See three sinks, a waterfall, and a distributary in these videos from the
WWALS Outing to Turket Creek Waterfall, the Alapahoochee River,
the Alapaha River Sink, and the Dead River Sink, June 14, 2015.
A WWALS video playlist
follows the links to each video below. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Floridan Aquifer
Permit-less Sabal Trail pipeline risked by new sinkhole
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(See also PDF and previous blog post.)
Live Oak, FL, October 5, 2017 — Sabal Trail, operating without a permit, is at risk from a new sinkhole within 60 feet of its 36-inch diameter, high-pressure, fracked methane pipe under Suwannee River State Park (SRSP), between the Suwannee River and the drill site in Hamilton County. Such sinkholes are among the geological risks WWALS warned about that have happened in the fragile karst limestone containing our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer. We were assured in October 2015 by Sabal Trail and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) that sinkholes and frac-outs would not happen or would be detected and fixed. They keep happening, and Sabal Trail has done nothing about this one. Sabal Trail should not even be continuing operations after the DC Circuit Court vacated its permit six weeks ago.
Suwannee
Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman at new sinkhole in Suwannee River
State Park, 2017-10-03.
Photo:
Christopher J. Mericle, Chair, N. Florida Working Group,
Suwannee-St. Johns Group, Sierra Club Florida.
In WWALS vs. Sabal Trail & FDEP (October 2015), FDEP’s one witness, Lisa Prather, said under oath (see https://wwals.net/blog/?p=27799):
“Well, the Suwannee River crossing doesn’t, in fact, have any impacts to an outstanding Florida water, because the directional drill commences in uplands and terminates in uplands. So there are no surface water impacts at that crossing that would affect the outstanding Florida water.”
“Well, any work within, or could have adverse effects on OFW, is considered.In this case, we determine that there would be no impacts to the OFW.”
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman says:
“Email to Ms. Prather’s address now comes back with an error message, while the rest of us are left Continue reading
SWIM Plan Meeting, Live Oak 2017-10-03
Nitrates, agriculture, and silviculture were already in, and sewage, phosphate mines, and the Floridan Aquifer got added yesterday afternoon in Live Oak in public comments on updates to SRWMD’s SWIM Plans, plus new SRWMD E.D. Hugh Thomas spoke.
Thanks to presenter Tom Singleton, the slides presented are on the WWALS website. Here are a few notes and pictures.
Floridan Aquifer
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Sierra Club Florida noted Continue reading
Bradford County, FL Comprehensive Plan 2012-04-19
Apparently you can mine almost anywhere in Bradford County, Florida, according to the Bradford County Comprehensive Plan:
Illustration A-X Bradford County MINING AREAS
That map is about as bad as the one in Continue reading
Union County Proposed Mining Areas 2017-08-30
Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
Here’s a much better map:
Proposed Mining Areas, Application CPA 17-02, 2017-09-18
PDF of this map
I was confused by the mining areas map in the NCFRPC materials for the recent Union County Comprehensive Plan workshop Monday 21 August 2017. That map in the previous post appears to show almost all of Union County as mining areas. So I asked NCFRPC E.D. Ed Koons. He clarified: Continue reading
Mining change drafts for Union County Comp. Plan 2017-08-21
Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
Update 2017-08-30: Follow this link for a proposed new and much better mining areas map.
Here are copies of the original searchable and high resolution PDFs of the three main items presented by NCFRPC (a slide presentation, the evaluation amendments, and a draft mining text amendment) at the Union County Comprehensive Plan workshop Monday 21 August 2017.
Illustration A-X: Mining Areas on page A-25 of the
Evaluation Amendments.
PDF of this page.
Thanks to Scott R. Koons, Executive Director, North Centra Florida Regional Planning Council, for sending these documents in response to a public records request from Suwannee Riverkeeper.
The documents are (with links to the PDFs): Continue reading
WWALS at VSU Learning in Retirement 2017-08-31
Come ask Gretchen questions this Thursday morning, 10-11AM, at VSU’s Continuing Education building in midtown Valdosta.
When: 10AM to 11AM, Thursday, August 31, 2017
Where:
VSU Continuing Education
903 N Patterson St, Valdosta, Georgia 31698
Event: facebook
Gretchen Quarterman speaking at a WWALS public meeting at VSU last spring
WWALS will be offering an interactive lecture at Valdosta State Learning in Retirement Fall Session. We will talk about the watershed of the Suwannee Basin, the Floridan Aquifer, current challenges, and how together we can make sure our water is swimmable, fishable, and drinkable.
Continue readingVideo: Will you lead to sun and wind power? —John S. Quarterman to Tom Fanning, CEO, at Southern Company stockholder meeting 2017-05-24
Update 2017-07-28: See also VDT op-ed and letter to GA-PSC.
Five years ago I asked Southern Company (SO) CEO Tom Fanning what was his exit plan when the Big Bets on Kemper Coal in Mississippi and the two new Plant Vogtle nuclear units on the Savannah River go bad. This Wednesday SO stopped using coal at Kemper Coal after the MS PSC refused to authorize further cost overruns. Thursday GA PSC staff said Plant Vogtle is no longer economical. It is time for GA PSC to do for Plant Vogtle what MS PSC did for Kemper Coal.
As Suwannee Riverkeeper at this year’s meeting in May, I told Fanning we don’t want SO’s coal ash in any landfill on any river in the Suwannee River Basin; I asked him for solar panels at Moody Air Force Base to shut down a natural gas pipeline; and I questioned SO’s acquisition of Pivotal LNG with its deal to ship liquid natural gas in bomb trucks down I-75 and I-10 to Jacksonville, Florida.
I reminded our genial host of my question five years ago, with the handwriting already on the wall since the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had then just referred to Plant Vogtle as a financial quagmire. This time I asked Fanning to lead us all to sun and wind power.
In SO’s own video you can see them Continue reading
Proposed HPSII phosphate mine in Union and Bradford Counties, Florida
Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
The proposed HPSII phosphate mine on the New River in Bradford and Union Counties, Florida, features in Dave Wilson’s talk from April. HPSII would be upstream from the Santa Fe River, and thus upstream from the Suwannee River.
WWALS Watershed Coalition opposes the HPSII phosphate mine. We see no benefit in Union and Bradford Counties suffering effects such as those outlined in Dave Wilson’s slides, and looking like Hamilton County in these aerials: Continue reading
PotashCorp Field Trip Summary –David Wilson 2017-04-13
The moonscape that seems to go on forever while flying over Hamilton County, Florida in a small plane is the PCS phosphate mine, as seen in some WWALS aerials in these slides that David Wilson presented at a Santa Fe River Springs Protection Forum April 13, 2017 at Otter Springs, Florida. Dave is Treasurer of the Board of Florida Springs Institute, and a WWALS member. His slides are published on the WWALS website with his permission.
According to the slides, perhaps JEA is responsible for the low water levels at White Sulfur Springs, formerly a famous resort, now bone dry: Continue reading