US 41 access to Withlacoochee River

On the north side of US 41, there’s good access from Val Del Road to the Withlacoochee River.

From US 41 (North Valdosta Road), turn north on Val Del Road, and your next right is a turnoff to a gravelled road that bends sharply right into the woods, which leads back to the north side of US 41 and down to the Withlacoochee River. It was a bit muddy in the rain this morning, but there were no big potholes, and the river slope is easy access. The river was high, 9.8 feet, but still well below the 15 foot flood level on the US 41 Gage on this bridge.

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Georgia legislature overwhelmingly rejects river easements for Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail fracked methane pipeline

Update 2016-03-28: “It’s the most votes I’ve ever gotten on anything.” —Neill Herring of Georgia Sierra Club.

Tuesday and today, Georgia’s elected legislators stood up for the people against a fracked methane pipeline invader:

Y’all! We don’t win votes on the House floor every day, and the effort to keep the state easements for the Sabal Trail pipeline was truly a joy to watch. R’s, D’s, lawyers, community folk, everyone pitched in and it “went down in flames” 34-128 — AJC [Atlanta Journal Constitution] reporter’s words, not mine! Congrats to all the Georgia Water Coalition….

That’s how Georgia Sierra Club’s Colleen Kiernan summed up what happened Tuesday to the river drilling easements for Spectra Energy’s fracked gas Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail pipeline. Yes, the same Spectra of the Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project, PennEast, Atlantic Bridge, South Texas Expansion, the West Coast Pipeline in British Columbia, and far too many other unnecessary pipeline invasions throughout North America.

Georgia Water Coalition organized this excellent result, including Continue reading →

Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Greed in Florida: Far Beyond Sabal Trail

The extent of the greedy grasp of the fossil fuel industry for more last-gasp profits before solar and wind power take over is usually hidden because the projects get approved individually, often by different agencies. Here’s at least a partial list of such projects (and nukes) that Waterkeeper® Members or Affiliates oppose in Florida.

Spectra’s Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail is not just one pipeline; it’s the camel’s nose under the tent for its conjoined twin pipelines, its ugly stepsister pipelines and LNG export operations, and its stepchildren the “modernized” new natural gas plants.

Anybody want to help draw a map of all this?

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Pictures: Staten Road to Langdale Park, Withlacoochee River 2016-03-20

20 people in 17 boats on an astoundingly beautiful rural blackwater river into the biggest city in the entire Suwannee River Basin: here are pictures from the WWALS outing from Staten Road Bridge in Lowndes County to Langdale Park on the edge of Valdosta, both in south Georgia, Spring Equinox, Sunday 20 March 2016. Thanks to everyone who came, especially to WWALS Outings Chair Chris Mericle for leading the expedition, and to Georgia Page, Steve, and Travis of the Valdosta-Lowndes Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) for letting us into Langdale Park even though it was closed for renovations. Gretchen Quarterman went on Charlie Walker’s 99.5 KIX Country radio show the next morning to tell everybody about it. Continue reading →

Waydown with Dominick Gheesling: Fargo to the Gulf, Suwannee River, 2013

Many of us may have thought of this, but VSU art professor Dominick Gheesling actually did it: way down the Suwannee River from Fargo below the swamp all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Waydown: Summer 2013

All of the preparation that could be done was done. My ever-patient wife had given me permission to fall off the grid for a while. My friend Todd Bertolaet helped me load up all of the gear and took me to Fargo, Georgia where I launched on a twenty-nine day expedition, traveling the length of the Suwannee River, via canoe, to the terminus at the Gulf of Mexico. Photographing the length of this historic, iconic, southern river connected me to life and the earth in a manner that I had been missing for a long time.

I am more convinced than ever that Continue reading →

Tally of votes smashing Sabal Trail easements in SR 954 2016-03-22

Here’s who voted which way when Sabal Trail lost in a landslide against its easements to drill under our Withlacoochee River and Okapilco Creek and other rivers and creeks in Georgia. Thanks to Bentley, Harden, Houston, Pirkle, Powell, Rynders, Sharper, Shaw, Spencer, and Watson for voting Nay against that pipeline river-drilling boondoggle. And Carter, Corbett, and LaRiccia, well, thanks for listening, I guess.

I’ve added Continue reading →

We all won! Sabal Trail SR 954 easements lost in a landslide at GA House 2016-02-22 2016-03-22

Update 2016-03-22 10:30PM: The vote tally.

As reported by Georgia Sierra Club:

Thank you to everyone who contacted a legislator about SR 954 and their concerns about the Sabal Trail pipeline easements. The house voted down the bill 128-34 this afternoon!!! CONGRATULATIONS!

Thanks to everyone, especially Georgia Water Coalition, Georgia Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, everybody else who helped, and of course all WWALS members and everyone else who called their state reps.

There still more you can do to stop Sabal Trail. See the op-ed blog post of today. Continue reading →

Still possible to keep Sabal Trail out –WWALS in VDT 2016-03-22

Update 2016-02-22: We all won by a landslide in the Georgia House! There’s more to do tomorrow until Sabal Trail is ended for good; see below.

Please call your Georgia state representative and ask them to vote No today on SR 954 that would give Sabal Trail easements to drill under our rivers. Here’s why:

John S. Quarterman, VDT, 2016-03-22, Still possible to keep Sabal Trail out,

After two years going to Sabal Trail open houses and FERC scoping meetings, filing e-comments, guiding them to the river crossings and a legal hearing in Jasper, FERC still tells us customers for Spectra Energy from Houston, Texas, constitute a need that outweighs local property rights, environmental destruction, and hazards to our Withlacoochee and Suwannee rivers and the Floridan Aquifer, and to taxes, life, and limb.

Yet Georgia is the fastest-growing U.S. solar market, while solar Continue reading →

Hamilton County, FL formally requests Army Corps site inspection of Sabal Trail Suwannee River crossing 2016-03-18

Here’s the letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the Hamilton BOCC voted unanimously 15 March 2016 to send. Other counties in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama may want to send similar letters.

BETH BURNAM
District 1 — Jennings
JOSH SMITH
District 2 — Jasper
ROBERT E. BROWN
District 3 — Jasper
RANDY OGBURN
District 4 — White Springs
BUSTER OXENDINE
District 5 — Jasper

HAMILTON COUNTY
FLORIDA
Office of
Board Of County Commissmners

GREG GODWIN
Clerk of Courts
JOHN H. MCCORMICK
County Attorney
207 Northeast First Street
Room 106
Jasper, Florida 32052
(386) 792-1288
FAX (386) 792-3524

March 18, 2016
Attn: Mark R. Evans, Senior Project Manager,
Jacksonville Permits Section
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Regulatory Division
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232
RE: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC
FERC Document No. CP15-17-000
Dear Mr. Evans:
The Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County recently received the Environmental Geology report prepared by Dennis Price and dated 10/25/2015, a copy of which is attached hereto.

If you will note, the findings of Mr. Price directly contradict Continue reading →

Lime Run Spring

Lime Run Spring is a 1st magnitude spring located in Suwannee River State Park. The Spring is the end point of the Falmouth Cathedral Cave System, one of the longest known underwater cave systems in the world. The Sabal Trail pipeline is proposed to cross over the cave and under U. S. 90 and CSX railroad all at the same point. Collapse of the cave roof is a distinct possibility at this point. We cannot allow Sabal to jeopardize this natural wonder.

Chris Mericle

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.