Tag Archives: conservation

AGL report to PHMSA about Homerville, GA explosion, 2019-09-17

AGL’s report to PHMSA was so lacking that PHMSA added this comment box:

Please confirm these
injuries involved in-patient
overnight hospitalization.

Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) did mention hospitalization in its narrative on the last page, but even there did not use the terms “in-patient” or “overnight”, much less “third-degree burns” or “airlifted to the burn unit at Shands in Gainseville, Florida”.

Please confirm these injuries involved in-patient overnight hospitalization.

But PHMSA’s comment is mild compared to GA-PSC staff’s more than $2 mllion recommended fine for “failure to properly investigate the damage which led to this explosion”. See previous WWALS blog post for that and other GA-PSC staff comments on this AGL Incident Report – Gas Distribution System to the U.S Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Agency (PHMSA), including:

Continue reading →

Videos and slides: Suwannee Riverkeeper @ Live Oak Woman’s Club 2019-04-05

Last Wednesday, I invited the Live Oak Woman’s Club to the meeting in Valdosta this Wednesday evening between elected officials of the dozen downstream Florida counties and Valdosta.

FL Counties Rivers Task Force in Valdosta 2019-04-10

I talked about all the items on the alides, plus some topics raised by questions from the audience.

For example, they were horrified to hear that (according to GA-PSC), AGL did not follow its own corporate procedures to investigate the Homerville, GA pipeline gas explosion. Eileen Box mentioned that the source of AGL’s gas, Southern Natural Gas, also has a pipeline that runs through her property in Suwannee County.

Most of the attendees at the Live Oak Woman’s Club had not heard that Sabal Trail leaked gas at its Hildreth Compressor Station in Suwannee County in September 2018, and they were not pleased to learn Sabal Trail took a week to get around to telling FDEP about that.

LNG and FERC

They wanted to know about liquid natural gas (LNG), and they were again horrified to learn that Continue reading →

Paddle Georgia 2019 Educator Scholarship 2019-04-20

South Georgia K-12 educators, you can get a scholarship to paddle for a week in June 2019 on the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers from Georgia to Florida, with 300 people on Paddle Georgia.

Your assignment afterwards will be to write an essay about your experiences on that paddle.

To apply, you need to write on the application form “why you want to participate and how you would use the experience and environmental education curriculum in your classroom.”

There are many opportunities for you and your classes, such as backpack water quality monitoring, cleanups, more paddles, taking accounts of wildlife and native and invasive species, and interning with your local watershed nonprofit organization, WWALS Watershed Coalition to help organize outings and advocacy. WWALS and its program Suwannee Riverkeeper® will be here after Paddle Georgia moves on to another river next year.

Let’s use this opportunity to get local youth and educators engaged with fishable, swimmable, drinkable water!

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

Live Oak Woman’s Club Chorus 2019-04-05

Thank you, Live Oak Woman’s Club, for inviting me to speak Wednesday. Great Chorus!

Here you are, singing a snippet of Easter Parade, and all of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, with choreography!

Several people have suggested you may want to Continue reading →

Defeat Suncoast Connector 2019-04-05

Please call your Florida state legislators to ask them to oppose a toll expressway across the Suwannee River, and maybe even across the Santa Fe or Ichetucknee Rivers. Instead, let’s do Amtrak passenger trains for better transportation and solar power for jobs and lower energy prices.

Suncoast Connector, Defenders of Wildlife

This boondoogle would come up from Citrus County to Jefferson County. That’s all the bills (SB 7068 or HB 7113) say about the route.

Defenders of Wildlife has a corridor map that shows Suncoast Connector coming from Crystal River in Citrus County, through Gilchrist and maybe Alachua Counties, possibly crossing the Santa Fe River into Columbia County and the Ichetucknee River into Suwannee County. It would have to cross the Suwannee River somewhere, maybe into Dixie or Lafayette or even Madison County, heading on through Taylor County to Monticello in Jefferson County.

