Update 2020-10-01: Signed and executed copy.
Thanks, City of Adel, for passing this resolution last Tuesday! The next BIG Little River Paddle Race at Reed Bingham State Park will be April 28, 2018, pending final approval by GA DNR. Meanwhile, come paddle with WWALS from Hagan Bridge (GA 122) to Franklinville on the Withlacoochee River, February 11, 2018.
![[Under the cypress]](/pictures/2017-04-29--blrpr-hubbard/PWHX8661.jpg)
Photo: Phil Hubbard, Under Reed Bingham State Park cypress at the 2017 BIG Little River Paddle Race.
For our waters, last Thursday, Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll recommended (Video) a resolution in support of a resolution in the Georgia state legislature to stop state fee diversions.
Video
by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE)
at Valdosta City Council, Thursday, January 11, 2018.
Newly elected Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Tooley wanted to know whether Continue reading
Update 2018-12-30: The new organization WATERKEEPERS Florida, as one of its first acts, on December 19, 2018, signed the Resolution Against Phosphate Mines in Florida, thus committing all thirteen of its member organizations.
Update 2018-11-13: Miami Waterkeeper has signed, bringing it to a round dozen Florida Waterkeepers.
Update 2018-08-18: Calusa Waterkeeper has also signed, bringing it to 11 of the 14 Waterkeepers in Florida. (See also PDF.)
Update 2018-08-01: Five additional signers: Suncoast Waterkeeper, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, Indian Riverkeeper, St. Marys Riverkeeper, and Collier County Waterkeeper. Seven of us delivered this resolution in person to FDEP Secretary Noah Valenstein.
Delivered via email as PDF to the Union BOCC before their phosphate mine workshop of Monday, December 18, 2017.
A Resolution
Against Phosphate Mines in Florida
WHEREAS, Waterkeeper Alliance Members are obligated and dedicated to protect the water resources, citizens’ interests, and related benefits in their jurisdictions; and
WHEREAS, phosphate mines have been shown to threaten and cause actual harm to these
resources, interest, and related benefits; and
WHEREAS, there are several phosphate mine projects in various stages of permitting in local, state, and federal agencies including county and city governments, Water Management Districts (WMDs), Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); and
WHEREAS, there seems to be no public list of current phosphate mines and related facitlities, which include at least
Continue readingYesterday, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) submitted a sixteen-page letter against the EPA’s proposed suspension of the Clean Water Rule, on behalf fifty-six organizations including WWALS.10
Much of that letter could as easily apply to
today’s foregone vote to eliminate the FCC’s net neutrality rule.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s
“‘unalterably closed’” views
should have been enough for him to
recuse himself.
The three FCC Commissioners for the elimination of net neutrality made it clear
they were not paying attention to the millions of public comments,
despite
requirements of the
Administrative Procedure Act to do so.
Chairman Pai with perhaps unintentional irony even argued that there was
no need to hold public hearings since far more people commented online,
which of course is only possible through an open Internet.
Nevermind that the FCC appears to be ignoring those comments.
Similarly, the EPA does not seem to be paying attention to the “more than 680,000 public comments” on the Clean Water Rule repeal beyond taking only six days to come up with a two year delay in implementation of that rule.
The SELC letter to the EPA even cites two cases against the FCC when it says: Continue reading
Quitman, Georgia also spilled sewage during Tropical Storm Irma, next to Okapilco Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River, then the Suwannee River.
According to John Thursby with Quitman Utilities, the lift station at Quitman’s main wastewater treatment plant lost power, and Continue reading
Not the answer I was looking for, but GA-EPD is still by far the most responsive agency regarding Sabal Trail.
Lisa Myler of GA-DNR called back Friday about 7PM saying Tom Fowler had been to the Okapilco Creek Sabal Trail sinkhole site I reported.
I called her back Monday, and after DNR’s web server came back up she forwarded Tom Fowler’s report today: Continue reading
Tifton spilled 277 times more sewage than Valdosta. Tifton Gazette, 20 September 2017, Power outage cause 250,000 gallon wastewater spill,
TIFTON — There were 250,000 gallons of wastewater spillage due to the power outage cause by Hurricane Irma, according to Thomas Coker, water and wastewater superintendent.
The spillage occurred at Continue reading
This Fourth of July holiday, you can help promote continued independence of clean water
by opposing the EPA’s attempt to repeal the Clean Water Rule and then undermine
the Clean Water Act.
FLoridians in
the seven counties that have asked the EPA to do something
about Valdosta’s wastewater:
here’s your chance to make sure the EPA can still do anything.
Georgians who don’t want coal ash in landfills or industrial waste in our waters:
you can help save the Clean Water Act.
Everybody in the Suwannee River Basin:
the water we drink from the Floridan Aquifer interchanges with surface waters,
and we need the EPA to help protect all those waters.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 5, 2017, Hahira, GA — Citing the sea change of solar power overtaking natural gas in new U.S. electricity last year, and generational damage to the fields of farmers such as Randy Dowdy, WWALS Watershed Coalition today filed more evidence and reasons to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline from going into service and to revoke its permit. WWALS filed the same Monday that Sabal Trail Friday asked FERC to authorize turning on the gas. Plus WWALS explicitly requested FERC do a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to take into account LNG export from Sabal Trail, copious environmental permit violations, and especially new scientific evidence about the Floridan Aquifer.
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman said: “Such irreparable harm outweighs a few billion dollars spent in error by a few companies.”
And that’s without even getting into risks to education, such as
Sabal Trail only a mile from Clyattville Elementary School.
WWALS filed the document today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The WWALS cover letter is included below in this message, and the FERC filing is available online.
WWALS wrote in Attachment 1:
“Solar power has actually more than doubled every two years since 2013. Yet FERC only counts utility-scale solar power. Adding rooftop and community solar panels, already a sea change has occurred.
Continue reading
Update 2017-08-03: The Senate already confirmed those two nominees. But there are more nominations to oppose and other things you can do.
Update 2017-06-15: On 6 June 2017 the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee forwarded two FERC nominees, but the full Senate has not voted on them, so you can lobby your Senators to vote no.
You can follow up after five people were arrested Thursday protesting confirmation hearings for FERC nominees in the U.S. Senate Energy Committee. The committee hasn’t made any decisions yet, so there’s still time to tell your Senator or members of that committee what FERC or its rubberstamped pipelines have done, so they can refuse to confirm any nominee who does not vow to turn FERC away from more pipelines and towards sun, wind, and a smart grid.
Photo: Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered the nominations of (left to right) Dan Brouillette to be deputy Energy secretary and Neil Chatterjee and Robert Powelson to fill vacancies on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
They’re also considering a nominee for deputy Secretary of the Department of Energy, which department’s Office of Fossil Energy rubberstamped half a dozen LNG export operations in Florida. You can tell the Senators that you don’t want him, either, unless he will turn to the sun.
You can ask the Senate Energy Committee to go beyond that: it can Continue reading