This Fourth of July holiday, you can help promote continued independence of clean water
by opposing the EPA’s attempt to repeal the Clean Water Rule and then undermine
the Clean Water Act.
FLoridians in
the seven counties that have asked the EPA to do something
about Valdosta’s wastewater:
here’s your chance to make sure the EPA can still do anything.
Georgians who don’t want coal ash in landfills or industrial waste in our waters:
you can help save the Clean Water Act.
Everybody in the Suwannee River Basin:
the water we drink from the Floridan Aquifer interchanges with surface waters,
and we need the EPA to help protect all those waters.
Tag Archives: agriculture
If we hear about a sinkhole or a leak, we’ll be there –WWALS @ WCTV 2017-06-15
It’s not over just because the gas is flowing through Sabal Trail. We’ll be watching, and we’re escalating.
Noelani Mathews, WCTV, June 15, 2017, Local environmentalist groups prepare for Sabal Trail Pipeline to go online,
“We’ve always did a lot online and through legal angles and we’re going to continue doing a lot of that,” says John Quarterman, WWALS President. “If we hear about a sink hole or a leak, we’ll be there taking pictures.”
Sabal Trail Transmission spokeswoman Andrea Grover said, Continue reading
Sabal Trail in-service: keep watching them 2017-06-14
There are still many things you can do, from permit violations to FERC reform, after FPL gloated yesterday about starting the gas through Transco, Sabal Trail, and FSC. Pipelines leak, and another pipeline’s go-ahead just got slapped down by a federal court, plus we need to change the whole legal game. Meanwhile, continuing the rocketing rise of solar power in the Sunshine State and everywhere else is the best way to pry the clammy grip of the fossil fuel industry off our political system.
Photo:
Mitch Allen
Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Post, 14 June 2017, Sabal Trail, Florida SE Connection are now piping fuel to FPL,
“The start of Florida Southeast Connection and Sabal Trail Transmission natural gas pipeline operations is an important milestone for FPL customers and Florida’s economy,” FPL president and CEO Eric Silagy said.
It may indeed be a milestone of the last pipeline ever built into Florida or through Georgia.
It may even be a milestone of Continue reading
Same day FERC lets Sabal Trail turn on gas, Waterkeeper Alliance passes resolution to oppose FERC 2017-06-09
FOR IMMEDIATE-RELEASE
Salt Lake City, Utah, May June 9, 2017 — Friday morning,
FERC staff granted Sabal Trail’s request to turn on the gas,
saying it trusted the pipeline company to handle
remaining landowner issues and “punch-list” items,
despite
objections from WWALS, Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, and many others.
Before noon, the worldwide Waterkeeper Alliance passed a resolution to join
the effort to reform FERC; a resolution written by WWALS and Flint Riverkeeper.
Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers made the motion and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman seconded; they also wrote the resolution.
Quarterman explained:
“While the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is a U.S. agency, its actions affect the whole world, because much of the gas in the interstate natural gas pipelines FERC rubberstamps is for export.
“Even with Sabal Trail, the fight is not over. The case brought against FERC by Continue reading
WWALS adds evidence, again asks FERC to stay Sabal Trail, revoke its permit, plus do a SEIS 2017-06-05
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2017, Hahira, GA — Citing the sea change of solar power overtaking natural gas in new U.S. electricity last year, and generational damage to the fields of farmers such as Randy Dowdy, WWALS Watershed Coalition today filed more evidence and reasons to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline from going into service and to revoke its permit. WWALS filed the same Monday that Sabal Trail Friday asked FERC to authorize turning on the gas. Plus WWALS explicitly requested FERC do a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to take into account LNG export from Sabal Trail, copious environmental permit violations, and especially new scientific evidence about the Floridan Aquifer.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said: “Such irreparable harm outweighs a few billion dollars spent in error by a few companies.”
And that’s without even getting into risks to education, such as
Sabal Trail only a mile from Clyattville Elementary School.
WWALS filed the document today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The WWALS cover letter is included below in this message, and the FERC filing is available online.
WWALS wrote in Attachment 1:
“Solar power has actually more than doubled every two years since 2013. Yet FERC only counts utility-scale solar power. Adding rooftop and community solar panels, already a sea change has occurred.
Continue reading
Videos: Suwannee Riverkeeper at Sparkleberry Florida Native Plant Society in Branford 2017-05-09
Here’s WWALS video of the
WWALS and Suwannee Riverkeeper presentation at the
Sparkleberry Chapter of Florida Native Plant Society
in Branford, Florida, May 9, 2017.
