I still see EPA’s new Clean Water Rule
as a good thing, since it protects drinking water,
paddling, and fishing, while opponents remain quite vague about
what might be wrong with it.
After last year’s comment period, U.S. EPA has posted a prepublication version of its final Clean Water Rule.
Katie Shepherd, L.A. Times, 27 May 2015, Under new EPA rule, Clean Water Act protections will cover all active tributaries, Continue reading
Other Florida, Georgia, and Alabama counties could do what Hamilton County,
Florida just did in this
this resolution.
Even before it got this resolution, FERC yesterday
directed Sabal Trail to deal with what Chris Mericle had been saying,
including proposing routes to minimize crossing the Withlacoochee River
or to avoid crossing it entirely.
Chris Mericle sent a PDF copy of the resolution with its attached hydrogeological report. I’ve added links to the other referenced documents.
Chris is the local host for the
September WWALS Outing on the Withalacoochee and Suwannee Rivers,
where you can come float past that same area
Sunday 21 September,
and see many local springs, sinkholes and shoals
that need to be protected from that pipeline.
RESOLUTION NO. 14-10
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
HAMILTON COUNTY, FLORIDA Continue reading
Mercury in the Alapaha River probably comes from coal Plant Scherer near Macon. EPA is holding public hearings on its proposed Clean Power Plan next week, 29-30 July 2014, in Atlanta. You can also comment online until 16 October 2014 on Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602. And you can express your opinion outside with Georgia Sierra Club at the Atlanta Climate Rally Tuesday at high noon. Maybe you want to mention shifting from coal to “natural” gas (fracked methane) actually may make matters worse here, so EPA needs to go further.
While that proposed carbon rule may help clean up coal plants like Scherer, it says nothing about methane, which EPA says is Continue reading
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes some new rules to
clarify Clean Water Act protection.
Some people and organizations have concerns about that,
and the EPA has now responded to those concerns.
Comment periods are still open for you to provide input directly to EPA
about the proposed rule.
Here’s the EPA’s Waters of the United States Proposed Rule. EPA says clarification of the Clean Water Act was requested by a broad range of state, tribal, and local government agencies and elected officials and NGOs, ranging from AASHTO to the National Association of State Foresters. One of the two examples EPA cites of state enforcement problems is on the Flint River in Georgia:
Recreation in Lake Blackshear, Georgia
Continue reading
It’s a serious situation in Waycross, with people getting sick and dying.
The contamination, whatever it is,
may have crossed into WWALS watersheds, as well.
Good interactions between WWALS, Satilla Riverkeeper,
and silentdisaster.org, plus EPA, GA EPD, and GA Health Dept.
Matthew J. Huyser, EPA (l. standing blue shirt), Jim Brown, GA EPD (c. standing white shirt), Ashby Nix, Satilla Riverkeeper (facing Brown, paper in hand), Joan Martin McNeal, silentdisaster.org (r. in group)
For details, see these posts on Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE): Continue reading
EPA will be in Waycross 24 November 2013 to meet about this contamination, which has also been shipped over into WWALS watersheds. -jsq
Satilla River: Toxic Legacy in Waycross Needs Further Investigations, Cleanups, in Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen 2013,
Satilla River
Toxic legacy in Waycross Needs Further Investigations, CleanupsIntroduction:
Lurking within Mary Street Park, a tree-lined neighborhood park in Waycross, is a silent killer—toxic pollutants from a defunct industrial wastewater treatment facility known as Seven Out Tank. Opened in 2002, the industrial waste handler operated only two years before multiple environmental violations led to the facility’s closure. Now, after Continue reading
EPA found phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizers, bacteria and other pollutants from urban runoff, plus mercury, in most U.S. rivers and streams. And they didn’t even mention low dissolved oxygen.
Ian Simpson wrote for Reuters, carried by NBC, EPA: More than half of U.S. rivers unsuitable for aquatic life,
Continue readingFifty-five percent of U.S. river and stream lengths were in poor condition for aquatic life, largely under threat from runoff contaminated by fertilizers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday.
High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, runoff from urban areas, shrinking ground cover and pollution from mercury and bacteria were putting the 1.2 million miles of streams and rivers surveyed under stress, the EPA said.
“This new science shows that America’s streams and rivers are under significant pressure,” Nancy Stone, acting administrator of the EPA’s Office of Water, said in a statement.
Twenty-one percent of the United States’ river and stream length was