In the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th, 2016.
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
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:
- 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.
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]
- 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
In today’s Sunday April 10th 2016 Valdosta Daily Times:
The Georgia House on March 22nd by an unprecedented 34 ayes to 128 nays rejected easements for Sabal Trail
to drill our Withlacoochee and other Georgia Rivers. This was a historic victory by the Georgia Water Coalition, including Georgia Sierra Club, WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, plus SpectraBusters, and thanks to all of you who called their state reps.
That same day, Continue reading
Everyone from the Atlanta Journal-Constition to the Palm Beach Post to the
Ocala StarBanner
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
From Douglas and Tifton, Georgia through Florida to South America and South Africa,
they ate bon-bons and floated and climbed to see springs, caves at Five Holes, and said what they thought about the
Sabal Trail pipeline proposing to gouge across the Suwannee River,
on the
WWALS Outing Saturday August 15th 2015.
Update 2018-02-12: 5 Holes (also known as Hamilton Seven Sisters Spring) is on Suwannee River State Park (SRSP) land, and is normally closed to the public. We did have permission for this outing, thanks to Park Manager Craig Liney, as well as for the later Five Holes Cleanup and Site Exploration.
Expedition leader Chris Mericle reports he’s gotten the Suwannee River State Park vehicle entrance fees waived for this weekend’s outing, plus a permit
…to view a unique closed area of the park called “5 Holes”. 5 Holes is a series of karst windows leading to a spring. When the water level is right you can walk through a semi-cavern from the river up the spring run to the spring.
So meet us 8AM tomorrow morning, Saturday, August 15h, 2015 at Gibson Park!
James Garrett posted some Continue reading
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
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
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.)
