Tag Archives: Aquifer

Prizes awarded to high school students, Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest 2016-05-23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Live Oak, May 24th 2016 — A Hamilton High student took $100 home for first place, and Branford High took the rest of the prizes, at the Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest, last night in Live Oak, Florida, organized by the Live Oak Woman’s Club and WWALS Watershed Coalition. Boys and girls were equally represented in the four prizes awarded, and grades ranged from 10 to 12.

[Prizes awarded to high school students, Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest 2016-05-23]
Prizes awarded to high school students, Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest 2016-05-23

Anyone of any age or gender or county can enjoy the beauty of the Florida Springs Heartland. We hope recognizing these students and their photographs will help bring awareness to the fragile beauty of Lime Run Spring, located in Suwannee River State Park, and will help preserve this spring in accordance with the Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act.

Honorable Mention, Mallory Stevens, Branford High School, 11th grade

Continue reading →

Winners of Lime Run Spring Photography Contest at Live Oak Womans Club 2016-05-23

The Winners of the Serenity at Lime Run Spring photo contest have been selected by the judges! Lime Sink Run from the foot bridge, looking out over the Suwannee River We will be having the award ceremony as planned on Monday May 23, 2016 at 6:00 pm. at the Woman’s Club of Live Oak, 1308 11th St. SW, Live Oak, FL 32064.

Anyone who can join us, please do come out and support the winners!

-Deanna Mericle

Preserving and Protecting Pristine Areas of Our Earth for Future Generations.

Why: In order to bring awareness to the fragile beauty of Lime Run Spring, located in Suwannee River State Park, and to help preserve this spring in accordance with the Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act.

Organizers: the Woman’s Club of Live Oak and WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. are organizing a photo contest for high school students to capture the beauty and serenity at Lime Run Spring.

Who can participate? Any Continue reading →

Cave Diving Workshop, Lake City, 2016-05-21

If you can’t get to the BIG Little River Paddle Race Saturday at Reed Bingham State Park Saturday morning between Adel and Moultrie, GA, there’s a cave diving workshop in Lake City, FL. And yes, the Paddle Race is still on unless there’s actually lightning, hail, or torrential rain tomorrow morning, and so far that seems unlikely. But you can still paddle at Reed Bingham and go to the social in Lake City tonight, the afternoon part of the Workshop tomorrow, and the rebreather demonstration or spring tours Sunday.

What’s NCS-CDS? National Speleological Society, Cave Diving Section.

Social: 7PM Friday May 20th 2016 at 313 NW Commons Loop, Lake City, FL

Workshop: Continue reading →

Sinkholes and Sabal Trail: Elected Officials Hike, Suwannee River State Park 2016-05-15

Sunday morning May 15th 2016, nine and more environmental organizations showed U.S. Congress member Ted Yoho FL-03 and a representative from Sen. Bill Nelson Chris Mericle showing Ted Yoho two geology reports 30.3861389, -83.1693420 saw sinkholes much closer to Sabal Trail’s proposed drill path under the Suwannee River than the pipeline company told FERC, along with two reports by local practicing geologists explaining how fissures and caverns underground extend the problem far past the artificial distance of effects Sabal Trail claimed.

Update 2016-05-17: Thomas Lynn reported in the Suwannee Democrat and Valdosta Daily Times.

Both Rep. Yoho and Suwannee River Water Management District Executive Director Noah Valenstein said at the end of the expedition that Continue reading →

We have a right to expect waterways and groundwater to be clean –Dennis J. Price

Another letter against Sabal Trail and for the rivers and the aquifer in the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th 2016.

In response to Jason Bashaw’s, Chairman of the Suwannee County Commission, article in the Suwannee Valley Times, I have this to say. Why is it that if people are concerned about the environment they live in, they are automatically placed into this environmental left category? Like many, many people in our surrounding counties, I hunt, fish, hike and paddle our local rivers. I use the environment as do we all.

I use the environment as do we all. So, for working and paying taxes all my life — as a Vietnam Veteran, as a person who chose to live in this rural part of Florida and raise his kid, as a person who is not now nor ever will be wealthy — I count our public lands, our woods and rivers as a reward for doing the right thing. I do not mind my tax dollars going towards public lands. Mr. Bashaw uses the environmental left in a derogatory manner as a means of denigrating them, and he is including me in it and I resent it. I resent it for my friend’s in WWALS and others who show concern for the pipeline route. I have not met an environmental lefty among them.

WWALS is, Continue reading →

Leadership is supporting the county’s own people against the Sabal Trail invader –WWALS in Suwannee Democrat

In the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th, 2016.

A company from Houston, Texas wants to fill our earth, water, and air with violence. WWALS Watershed Coalition showed Suwannee County Commissioners sinkholes in the middle of the pipeline path that Sabal Trail didn’t mention to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). All of them, except Jason Bashaw, studied a report by a local geologist and showed leadership by voting to tell that “truth that exists in the middle” to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The quotation above is a reference to Continue reading →

Marion County, FL requests USACE investigation of Sabal Trail 2016-05-03

Thanks to Janet Barrow for this letter approved by the Marion County, Florida BOCC yesterday, 3 May 2016 (PDF). That makes three Florida Counties requesting investigation of Sabal Trail discrepancies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, after Hamilton County and Suwannee County.

