Sacred Water Camp 2016-11-20

Tents full of thirty people in the morning sun, and happy campers starting to have breakfast, was what Gretchen and I saw when we stopped to visit Sacred Water Camp Sunway morning. They’re watching Sabal Trail, as it drills under the Suwannee River.

Gregory Payne and many tents
Gregory Payne and many campers

You don’t have to camp out to protect all our waters, land, and air. Georgians can sign a petition to Georgia state legislators. Anyone can demand their members of Congress rein in FERC, the rogue, captive agency that permitted Sabal Trail and gave it eminent domain to take local lands. If you see a possible environmental or legal violation, report it your self or contact WWALS. Lots more here.

Sacred Water Camp is not a project of WWALS. However, it is in WWALS’ watersheds and WWALS watches Continue reading →

WWALS against Sabal Trail in VDT 2016-11-18

“Demonstrators gathered to protest the Sabal Trail pipeline and participate in the “Dirty Dozen” waterways conference call.”

That was on the front page of the newspaper of record of the biggest city in the Suwannee RIver Basin. There’s a petition for Georgians to sign, lots of protests in Florida to assist with, and you can help us all watch Sabal Trail to catch their next violation.

[VDT front page, 2016-11-18]
VDT front page, 2016-11-18

Online last night, Derrek Vaughn, Valdosta Daily Times, 17 November 2016, WWALS Watershed Coalition hold demonstration,

WWALS Watershed Coalition sponsored the demonstration.

Members and demonstrators met in the median of Highway 84 at the Withlacoochee River Bridge to listen to the Georgia Water Coalition’s “Dirty Dozen 2016” conference call.

The “Dirty Dozen” list is an attempt to “put a spotlight on ongoing pollution problems, pending threats to Georgia’s water as well as state and federal policies and failures that ultimately harm — or could harm — Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers,’ according to organizers. Continue reading →

The Big Splash: St Marys Riverkeeper Roll-Out 2016-11-19

The only other Waterkeeper to straddle the GA-FL line, the new St Marys Riverkeeper Rick Frey, is hosting a big do in Florida Saturday, WWALS will be there to help Ask Rick Frey why a rhinoceros “celebrate the roll-out of this non-profit effort to engage and educate our community about the benefits of a clean St. Marys River and to conserve this historic and scenic natural resource now and for generations to come.”

This is the same day after Okefenokee Pioneer Day with Satilla Riverkeeper. Lots of Riverkeepers will be at this St Marys Bash.

When: 5-9PM Saturday 19 November 2016

Where: White Oak Conservation,
581705 White Oak Rd,
Yulee, Florida 32097

Tickets: Sold out.

-jsq

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

WWALS with Satilla Riverkeeper at Okefenokee Pioneer Day Festival 2016-11-19

Cane syrup boiling, mule grinder, endangereed species puppetry, and more at the Okefenokee Pioneer Day Festival. With the froggie toss game, WWALS will be on the east side of the Okefenokee Swamp Saturday November 19th 2016, travelling out of WWALS territory to visit our good neighbor to the east, Satilla Riverkeeper.

When: 9AM – 3PM, Saturday, November 19th 2016

Where: Richard S. Bolt Visitor Center
Suwannee Canal Recreation Area (East Entrance)
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge
30.73870100, -82.14000600

Directions: Continue reading →

GWC Dirty Dozen and Sabal Trail pipeline drilling mud leak on WALB 2016-11-16

People and news media turned out from Florida and Georgia at the Withlacoochee River US 84 bridge in cross-state-line solidarity about the Sabal Trail pipeline and its recent drilling mud leak. They heard the Georgia Water Coalition announce that Sabal Trail is, for the third year running, on the Dirty Dozen 2016.

Ashlyn Becton, WALB, 16 November 2016, Environmentalist raise awareness about Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Folks from North Florida and South Georgia held a protest at the Withlacoochee River Wednesday and listened to a news conference announcing the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen.

The report highlights the worst offenses and greatest threats to Georgia’s bodies of water.

And the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is on the GWC Dirty Dozen 2016, as Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee Rivers and Floridan Aquifer: Gas pipeline company, federal agency run roughshod over state, local residents property rights, with this What Must Be Done: Continue reading →

WWALS: “It did happen”, Sabal Trail: “inadvertent”, WUSF, Tallahassee

Do you think Sabal Trail’s excuse that it was “inadvertent” is enough? Come on down to the US 84 bridge 9:30 this morning, hear more, and have your say.

Turbidity curtains with human for scale (Chris Mericle) Nick Evans, WUSF, 14 November 2016, Drilling Mud Leak In South Georgia Raises New Sabal Trail Pipeline Concerns,

Water activists are raising the alarm over a South Georgia drilling leak in the Withlacoochee River. Sabal Trail is drilling beneath the river to build a more than 500-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Alabama to Florida.

WWALS Watershed Coalition works to protect Continue reading →

Cook County Landing (GA 76) to Folsom Bridge (GA 122), Little River 20162017-01-14

Not a great boat ramp but public access it is. In January the water should be up like a year ago at this three-hour tour of the idyllic Little River between Brooks County and Cook and Lowndes Counties, Georgia. There should be no need to drag boats, like there was in July.

When: 10 AM Saturday January 14th 2017

Put In: Cook County Landing (GA 76) between Adel, Cook County and Barney, Brooks County, Georgia

GPS Coordinates: Continue reading →