Tag Archives: Floridan Aquifer

Lowndes County Commission should represent people, not pipeline –WWALS to WCTV

Is less than 50 cents per person in Lowndes County enough to risk drinking water for all?

Noelani Mathews, 27 January 2016, Lowndes County Leaders Vote 4-1 for Sabal Trail,

Interviewing John S. Quarterma, president of WWALS A 4-1 vote Tuesday night has paved the way for the pipeline to run through part of Lowndes County, but some are upset about the Board’s decision.

“They’re suppose[d] to represent the people of the County, not the salesman for a pipeline company from Houston, Texas”, says John Quarterman, president of WWALS Watershed Coalition.

Continue reading →

Aquifer Storage and Recharge at SRWMD 2016-02-09

Update 2023-01-31: Fixed image links that broke when the reference documents vanished from the web.

Public Hearing about the $48 million Falling Creek Aquifer Recharge project and its 48-inch 11-mile pipeline, and several others also involving the upper Suwannee River, 9AM Tuesday, February 9th, 2016, at SRWMD headquarters in Live Oak. Wouldn’t limiting withdrawals make more sense? And why is this the only project listed that’s joint with the St Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), and why is drawdown from Jacksonville prominently featured in slides about why this project?

[Project Location and Potential Pipeline Alignment]
Project Location and Potential Pipeline Alignment

On the SRWMD front page under CALENDAR, Continue reading →

Florida Petition against Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline

Update 2016-02-02: Dropoff locations and other updates.

It’s time to get local, state, and federal elected officials to put a stop to the Sabal Trail boondoggle that risks our property rights, rivers, aquifer, and air. You can sign a petition to Florida (or Georgia or Alabama) elected officials by printing out the PDF for you and your neighbors. See below for where to send them.

Or, to sign online, Gulf Restoration Network has put up a handy online form that will send your signature and personalized message directly to your members of Congress.

Here’s the text of the PDF: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail risks drinking water –Gordon Rogers in Georgia Sierran

Apparently fracked methane is Sierra Club Georgia’s next fight now that Keystone XL is dead, since almost its entire January/February/March issue of Georgia Sierran is about opposing natural gas: PDF.

See for example “Why Natural Gas Is Not a Climate Solution”, by Joshua Hanthorn. And “LNG Puts Savannah at Risk”, by Karen Grainey and Stacey Kronquest. Karen is chair of the Coastal Group of Sierra Club Georgia. Pretty much everything in that article also applies to Jacksonville, and quite likely to Palm Beach and other locations in Florida very soon.

Mentioning WWALS is “Pipeline in Southwest Georgia and Central Florida Risks Drinking Water,” by Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper,

001 The Sabal Pipeline, a joint venture of Spectra Energy, Duke Energy, and NextEra Energy, poses threats to Georgia and Florida communities on multiple fronts. For southwest Georgia and north Florida residents it’s all risks and no rewards. However, so far federal and state authorities have thus far been unmoved by arguments against it.

During the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) public comment period, the agency received more than 1,000 written comments, mostly opposing the project, including resolutions against it from seven counties in Georgia and Florida, and three of the largest cities in its path (Albany, Moultrie and Valdosta).

The article talks about FERC’s FEIS, EPA, GA-EPD, and other matters, before turning to WWALS and Florida. Continue reading →

Sierra Club meeting against Sabal Trail, Suwannee River State Park 2016-01-16

Update 2016-01-17: Report with pictures.

This Saturday, 11AM to 1PM, come to Suwannee River State Park for an educational and organizational meeting about why and how to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and to promote solar power instead, hosted by Suwannee-St Johns Group, Florida Sierra Club. At 1PM the media are invited to a hike to the river with signs!

Do we want a fireball like a mere 4″ FGT spur made in Bell, Florida in 2012 when a tree fell on it? Sabal Trai would carry 80 times as much fracked methane. Or like FGT’s 2009 explosion between the Florida Turnpike and I-95, flying a 104-foot piece of 18-inch pipe through the air, shutting down both roads, and fortunately missing a high school? Or like Spectra’s pipeline blowout under the Arkansas River in Little Rock last May? The same Spectra Energy that wants to drill a 36″ pipeline under the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers. The same industry that’s caused Los Angeles County and the state of California to declare a state of emergency after four months of the Porter Ranch fracking well blowout causing sickness and evacuations near Los Angeles.

