Tag Archives: Georgia Water Coalition

GWC Dirty Dozen and Sabal Trail pipeline drilling mud leak on WALB 2016-11-16

People and news media turned out from Florida and Georgia at the Withlacoochee River US 84 bridge in cross-state-line solidarity about the Sabal Trail pipeline and its recent drilling mud leak. They heard the Georgia Water Coalition announce that Sabal Trail is, for the third year running, on the Dirty Dozen 2016.

Ashlyn Becton, WALB, 16 November 2016, Environmentalist raise awareness about Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Folks from North Florida and South Georgia held a protest at the Withlacoochee River Wednesday and listened to a news conference announcing the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen.

The report highlights the worst offenses and greatest threats to Georgia’s bodies of water.

And the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is on the GWC Dirty Dozen 2016, as Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee Rivers and Floridan Aquifer: Gas pipeline company, federal agency run roughshod over state, local residents property rights, with this What Must Be Done: Continue reading →

GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Withlacoochee River Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail #WaterIsLife 2016-11-16

Update 2016-11-22:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Turbidity curtains Hahira GA, November 14th 2016 (updated with directions and detail Nov 15th) — WWALS is holding an in-person press conference at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge to hear and participate in the announcement Wednesday morning of the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) Dirty Dozen 2016: a dozen of the worst threats to Georgia’s waters. WWALS will then offer a hike up the riverside to the Sabal Trail pipeline crossing location, where Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud leak up into the river.

Please arrive by 9:30 to be ready for the GWC teleconference at 10AM. On the phone call, details of the Dirty Dozen will be announced, with WWALS members assisting for one of them, and another also directly relevant to WWALS watersheds.

After the phone call, people from Florida and Georgia will have an opportunity to speak, because the Withlacoochee flows downstream into Florida, where Sabal Trail also plans to drill under the Suwannee River, as well as the Santa Fe, where 14 people got arrested recently protecting, and the other Withlacoochee (south) River. Let’s see a little cross-state-line solidarity against this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous fracked methane pipeline boondoggle. Call your local press before you come, and bring signs.

When: 9:30 AM Wednesday November 16th 2016

Where: US 84 bridge, east side, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA, 30.793747, -83.450167
It’s in the median of a busy highway, so be careful.

Screenshot 2016-11-14 15-14-56 What: Press Conference for Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen, with hike up the river.
It’s a rough hike, so come prepared with sturdy shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
Or just participate at the bridge. Bring signs if you’ve got them, or make them on the spot.
This is a completely peaceful nonviolent first-amendment press conference.

Event: facebook

Directions: from Live Oak or Gainesville, FL or farther south, or from Albany, Tifton, or Macon, GA or farther north, take I-75 Continue reading →

GWC win over Sabal Trail in Georgia Trend

Water and property rights are the same when fighting a natural gas pipeline: Georgia Trend understands what Georgia Water Coalition is doing to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

Ben Young, Georgia Trend, June 2016, Sustainable Georgia: Collecting Water,

…Nearly every county can claim scenic waterways — some 15 established water trails are highlighted by the Georgia River Network, with another 17 in the works.

But clean water is vital for more than tourism — as evidenced by the continuing news out of Flint, Mich., and the spectacle of that state utterly failing to provide basic services to residents in a way we are more used to seeing in the Third World.

Closer to home, Georgia lawmakers Continue reading →

Thanks for a historic victory against Sabal Trail –WWALS in VDT 2016-04-10

In today’s Sunday April 10th 2016 Valdosta Daily Times:

The Georgia House on March 22nd by an unprecedented 34 ayes to 128 nays rejected easements for Sabal Trail Sunday VDT to drill our Withlacoochee and other Georgia Rivers. This was a historic victory by the Georgia Water Coalition, including Georgia Sierra Club, WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, plus SpectraBusters, and thanks to all of you who called their state reps.