Here’s a better way to improve transportation in the Suwannee River Basin: revive Amtrak through Madison and Lake City. The tracks are already there, so Continue reading →

AGL could face millions for blast 2019-04-03

On the front page of the newspaper of record in the biggest city in the Suwannee River Basin, yesterday in the Valdosta Daily Times, is a story by Terry Richards about the GA-PSC report on the AGL pipeline and the August 2018 Homerville, GA explosion that destroyed a coffeeshop and sent three women to the hospital with third-degree burns.

The VDT did a bit of reporting by contacting AGL and its contractor: Continue reading →

Florida Water Conservation Month and Waterkeepers Florida 2019-04-02

Yesterday, the Chair of Waterkeepers Florida received a resolution sponsored by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nicole “Nikki” Fried and “signed by Governor DeSantis and the full Cabinet, recognizing the month of April as Water Conservation Month in Florida.” This is a good thing, but we should keep our eyes open about Florida’s current cabinet.

Left to right: Lisa Rinaman for WKA FL, unknown, Gov. Ron DeSantis, FDEP Secretary Noah Valenstein, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, unknown, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and Chief Financial Office Jimmy Patronis.

Commissioner Fried presented the resolution to Lisa Rinaman, the St. Johns Riverkeeper and Chair of Waterkeepers Florida. Read the resolution declaring April as Water Conservation Month here.

“On behalf of Waterkeepers Florida, we thank Commissioner Fried, Governor DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet for designating April as Water Conservation Month. Water conservation is critical to the work we do to protect and restore Florida’s waters. We applaud this resolution and the Cabinet’s commitment to conserving Florida’s waters and the opportunity to partner with our leaders to protect our waters for future generations,” said Lisa Rinaman, St. Johns Riverkeeper.

On St. Johns Riverkeeper’s facebook page, yesterday: Continue reading →

Georgia legislature passed a firefighting foam regulation bill 2019-03-28

Both houses of the Georgia General Assembly have passed a bill to regulate PFAS fluorinated firefighting chemicals, such as spilled at Moody Air Force Base and the other two Georgia AF bases. If the governor signs it, this bill will become law.

The bill is rather limited in scope, basically only Continue reading →

VSU Panel Discussion, Environment –Hardy, Thieme, Quarterman 2019-04-18

Thanks to Prof. Cristobal Serrán-Pagán and the VSU Philosophy and Religious Studies Club for organizing this Panel Discussion on the Environment with Valdosta Public Works Director Richard Hardy, VSU Geology Prof. Don Thieme, and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.

When: 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m., Thursday, April 18th, 2019

Where: Odum Library Auditorium, 500 N Patterson St, Valdosta, GA 31698

Event: facebook, meetup

Valdosta Public Works Director Richard Hardy, Prof. Donald M. Thieme, Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman
PDF

Who:

Richard Hardy, City of Valdosta Public Works Director, Continue reading →

Submissions open for Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2019-04-01

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (PDF)

Submissions open for Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest

Hahira, Georgia, April 1, 2019 — No fooling but fun: today songwriters can start submitting new songs about the Suwannee, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, or Little Rivers, or other lakes, swamps, springs, or sinks in the Suwannee River Basin. New this year is a separate winner category for finalists younger than eighteen, in the Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest. Well-known radio personality Chris Beckham will be the Master of Ceremonies inside in air conditioning Saturday afternoon, August 24, 2019, at The Salty Snapper in Valdosta, Georgia. Three judges will select winners as finalists play. Snacks are included, plus a silent auction and kayak raffle. Come have some family musical fun supporting your local nonprofit WWALS Watershed Coalition and Suwannee Riverkeeper.

Photo: Bret Wagenhorst, of Emmett Carlisle playing at the 2018 Contest

Last year’s winner, Laura D’Alisera has driven from Jacksonville for every contest organizing committee meeting this year, and will sing this year while the judges are judging. She says, “To encourage working songwriters, this year we will Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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