Tag Archives: Florida

Sabal Trail asks FERC to authorize turning on gas 2017-05-17

Sabal Trail has discovered the southeast has drought! That’s its excuse for not greening up its gouge across what it calls its “greenfield” route. Sabal Trail “will continue to be available” to address landowner concerns, as if they have addressed destroying Randy Dowdy’s world-record soybean fields. They claim they’ve resolved 271 of 279 landowner issues: as near as I can tell mostly by suing the landowners, like they did the Bell Brothers.

Pipeline company chutzpah! Solar power would do this faster, cheaper, and cleaner: “Granting Sabal Trail’s request by May 26 will allow Sabal Trail to commence service promptly to FPL and will significantly increase the available supply of natural gas to the Southeastern United States during the heart of the peak summer cooling season.” More likely Sabal Trail wants to be in-service by the end of May to avoid forfeiting that $200 million bond required by FPL’s RFP.

Sabal Trail’s list of karst features doesn’t match its own Continue reading →

Sabal Trail signs at Suwannee River, 2017-05-20

Here are the signs Sabal Trail planted Friday at the Suwannee River.

Updated 2017-05-23: Clarify what the google map is about.

See the Continue reading →

Suwannee County HDD, Sabal Trail, 2017-05-20

Sabal Trail has hidden the “depressions” they admitted to recently.

Updated 2017-05-23: Clarify what the google map is about.

See the Continue reading →

Sabal Trail sign installation at SRSP, 2017-05-19

Received Friday:

Today Sabal Trail workers were clearing underbrush and small trees on the bank of the Suwannee River where the pipeline is installed under the river to install a sign. I could not see what the sign said, the sign was on the ground with the words facing down.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn’t STT say Continue reading →

Water low but passable, White Springs to Swift Creek, Suwannee River 2017-05-20

Update 2017-05-17: OK, the water’s gotten too low at the original location, so we’re moving downstream to Woods Ferry Tract Launch to Suwannee Springs.

Hands Across the Sand on the Suwannee Saturday! The river is quite low (48.78 feet NAVD on the White Springs gage), but it looks doable from the put-in and take-out. A ranger at Stephen Foster State Park told me paddling from White Springs to Swift Creek would be doable, perhaps with a few dry spots. I’ll also call a local outfitter or two for their opinions.

White Springs down from ramp

Meanwhile, bring bug spray (gnats) and a rope (to pull your boat over sand bars), and we’re still on for 9AM Saturday 20 May 2017. See the outing announcement for more details.

Plus: that’s the day of Hands Across the Sand, “Say NO to dirty fuels and YES to clean energy”. WWALS has been saying that for years, so somewhere on the Suwannee we will stop and do Hands Across the Sand against the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and for solar power.

White Springs low spot

Continue reading →

Valdosta and Lowndes County water treatment quality compared to region

Valdosta indeed didn’t have the worst water treatment violations in Lowndes County, Georgia, but it was worse than any nearby city in Georgia or Florida (and Lowndes County was worse than any nearby county). Once again, the Valdosta Daily Times said (twice) that Valdosta “is now in full compliance”. This is about drinking water treatment; sewage is another story. But in both cases, if Valdosta doesn’t want the local newspaper to treat the city as the villain of the piece, maybe it should stop reacting like one.

The above screenshot from Threats on Tap: Widespread Violations Highlight Need for Investment in Water Infrastructure and Protections shows Georgia has been pretty bad, but Florida was much worse.

Let’s look at the area around Valdosta. Continue reading →

Where nobody lives in the Suwannee River Basin

Obviously nobody lives in most of the Okefenokee Swamp or the Osceola National Forest, but also most of Clinch County is unpopulated west of the Swamp, as is much of the Gulf coast along the Suwannee River Estuary, from Cedar Key north to Horsehoe Bay, plus large parts of Dixie and Lafayette Counties west of the Suwannee River.

Nobody Lives Here: Unpopulated U.S. Census Blocks, screenshot by jsq from interactive map by mapsbynik.

Update 2017-06-20: As someone pointed out, rangers do live in the Okefenokee Swamp, presumably in the white area along the access road.

Cedar Key is the island at the bottom of the map, and from a bit north on the Gulf Coast you can follow Continue reading →

Sabal Trail Pipeline Forum, Hollywood, FL 2017-05-23

Let the sun rise by the sea, down where Sabal Trail would ship LNG.

When: 6PM Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Where: Hollywood Beach Culture Center
1301 S. Ocean Drive, Hollywood, FL 33019

Event: facebook

Flyer: Follow this link to PDF, and JPG image below.

Continue reading →

Nichols Spring ERP, Withlacoochee (south) River, Sumter County, FL

Apparently Charlie Dean has one more day left on an FDEP permit to build a dock at Nichols Spring on the Withlacoochee (south) River at Lat: 28° 50′ 23.6438″ Lon: -82° 12′ 9.8242″ (28.839901, -82.202729), at SR 44 on CR 251 West, Wildwood, in Sumter County, Florida. The nearest house, maybe his, is at 5927 CR 251W, Lake Panasoffkee, FL 33538.

Possibly this is former Florida State Senator Charlie Dean (R-District 5), who represented parts or all of Baker, Citrus, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Lafayette, Levy, Marion, Suwannee, and Union Counties, Florida, but curiously not Sumter County.

Found via Continue reading →

Sabal Trail to export through Jacksonville, FL

Let’s connect the dots from Sabal Trail to LNG export through Jacksonville. To cut to the chase: Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy is already exporting LNG from Jacksonville, and is authorized to get LNG from both Floridian Natural Gas (FLiNG) in Martin County at the end of the Transco → Sabal Trail → FSC pipeline chain, and from Florida Gas Transportation (FGT)’s Jacksonville Expansion Project from Sabal Trail in Suwannee County to Jacksonville.

KMI FGT TECO JEP

Working backwards, look at Jaxport’s own website, Corporate, Major Growth Projects, Liquifed Natural Gas:

EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES

Crowley-owned Carib Energy has already begun small scale exports of LNG to Puerto Rico and has plans for expansion to a number of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.

That JAXport page links to Crowley Maritime’s LNG Overview web page, which brags: Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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