Acting Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman explained WWALS
and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman led
an animated discussion about recent advocacy with the several dozen attendees,
many of whom had not heard about one or more of
humic substances
at the Suwannee River Sill,
NFRWSP,
BMAPs,
Pilgrim’s Pride, coal ash, or Bill Gates’ and other recent corporate agricultural land purchases.
While they all had heard of Sabal Trail,
we had some updates on that, too.
Here’s the video:
Continue readingGA 122 @ Withlacoochee River 2017-05-17
A clearcut near the Withlacoochee River at GA 122 in Lowndes County, Georgia, led to some visual observations.
School bus westbound on Hagan Bridge over the Withlacoochee River.
The clearcut starts east of the river and west of Hambrick Road. Here you can see the entrance to it from GA 122: Continue reading
Call U.S. Senate Energy Committee about Sabal Trail and FERC violations
Update 2017-08-03: The Senate already confirmed those two nominees. But there are more nominations to oppose and other things you can do.
Update 2017-06-15: On 6 June 2017 the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee forwarded two FERC nominees, but the full Senate has not voted on them, so you can lobby your Senators to vote no.
You can follow up after five people were arrested Thursday protesting confirmation hearings for FERC nominees in the U.S. Senate Energy Committee. The committee hasn’t made any decisions yet, so there’s still time to tell your Senator or members of that committee what FERC or its rubberstamped pipelines have done, so they can refuse to confirm any nominee who does not vow to turn FERC away from more pipelines and towards sun, wind, and a smart grid.
Photo: Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered the nominations of (left to right) Dan Brouillette to be deputy Energy secretary and Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson to fill vacancies on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
They’re also considering a nominee for deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy, which department’s Office of Fossil Energy rubberstamped half a dozen LNG export operations in Florida. You can tell the Senators that you don’t want him, either, unless he will turn to the sun.
You can ask the Senate Energy Committee to go beyond that: it can Continue reading
Sabal Trail slips its in-service request to June; FERC classifies WWALS shutdown request as motion 2017-05-26
They finally admit to FERC the Sabal Trail boondoggle is a month late! And FERC reclassifies the WWALS filing as a motion for all three SMPP pipelines.
Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Post, 26 May 2017, Sabal Trail seeks new pipeline start date; group wants shutdown,
Sabal Trail Transmission on Friday asked federal regulators for an early June in-service date for its portion of the Alabama-to-Florida natural gas pipeline, a later date than it had requested earlier this month.
With segmented KMI FGT JEP to Jacksonville to Eagle LNG export:
On May 17 Houston-based Sabal Trail had asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to start sending gas through the pipeline by today — May 26.
Also Friday, the Georgia-based WWALS Watershed Coalition asked FERC to deny all requests to place the pipeline into service, and said FERC should revoke the permit and shut it down.
The Sierra Club recently asked FERC to delay the pipeline’s operation until after pending litigation is resolved.
FERC has yet to act on either of Sabal Trail’s start-up date requests or on The Sierra Club’s request.
Maybe FERC staff have noticed Continue reading
WWALS asks FERC to deny Sabal Trail’s in-service request and to revoke its permit
Update: 2017-06-05: WWALS files with FERC against Sabal Trail again, about sea change from fossil fuels to sun and wind power.
Update 2017-05-27: Sabal Trail slips its in-service request to June; FERC classifies WWALS shutdown request as motion 2017-05-26.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, GA, May 26, 2017 — WWALS Watershed Coalition today asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to “stay, stop, or deny all requests to place any project facilities into service” for the Southeast Markets Pipeline Project (SMPP) including Sabal Trail. Further “WWALS as an intervenor formally requests FERC to revoke its Certificate of Convenience and Necessity for SMPP.”
In its thirteen-page filing (available online and in PDF), WWALS listed six reasons, each with its own attachment of details:
- The alleged need for this pipeline project, which has been refuted by its funding organization in FPL’s 2016 Ten Year Plan and by other evidence; and
- FERC has taken jurisdiction of at least one LNG export chain from Sabal Trail, despite FERC’s own assertion in its February 2016 Certificate; and
See Sabal Trail to export through Jacksonville, FL.- Failure to assess risks to Floridan Aquifer, the primary water supply for the region; and
- Numerous permit violations during construction; and
- Failure to address especially egregious violations such as the destruction of Randy Dowdy’s world-record soybean fields; and
- The legal challenges recited in the Sierra Club letter of May 18, 2017, FERC Accession Number 20170519-5018, are all completely litigated.
WWALS president and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said, “It’s not too late for FERC to do its job and actually evaluate all the new evidence that has come to light. Even more, FERC should look at how the world has changed Continue reading