Floridians please call your state rep against fracking bill

WWALS is a member of Floridians Against Fracking, which recommends today for Florida citizens to call their state legislator:

The pro-fracking regulatory bill is up in committee already! The Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee will hear House Bill 191l on Tuesday, 11/03/15, at 12:00 pm, in Reed Hall (102 House Office Building). We NEED to call them the day before the meeting so that they go in with our concerns on their mind.

Recall that these bills take away the opportunity for cities and counties to ban fracking locally. They are also contrived transparency—they are only supported by the oil and gas industry and their buddies. They fail to protect the citizens of Florida and our water and natural resources.

You can make calls to the legislators below to tell them to vote NO on House Bill 191: (Listed in order of priority for calls—if you hve time for one, call the top one, if you have time for 2, call the top two, etc.)

Chair- Tom Goodson [R], Capitol: (850) 717-5050, Email: tom.goodson@myfloridahouse.gov, Parts of Brevard and Orange

Jake Raburn Continue reading →

Little River Paddle, GA 122 to Lawson Millpond Road 2016-01-16

Update 2016-01-17: Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman.

An easy downstream paddle on the lazy Little River, convenient to I-75.

Hahira on GA 122 to Little River, to Lawson Mill Pond Road Facebook: event

When: 10AM Saturday January 16, 2016

Where: GA 122 Little River, MILE 24.5, Five miles west of Hahira (I-75 exit 29), 3.4 miles east of Barney, south side of GA 122, east side of river, Lowndes County

Take out: Lawson Mill Pond Road, MILE 20.25, Five miles east of Morven on Lawson Mill Pond Road, Five miles west of Hahira (I-75 exit 29) on Morven Road, south side of Lawson Pond Road, west side of river, Brooks County

Distance: About 4 1/4 miles

Duration: About two and a half hours

Shuttle: Less than four miles each way, so less than 30 minutes

End time: Around 1PM

This outing is Free! But we encourage you to join WWALS today to support our fun outings and important work: /donations/. Continue reading →

Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail Logo Contest

College students who like paddling on our rivers or art or both, here’s a contest! (flyer PDF)

Update 2015-12-16: Deadline extended to January 15th, 2016, recently featured in the Valdosta Daily Times, and winners to be presented with prizes at the February 27th Workshop at VSU.

VDT headline

Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail Logo Contest

Create a logo

Sponsored by WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS)

WWALS advocates for conservation and stewardship of the
Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, and Upper Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida
through awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities

Create a logo to represent the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail

Open to college students who live or study within the WithIacoochee and Little River Watershed
(Counties: Tilt, Berrien, Cook, Lanier, Lowndes, Colquitl, Brooks in Georgia and Hamilton, Madison and Suwannee in Florida.)
Deadline: December 15, 2015 January 15, 2016 NO cost to enter
PRIZES: 1st Place $100 and use in publications and websites to promote the Water Trail.
Runner-Up $50
E-mail a pdf of your design and completed application information to: RiverLogoContest@gmail.com
Save image at Continue reading →

WWALS moves to enter EPA letter to FERC into evidence in Florida case

Everyone from the Atlanta Journal-Constition to the Palm Beach Post to the Ocala StarBanner Comes now, Petitioner... and moves.... considers the EPA letter to FERC to be of great significance. WWALS agrees, and has filed a motion to ask the judge to take notice in WWALS v. Sabal Trail & DEP.

§ 373.414 Florida Statutes, begins:

(1) As part of an applicant’s demonstration that an activity regulated under this part will not be harmful to the water resources or will not be inconsistent with the overall objectives of the district, the governing board or the department shall require the applicant to provide reasonable assurance that state water quality standards applicable to waters as defined in s. 403.031(13) will not be violated and reasonable assurance that such activity in, on, or over surface waters or wetlands, as delineated in s. 373.421(1), is not contrary to the public interest. However, if such an activity significantly degrades or is within an Outstanding Florida Water, as provided by department rule, the applicant must provide reasonable assurance that the proposed activity will be clearly in the public interest.

Not just “not contrary to the public interest”. For an Outstanding Florida Water applicant (Sabal Trail) “must provide reasonable assurance that the proposed activity will be clearly in the public interest.” The Suwannee River is an Outstanding Florida Water. And the EPA letter is pretty good evidence that Sabal Trail did not provide such reasonable assurance.

Filed October 30, 2015 4:43 PM Division of Administrative Hearings (also PDF on WWALS website): Continue reading →

Ocala StarBanner heard the EPA watchdog bark

Will the Suwannee County BOCC heed this call?

Editorial, Ocala StarBanner, 29 October 2015, A public watchdog when one’s needed

For more than two years opponents of the Sabal Pipeline have been denouncing the natural gas pipeline project as a threat to North Florida’s groundwater supply and sinkhole-prone geology, only to be waved off by state and federal regulators. It seemed those empowered to protect the people’s interests were not listening.

That is, until this week. At the 11th hour of the public comment [period, the U.S. Continue reading →