Tag Archives: Aquifer

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 →

Videos, Valdosta Wastewater and Flood Prevention 2016-10-27

The crowd was very attentive to every word about wastewater and flood prevention, with officials from the City of Valdosta presenting in the first of a new quarterly WWALS speaker series. If you didn’t come, you can see and hear in these videos Henry Hicks about wastewater, Emily Davenport about flood prevention, Tim Carroll about solar power, and Sementha Mathews about how to get more information from Valdosta. WWALS Treasurer and acting Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman opened and closed the meeting.

Each talk had many small but important stories, so we will probably blog more posts about those. Meanwhile, here are the videos: see for yourself! Continue reading →

Rush Hour Rally at FPL HQ to Stop Sabal Trail Pipeline 2016-10-14

Taking it to the source: the headquarters of FPL, whose ratepayers are on the hook for $3 billion for the Transco → Sabal Trail → FSC fracked methane pipeline boondoggle through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, Sierra Club and Indian Riverkeeper are holding a Rush Hour Rally this Friday, October 14th 2016 in Juno Beach, Florida; see press release for details. If you can’t get there, there are other events all over Florida and beyond. Remember, FPL admits no need for new electricity until 2024, so there’s no more excuse for Sabal Trail.

The facebook page Protect Florida Against Sabal Trail attempts to keep track of upcoming rallies against Sabal Trail or its ugly stepsisters, which are popping up practically daily. Here are some events scheduled starting this weekend: Continue reading →

Valdosta wastewater and flood prevention public meeting by WWALS 2016-10-27

Update 2016-10-23: Seen from the air.

Update 2016-10-19: PDF flyer.

Come hear about the $60 million in wastewater fixes Valdosta just finished, what remains to be done, and what they’re doing about flood prevention for the entire Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida. You can ask questions in this first of a new WWALS Quarterly Speaker Series, and the people organizing this work will be there to answer:

Henry Hicks, Utilities Director, about wastewater
Emily Davenport, Assistant Director of Engineering, about flooding, and
Tim Carroll, Valdosta City Council, about solar power for utilities.

When: 6PM Thursday October 27th

Where: Valdosta City Hall Annex
Multipurpose Room
300 N Lee St.
Valdosta, GA 31601 Continue reading →

Sabal Trail maps digitized

Update 2019-03-19: The google map now includes Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) and FPL’s Martin County to Riviera Beach (MR-RV) pipeline to the sea, which FPL in 2018 got FPSC and FERC to roll into FSC. See also Stop FERC Shirking LNG Oversight.

Update 2016-12-13: The google map now includes the Sabal Trail path digitized for all of Georgia and to the end of the line in Florida south of Orlando.

Update 2016-11-29: In the google map, extended the Sabal Trail alignment maps localized by LAKE for Mitchell, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties, Georgia, and Hamilton, Suwannee, and Gilchrist Counties, Florida to just north of Bell, FL, plus on the crowdsourcing map, WWALS aerials of Gilchrist County.

Update 2016-11-03: Added to the google map digitized path and maps for Gilchrist, Alachua, and part of Levy Counties, FL.

Update 2016-10-31: Added to the google map: Aerials: Suwannee, Ocholockonee, Withlacoochee, Santa Fe Rivers, Okapilco Creek, Sabal Trail Moultrie CY3-6 @ WWALS Southwings 2016-10-22.

Update 2016-10-30: The google map now has all Sabal Trail’s alignment maps from 7 April 2016 linked in for (part of Gilchrist 2016-11-29), Suwannee and Hamilton Counties, FL and Lowndes, Brooks, Colquitt, and Mitchell Counties, GA. Aerial pictures from the WWALS Southwings flight of October 22nd 2016 are also linked in, starting with US 84 HDD Withlacoochee River and US 129 HDD Santa Fe River.

Update 2016-09-14: All 527 alignment maps Sabal Trail filed with FERC in April 2016, in small, big, huge, and PDF formats, courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Update 2016-09-23: Added Depressions within 1 mile of Sabal Trail in Hamilton, Madison, and Suwannee Counties, Florida. The pipeline path doesn’t go through Madison County, but it comes closer than a mile, and not even two miles from Madison Blue Spring.

These maps show the path Sabal Trail is gouging its fracked methane pipeline through south Georgia and north Florida, with comparisons to some geological features, including Okapilco Creek, Withlacoochee River, Suwannee River, Suwannacoochee Spring, Falmouth Spring, the Cathedral Cave System, and numerous karstic features, some of them sinkholes.