When: 11AM-1PM, Saturday, 16 January 2016

Where: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail response to WWALS exceptions to ALJ’s Order in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP 2016-01-04

Does this sound like a level playing field to you? Basically Sabal Trail claims “reasonable assurances” mean the pipeline can be completed and that’s a public good for the state of Florida, nevermind any destruction or hazards, while WWALS would have had to demonstrate specific direct damages to many of its members because of pipeline installation just to get standing. A Spectra Energy executive from Houston, Texas automatically has standing to claim safety using evidence from other pipelines and even other pipeline companies,explicitly referencing the U.S. Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, while WWALS and its local members in Florida are precluded from introducing any evidence about safety in the same case, or so Sabal Trail seems to say in its objections filed today 4 January 2016 (PDF) to the judge’s Order in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP.

Seems like the limestone underlying the Floridan Aquifer are not the only cracks and fissures in Florida.

-jsq

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

HAAs in Valdosta drinking water 2015-12-21

Valdosta has a water treatment byproduct over the recommended limit in its drinking water. Janet McMahan supplied the image below of part of a notice, which says there’s no cause for alarm at the moment:

HAA5 Warning

There is nothing you need do at this time. These violations do not pose Continue reading →

WWALS exceptions to judge’s recommended order in WWALS v. Sabal Trail & FDEP

Who could achieve standing or win a case with these criteria?

The judge’s Recommended Order applied the wrong standard as to whether the pipeline is in the public interest (Exception 25), applied an incorrect standard of proof (Exception 16), ignored the additional protections due the Outstanding Florida Waters of the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers (Exception 17), and ignored evidence that the granting of a Sovereign Submerged Lands Easement would adversely affect the lands under those rivers (Exception 19), not to mention the Floridan Aquifer.

In alleging WWALS does not have standing, the judge ignored a case previously cited by FDEP (Exception 23), and added an unprecedented factor of “potential injury” that would prevent associations from ever achieving standing unless they could prove the ultimate facts of the case (Exception 14).

Did the judge really mean to imply FDEP’s and Sabal Trail’s own witnesses were not competent when they upon questioning provided testimony that FDEP failed to acquire reasonable assurances that the issuance of an environmental resource permit and easement on sovereign submerged lands would not be contrary to the “public interest” (Exception 15)? If those public servants’ testimony wasn’t competent, how can those same personnel be competent to evaluate permit applications?

These are just a few of the 25 exceptions filed Monday 28 December 2015 by WWALS Counsel William R. Wohlsifer and Leighanne C. Boone. See also the WWALS video of Attorney Wohlsifer’s concluding statement in the hearing.

Here is PDF of the judge’s Recommended Order and PDF of the WWALS Exceptions. Below is the text of those exceptions. Continue reading →

EPA chooses to believe Sabal Trail’s intent over Sierra Club and WWALS warnings

It looks awful strange when EPA chooses to name and believe Florida Audubon, which agrees with Sabal Trail, but doesn’t even name Sierra Club, when discounting SC’s much larger concerns. Why should EPA, or we, believe Sabal Trail’s “intent” when Sabal Trail’s parent company, Spectra Energy, has repeatedly not even followed federal law or its own corporate procedures?

Addresses Bruce Ritchie, Politico, 16 December 2015, EPA reverses course on several Sabal Trail pipeline issues,

TALLAHASSEE — The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has reversed itself on numerous points in opposition to a proposed natural gas pipeline that would extend from Alabama across Southwest Georgia and North Florida.

In October, the EPA said in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it had “very significant concerns” that the proposed route posed a threat to the Floridan Aquifer, the drinking water supply for much of the region. The agency also raised concerns about the pipeline’s impact on wetlands, conservation lands, and minority communities in the region.

But in a Dec. 11 letter sent to the Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA’s James D. Giattina said the agency had met with representatives of Sabal Trail Transmission LLC and reviewed the company’s comments sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. As a result, the EPA has come to different conclusions on several issues.

The EPA’s change of heart raises suspicions for Frank Jackalone, senior organizing manager for the Sierra Club in Florida.

Continue reading →

WWALS not surprised by pipeline ruling; fights on –WTXL 2015-12-14

“We see no reason to risk local citizens’ property, or taxes, or their drinking water, John S. Quarterman or any part of the ecology for a profit for a company from some other state,” on WTXL in Florida’s state capital, Tallahassee, yesterday.

Brittany Kleinpeter, WTXL, Tallahassee, Florida, 14 December 2015, Environmental Group is Not Surprised by Judge’s Decision, Continue reading →