Tag Archives: Aquifer

Sabal Trail to move pipeline off Withlacoochee River in Florida?

300x388 Withlacoochee Alternative 1 (East), in Response to FERC directive of 26 August 2014, by Sabal Trail Transmission, for SpectraBusters.org, 15 September 2014 Will Sabal Trail actually move off the Withlacoochee River in Florida? That depends on how you interpret which version of what Sabal Trail has said about its seven (7) different proposed fracked methane pipeline routes through Suwannee County, Florida. And all but one of the five proposed Georgia routes still would cross the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County, Georgia. Beware that no matter what Sabal Trail says, FERC could pick any of these routes or some other. And no matter what FERC says, other agencies, including state and local, also have to approve permits and other evaluatios of any route, plus both Spectra Energy and Williams Company have recently “suspended” or cancelled pipelines as uneconomic. There is something you and your local elected bodies can do.

Amber Vann wrote for the Suwannee Democrat 19 September 2014, Gas pipeline concerns continue, Continue reading →

FERC and Sabal Trail at the Withlacoochee River in Hamilton County, FL

Filed with FERC 16 September 2014 as Report of Christopher J Mericle , On site meeting with local property owners, FERC and Sabal Trail at the proposed Withlacoochee river crossing Hamilton Co. Florida under PF14-1. Chris and Deanna Mericle are our local hosts for the WWALS outing at that same affected location 10 AM this Sunday, September 21st 2014. -jsq

9-10-14

Local property owners met with FERC and Sabal Trail to voice concerns with the proposed Natural Gas pipeline route where it crosses the Withlacoochee River in Hamilton County, Florida. We had a great turnout of local support. Also in attendance, supporting our cause, was David Brown, Florida Certified Geologist, Jessica Norfleet, Constituent Advocate representing U.S. Congressman Ted Yoho, and Louie Goodin, Hamilton Co. Coordinator representing Hamilton Co. Board of Commissioners.

600x300 John Peconom (center) Talking with Deanna & Chris Mericle, David Brown, and FERC Geologist Tony (1 of 2), in FERC and Sabal Trail at the Withlacoochee River in Hamilton County, FL, by Chris Mericle, for WWALS.net, 16 September 2014 Attendees for FERC included John Peconom, Project manager, James Martin, Chief-Gas Branch3 and at least 4 other people.

Sabal had over 10 people attending from all areas of expertise including Andrea Glover, public relations, and Greg Jones, Geologist.

There was discussion of Continue reading →

Letter to Lowndes County Commission about Sabal Trail

Here’s the cover letter I sent to the Lowndes County Commission about the action letter to county commissions, text of which was appended. They meet tonight at 5:30 PM. -jsq

From: “John S. Quarterman”
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 21:07:54 -0400
cc: wwalswatershed@gmail.com
To: “Joyce E. Evans”, Richard Raines, Crawford Powell, Demarcus Marshall, Clay Griner
Subject: Resolutions other counties have passed against Spectra pipelines

Dear Lowndes County Commissioners,

With FERC’s recent instructions to Sabal Trail adding three more pipeline alternates that could go through Lowndes County, Lowndes has become even more of a key county regarding that pipeline. Please see the appended letter signed by many groups and individuals for resolutions and an ordinance that other counties have already passed.

Thanks,
John S. Quarterman, President, WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. Continue reading →

FL State Rep. Elizabeth Porter objects to FERC about Sabal Trail pipeline in karst limestone

Chris Mericle’s Florida state rep., Elizabeth Porter, who also attended the recent GA EPD briefing to SRWMD about Valdosta’s plans to fix its wastewater overflowes into the Withlacoochee River, just objected to FERC about Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline (PDF). Chris and Deanna Mericle are our local hosts for the WWALS Withlacoochee and Suwannee River paddle past the pipeline 21 September 2014.

FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Representative Elizabeth Porter
District 10
Elizabeth.Porter@myfloridahouse.gov

Continue reading →

Cook County, GA ground water depletion –USGS

In USGS’s web page on Groundwater depletion:

The chart below shows monthly-mean water levels from 1964 to 2003 for a well in Cook County, sourthwest Georgia. The well is used for irrigation and public- supply purposes and offers a good visual representation of long-term groundwat er declines due to excessive pumping. [d]—data for the chart is available.

West-central Florida— Continue reading →

USGS warns Withlacoochee River already leaks into Floridan Aquifer

There’s a reason Valdosta’s water wells are 400 feet deep. Its earlier, shallower wells were sucking up Withlacoochee River water that still leaks into groundwater. Should we risk a fracked methane pipeline digging under that same river and possibly causing more sinkholes and underground movement of contaminants, some perhaps coming from the pipeline itself or its demands for pressure testing water?

Sustainability of Ground-water Resources, by William M. Alley Thomas E. Reilly O. Lehn Franke, 1 January 1999, U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey – Publisher. In Box E on Page 63:

The Connection Between Surface-Water Quality and Ground-Water Quality in a Karst Aquifer


Figure E-1. Estimated percentage of Withlacoochee River water in ground water in the Upper Floridan aquifer, June 1991. (Modified from Plummer and others, 1998.)
The Upper Floridan aquifer, which is the sole source of water supply for Valdosta, Georgia, and much of the surrounding area, receives large volumes of direct discharge from the Withlacoochee River through sinkholes in the streambed or off-channel. A highly interconnected conduit system has developed Continue reading →

Alapaha River @ US 84: endpoint of Sunday’s WWALS Outing 24 August 2014

Chris Graham took this picture a week ago of the Alapaha River at US 84, where tomorrow’s WWALS Outing will end up. Come join us on this gem of a blackwater rural river! We’re boating the central area of the in-progress Alapaha River Trail, tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, August 24st 2014.

Meet up at 1:30 at Hotchkiss Crossing on the Lanier County side.

We will drop the boats off, drive the end point at US 84, on a public right of way, where the road is gravel.

Get on water at 2:00.

We will pass by the location for the new Lowndes County boat ramp and public access point. This is a relatively short paddle, about 1.27 miles, but it could take as long as 2 hours if the water level stays low.

This event is FREE! All we ask is that Continue reading →

Flint Riverkeeper to GA Senate Aquifer Storage Study Committee

The same Floridan Aquifer underlies the Flint River, and our Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and other rivers, all of Florida, and across south Georgia all the way to the coast, where Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, explained it to the Georgia Senate’s Long-Term Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Study Committee, 4 August 2014 on Jekyll Island. The ASR idea of pumping treated water into the ground for later retrieval is a bad idea, as Gordon spelled out.

See especially this part in Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers’ Comments to the Senate ASR Study Committee,

In central south GA, eastern and coastal GA, Floridan water is thousands of years old, quite pristine, and is so slow to recharge that essentially it does not recharge in comparison to human uses.

Remember, the Flint River basin where the Georgia legislature keeps trying to implement ASR is the next one to the west Continue reading →

Moultrie Observer: WWALS op-ed against Sabal Trail pipeline

Bigger type than the rest of the page, and in the editorial column position: Haley Hyatt, who took these pictures, noticed that about how the Moultrie Observer printed the WWALS op-ed Friday 1 August 2014, as “Much opposition”.

So that’s at least two newspapers so far, the other being the Ocala StarBanner. Continue reading →

WWALS op-ed against Sabal Trail pipeline published

The Moultrie Observer printed the WWALS op-ed Friday 1 August 2014; that’s still not online. But the Ocala StarBanner has it online, Sunday 3 August 2014, Water, property rights over pipeline profits. Several more newspapers are considering it.

-jsq