Marion County
Board of County Commissioners

District 1 — David Moore, Commissioner
District 2 — Kathy Bryant, Chairman
District 3 — Stan McClain, Commissioner
District 4 — Carl Zalak ill, Vice Chairman
District 5 — Earl Arnett, Connnissionar

McPherson Governmental Complex
601 SE ZSth Ave.
Ocala, FL 34471
Phone: 352-438-2323
Fax: 352-438-2324

May 3, 2016

springs and karst US. Army Corps of Engineers
Jacksonville District Regulatory Division
Jacksonville Permits Section
Attn: Mr. Mark R. Evans
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232

RE: Sabal Trail Transmission and Sabal Trail Citrus County Line projects within Marion County, Florida

Dear Mr. Evans:

Over 30 miles of pipeline are expected to be installed within Marion County, Florida for the Sabal Trail Transmission and Sabal Trail Citrus County Line projects. These pipelines will cross important, sensitive environmental lands, While Continue reading →

Ordinance Prohibiting Fracking –Madison, FL BOCC 2016-04-27

Congratulations to Madison BOCC for this ordinance Madison passed unanimously last night (PDF):

ORDINANCE NO. 2016-______

Home rule, karst, and earthquakes AN ORDINANCE OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MADISON COUNTY, FLORIDA, AMENDING THE MADISON COUNTY LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE TO PROHIBIT HIGH INTENSITY PETROLEUM OPERATIONS AND THE STORAGE AND/OR DISPOSAL OF HIGH INTENSITY PETROLEUM OPERATIONS WASTE; PROVIDING CERTAIN FINDINGS; AMENDING THE DEFINITIONS SECTION OF THE MADISON COUNTY LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE TO DEFINE CERTAIN TERMS WITH REGARD THERETO; CREATING SECTION 6.5 OF THE MADISON COUNTY LAND DEVELOPMENT CODE ENTITLED “REGULATIONS GOVERNING HIGH INTENSITY PETROLEUM OPERATIONS AND HIGH INTENSITY PETROLEUM OPERATIONS WASTE PRODUCTS”; PROVIDING FOR REPEAL OF CONFLICTING ORDINANCES; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

WHEREAS, Continue reading →

WWALS asks Lowndes County to do three things more against Sabal Trail 2016-04-24

Sent yesterday to the Chairman, the other five elected Lowndes County Commissioners, and the County Clerk (PDF). They meet again 5:30PM Tuesday evening, April 25th 2016.

Dear Commissioners,

Thanks to Chairman Bill Slaughter for saying in the Valdosta Daily Times that the Commission signing an easement contract was not an endorsement of the Sabal Trail pipeline.[1] Therefore I ask you to:

  1. Invite the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate on site and on paper the numerous omissions by Sabal Trail of springs and underground water transmissivity in what it told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; .please see the letter from WWALS to the Army Corps,[2] attached with the letter from WWALS to you of April 12th.
  2. Ask our U.S. Congress member Austin Scott (GA-08) to join the four Georgia Congress members who have already asked FERC to fix its processes or deny a permit for Sabal Trail.[3]
  3. Join the hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals who have already asked the U.S. Congress to call in the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review FERC’s permitting processes.[4]

Please find appended further information about the issues the Chairman raised in the VDT of eminent domain, in differences in regulation of oil and gas pipelines, and in environmental and safety issues of natural gas pipelines.

Since I wrote to you on April 12th, two more major natural gas pipelines have run into serious problems.

On April 20th, Kinder Morgan shelved Continue reading →

Lowndes County Chairman says accepting easement was not endorsement of Sabal Trail pipeline

So Lowndes County should have no problem asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come investigate what Sabal Trail didn’t tell FERC. And if the county is concerned about legal expenses, maybe it should pay attention to the lawsuits happening right now in California about a natural gas leak that went up into the air, closing schools, evacuating hundreds, and making many of them sick.

The VDT article today doesn’t mention writing a letter to the Corps was one of my requests to the county. It does quote the Chairman expresssing interest in details of eminent domain, in differences in regulation of oil and gas pipelines, and in environmental and safety issues of natural gas pipelines. Treating his statements as questions, I have provided some further information below on those points.

And he does say the county might have incurred legal expenses if it hadn’t accepted Sabal Trail’s money for the easement. He doesn’t mention how much money Lowndes County spent suing a local company on behalf of a trash collection company financed out of New York City, or how much money the county spent suing a local church about a minor tax matter. It seems when Lowndes County wants to do something, it doesn’t worry so much about legal expenses. And maybe the county should worry more about legal expenses if something does go wrong with that pipeline, especially considering what’s happening with the Porter Ranch leak in California.

Besides, writing a letter Continue reading →