Sabal Trail, Rocky Ford Road, Lowndes County, Georgia
What’s with the tires?
Water Trails at Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority 2016-10-18
After getting some clarification on local bonds,
I invited VLCIA to the WWALS Quarterly presentation about Valdosta wastewater
and flood control,
to the
Dead River Sink hike,
and told them about the dye test that discovered where the Alapaha River water comes back up (at the Alapaha Rise).
Afterwards I nudged them about the letter in support of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail they previously promised.
Some day some of them will actually come to a WWALS event, and meanwhile they seem to like to be invited. Here’s the LAKE video from the 18 October 2016 Regular Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority.
Continue readingSabal Trail violations FDEP assured us would not happen are happening
Already under the Withlacoochee River in Georgia there’s been a frac-out and a sinkhole at a drilling site, upstream from the Suwannee River in Florida, under which FDEP told us it couldn’t happen:
“ Well, the Suwannee River crossing doesn’t, in fact, have any impacts to an outstanding Florida water….”
“Well, any work within, or could have adverse effects on OFW, is considered. In this case, we determine that there would be no impacts to the OFW.”
Apparently not only FDEP’s sole witness Lisa Prather believed Sabal Trail; according to a video yesterday by Cody Suggs at the Suwannee River, Sabal Trail’s own workers seem to believe their company’s propaganda.
Much more about WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP is on the WWALS website, including videos and transcripts of the landowners who also tried to warn FDEP that sinkholes happen like they already have including under at least two public roads in Suwannee County, Florida. And more about what already happened is on the WWALS website, plus things you can do to stop this $3 billion dollar fracked methane boondoggle.
For example, you may want to ask the permitting agencies some of the questions WWALS asked, including this one:
Which of FERC, FDEP, GA-EPD, USACE, SRWMD are working to protect the health, welfare and safety of the communities surrounding this pipeline and how are they doing that?
Given that I asked them for a prompt answer and two weeks later have gotten no answer at all, it sure looks like we the people will have to find and report violations and use other methods to stop this pipeline.
The transcript questions quoted below are Continue reading
Okefenokee Swamp
Banks Lake
Fuller after recent rains
Calypso Court sinkhole 2000 feet from Sabal Trail pipeline
A major sinkhole developed today within about 2000 feet of Sabal Trail’s path in Osceola County, Florida. Rather like what we warned them about last year in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP.
Caitlin Doornbos, Orlando Sentinel, 9 Dec 2016,
Sinkhole displaces residents of condo complex west of Disney World,
Multiple families were displaced after a sinkhole developed in a gated condominium complex west of Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Friday, Osceola County officials said.
The sinkhole was first reported in Continue reading
Sabal Trail at Okapilco Creek 2016-12-06
Update 2016-12-08: Complaint filed with GA-EPD, USACE, FERC:
PDF.
We didn’t see any silt fences where Sabal Trail has red pipe laid out across Okapilco Creek and Little Creek,
north of Coffee Road, west of GA 333 in Brooks County, Georgia, between Barwick and Barney.
Red pipe, Okapilco Creek Middle Bridge, Sabal Trail, 30.9174160, -83.5892520
Walter Parks, Swamp by Chandelier
You won’t hear
this every day.
Thanks to Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers for pointing to these Okefenokee Swamp hollers by Walter Parks.
And don’t forget WWALS has an outing 10AM this Saturday December 10th at Georgia’s Stephen C. Foster State Park on the Suwannee River near Fargo, GA, to paddle into the Okefenokee Swamp. Continue reading
Less withdrawals, more water retention for North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan: WWALS PR 2016-12-06
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jasper, Florida, November 6th 2016 — Better modeling and measurement of more water reuse and retention with fewer water withdrawals in both north Florida and south Georgia, WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) recommended yesterday in comments (PDF) on the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP). WWALS also opposed the Falling Creek Aquifer Storage project and suggested a replacement, and recommended including threats to the FLoridan Aquifer and the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers such as pipelines and fracking.
WWALS applauded water supply projects involving reuse or stormwater,
especially those in Jacksonvile and Gainesville, two of the sources of the
general problem of falling water levels in the Floridan Aquifer.
WWALS also applauded the plan to set minimum flow levels on the upper Suwannee River and WWALS expects to be involved with that.
WWALS recommended expanding the original study area, which stopped at the Suwannee River on the west and the Georgia-Florida state line on the north. WWALS president John S. Quarterman explained,
“Our rivers don’t stop because there’s a state line on a map, and there are three second-magnitude springs on the Withlacoochee River in Georgia south of Valdosta, one of them with a more than 4,000-foot cave system, that aren’t taken into account in this draft plan.”
Quarterman elaborated on a much larger concern: Continue reading
College mutual fund VA529 owns Sabal Trail stranded assets
Update 2016-12-08: Letter sent to VA529 board: PDF.
Do the parents and grandparents who bought Virginia529 funds as safe investments for future college know VA529 is the biggest mutual fund investor in risky investments Spectra Energy of Sabal Trail and Enbridge of the Dakota Access Pipeline? Maybe you’d like to point that out to Mary G. Morris, the Chief Executive Officer of Virginia529 College Savings Plan, the biggest mutual fund investor in both Spectra Energy and in Enbridge, which is buying Spectra.
There’s a handy VA529 contact form or you can call or write: Continue reading