Trail for many of the same reasons as the Standing Rock Sioux fight the Dakota Access Pipeline, plus one of the DAPL pipeline companies, Enbridge, is buying Spectra Energy, the Sabal Trail pipeline company, and many of the same banks finance both.
Plus even FPL admits there’s no need for new electricity for Florida until 2024 at the earliest, which means there’s no need for Sabal Trail.
Waterkeeper Alliance, 3 November 2016, Waterkeeper Alliance Calls on President Obama to Halt the Dakota Access Pipeline and Uphold the Rights of Water Protectors, Continue reading
Update 2016-11-29: Added to this google map: WWALS aerials of Gilchrist County, and Sabal Trail alignment maps localized by LAKE for Mitchell, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties, Georgia, and Hamilton, Suwannee, and Gilchrist Counties, Florida to just north of Bell, FL.
Update 2016-11-04: Now with Sabal Trail route digitized through Gilchrist, Alachua, and part of Levy Counties, plus part of the Citrus County line.
Signs, silt fences, backhoes in wetlands: you can log pictures on a map of anything going on at a Sabal Trail construction site from your mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. Already posted your pictures on the web? Link them into the map. Here’s how.
You’ve seen many pictures posted by WWALS, taken on the ground and in the air, and linked into a google map (which also has Sabal Trail’s alignment maps linked in).
Here’s another google map, to which more people can add pictures.
If you want to add pictures to this new crowdsourcing google map, you need to: Continue reading
Update 2016-11-07: You can put your own pictures on a related google map.
From the air what you can’t see from the ground: Sabal Trail through north Florida and south Georgia.
Driving down I-10, you wouldn’t know Sabal Trail was digging underneath you,g for example.
On Saturday October 22nd 2016, Southwings flew WWALS over more than 100 miles of the Sabal Trail route: Continue reading
Girl Scouts were a big part of our success today! Boy Scouts wanted to know if we had Eagle Scout projects: yes, we do! Thank you to our new friends.
People wanted to know about outings, advocacy, pipeline, and since Reed Bingham is on the Little River, I gave out all the pamphlets for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail I had printed. An excellent time was had by WWALS and all at the Reed Bingham Trunk or Treat Fall Festival.
Gretchen
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Continue reading
Update 2016-10-30: Pictures and scouts.
WWALS will have a bean bag game at Reed Bingham State Park this Saturday. You may not be too old to win some candy! Come join us on the banks of the Little River, between Adel and Moultrie, Georgia.
When: 1-5PM Saturday October 29th 2016
Where: Reed Bingham State Park, 542 Reed Bingham Rd, Adel, GA 31620
Facebook:
event
Moultrie Observer, 26 October 2016, Reed Bingham to host Fall Festival, Halloween events,
All participants should give out individually wrapped candies or promotional items appropriate to families. Friends of Reed Bingham will give a prize for the best decorated “Trunk”
For more information or Continue reading
Pictures and a movie clip from the air (thanks, Southwings!)
of Mozell Spells, aka
Madison Highway Boat Ramp,
State Line Ramp (GA DNR) or GA 31 Ramp (SRWMD) or CR 145 Bridge Launch (FDEP).
This is one of two dozen public landings on the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT). It’s at the Georgia-Florida state line, and in the big picture (scroll down) you can see Continue reading