This digitizaiton is thanks to Continue reading →

WWALS and 182 Organizations from 35 States Call for Congressional Review of FERC 2016-09-21

For Immediate Release

WWALS and 182 Organizations from 35 States Call for Congressional Review of FERC

PDF

Hundreds of Nonprofit Organizations Join to Demand Reform of Rogue Agency

Washington, DC, September 21, 2016 — More than 180 organizations representing communities across America called on leaders in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold congressional hearings into the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) extensive history of bias and abuse. The groups are also requesting reform of the Natural Gas Act, which the groups say, gives too much power to FERC and too little to state and local officials.

“The time has now come for Congress to investigate how FERC is using its authority and to recognize that major changes are in fact necessary in order to protect people, including future generations, from the ramifications of FERC’s misuse of its power and implementation of the Natural Gas Act,” says Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and a primary organizer of the effort.

“A prime example of FERC’s dereliction of duty to the public benefit is the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline Spectra Energy is drilling through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and under our Withlacoochee River in Georgia and our Suwannee River in Florida,” says John S. Quarterman, president of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS), the Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the upper Suwannee River. He added, “FERC failed in its due diligence by opaque selection of environmental contractors, by issuing its permit before permits from two states and the Army Corps, by ignoring copious new geological and other evidence, and by giving Sabal Trail construction go-ahead while a lawsuit is still pending by Flint Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, Gulf Restoration Network, and others, including construction through properties whose landowners have not even had eminent domain compensation hearings. Most egregiously, despite FPL, the source of the $3 billion for this boondoggle, admitting in its 2016 Ten Year Plan that Florida needs no new electricity until 2024 at the earliest, FERC refuses to even reconsider the alleged “need” for this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipeline. Corporate profits for Spectra Energy from Houston, Texas and Enbridge from Calgary, Alberta are no justification for taking local land and risking our water, air, taxes, and safety.”

The letter to Continue reading →

Video: #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail –WWALS 2016-09-10

“WWALS, the Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the upper Suwannee and Withlacoochee Rivers, supports the Standing Rock Sioux against D.A.P.L.”

So say we all about the oil Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota and the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, in this video. You can join us today at 5:30 PM on the Suwannee River in Florida or Saturday morning on the Withlacoochee River in Georgia. News media are invited. We’ll be taking more video for social media: have your say!

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail, Bell Bros, WWALS, Solar in APN 2016-09-12

The Bell brothers, Flint Riverkeeper, and John S. Quarterman of WWALS all against Sabal Trail in an Atlanta publication. Come on down to the Suwannee River Tuesday near Jasper, FL or to the Withlacoochee River between Quitman and Valdosta, GA 9AM Saturday Sep. 17th to see for yourself what we’re protecting and to say your piece on video.

Gloria Tatum, Atlanta Progressive News, 12 September 2016, Proposed SabaL Gas Pipeline runs through aquifer, wetlands, sinkhole territory, Continue reading →

Bill Gates, Suwannee Farms, Lakeland Sands, examples from the air 2016-06-21

Here are a few pictures of some Bill Gates properties from the MIDS Southwings flyover of June 21st, 2016, including Suwannee Farms which we previously discovered a Gates subsidiary had bought.

Notice how close these lands are to the Suwannee River or the Withlacoochee River and Madison Blue Spring. Some of them look freshly cleared. Many of them are probably also in Floridan Aquifer recharge zones. There is more identification work to be done. And we have more aerial pictures (and video).

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

Continue reading →

Same owners, DAPL and Sabal Trail

Update 2016-09-23: Not quite: Energy Transfer backed out of buying Williams Co..

DAPL and Sabal Trail: now part of the same pipeline companies.

The pipeline companies behind the Sabal Trail fracked methane boondoogle through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida are now owned by the companies behind the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) that wants to pump oil through North Dakota where the Standing Rock Sioux have attracted an encampment of thousands of people who have successfully and nonviolently stopped pipeline construction at least for the moment. WWALS was one of 93 Waterkeeper organizations worldwide that co-signed a letter from Waterkeeper Alliance in support of the Standing Rock Sioux. Opponents of these pipelines, including native Americans in Florida and Georgia as well as North Dakota, are no longer just fighting the same industry: they’re fighting the same companies.

The pipeline companies behind DAPL are Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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