That same day, Continue reading →

It’s the most votes I’ve ever gotten on anything. –Neill Herring, about GA House against Sabal Trail easements

Pipeline invaders go home to Houston, signed, Georgia legislature.


Georgia Sierra Club’s Neill Herring and Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers at WWALS Watershed Conference in Tifton, 24 August 2013.

Kristi E. Swartz, EEnews, 28 March 2016, PIPELINES: Ga. lawmakers move to block 2 interstate projects,

ATLANTA — Georgia may be friendly to its own electric utility and natural gas companies, but the state Legislature sent a strong message last week to outside corporations that their pipelines are not welcome here.

Continue reading →

Georgia legislature overwhelmingly rejects river easements for Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail fracked methane pipeline

Update 2016-03-28: “It’s the most votes I’ve ever gotten on anything.” —Neill Herring of Georgia Sierra Club.

Tuesday and today, Georgia’s elected legislators stood up for the people against a fracked methane pipeline invader:

Y’all! We don’t win votes on the House floor every day, and the effort to keep the state easements for the Sabal Trail pipeline was truly a joy to watch. R’s, D’s, lawyers, community folk, everyone pitched in and it “went down in flames” 34-128 — AJC [Atlanta Journal Constitution] reporter’s words, not mine! Congrats to all the Georgia Water Coalition….

That’s how Georgia Sierra Club’s Colleen Kiernan summed up what happened Tuesday to the river drilling easements for Spectra Energy’s fracked gas Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail pipeline. Yes, the same Spectra of the Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project, PennEast, Atlantic Bridge, South Texas Expansion, the West Coast Pipeline in British Columbia, and far too many other unnecessary pipeline invasions throughout North America.

Georgia Water Coalition organized this excellent result, including Continue reading →

Tally of votes smashing Sabal Trail easements in SR 954 2016-03-22

Here’s who voted which way when Sabal Trail lost in a landslide against its easements to drill under our Withlacoochee River and Okapilco Creek and other rivers and creeks in Georgia. SR-954-votes-in-the-House 3.0000000, 0.0000000 Thanks to Bentley, Harden, Houston, Pirkle, Powell, Rynders, Sharper, Shaw, Spencer, and Watson for voting Nay against that pipeline river-drilling boondoggle. And Carter, Corbett, and LaRiccia, well, thanks for listening, I guess.

I’ve added Continue reading →

We all won! Sabal Trail SR 954 easements lost in a landslide at GA House 2016-02-22 2016-03-22

Update 2016-03-22 10:30PM: The vote tally.

As reported by Georgia Sierra Club:

Thank you to everyone who contacted a legislator about SR 954 and their concerns about the Sabal Trail pipeline easements. The house voted down the bill 128-34 this afternoon!!! CONGRATULATIONS!

Thanks to everyone, especially Georgia Water Coalition, Georgia Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, everybody else who helped, and of course all WWALS members and everyone else who called their state reps.

There still more you can do to stop Sabal Trail. See the op-ed blog post of today. Continue reading →

Sabal Sinkhole Trail back on GWC Dirty Dozen

WWALS submitted Sabal Trail again this year, Invading Sabal Trail, Withlacoochee River with even more support throughout the state for sending that fracked methane invader back down its Sinkhole Trail to Houston, Texas.

Brad McEwan, Albany Herald, 4 November 2015, Proposed Sabal Trail pipeline makes water coalition Dirty Dozen: Georgia Water Coalition says Sabal Pipeline risky for SOWEGA,

According to the Dirty Dozen report the biggest concern voiced by the coalition, which is a consortium of 228 conservation and environmental organizations, hunting and fishing groups, businesses and faith-based organizations, is that the proposed pipeline could negatively impact the Withlacoochee, Flint, and Chattahoochee rivers, as well as smaller streams and creeks, along with the Florida aquifer, which is considered the region’s most important water source.

The GWC writeup mentions the very recent Continue reading →

Capitol Conservation Day 2015

It’s the annual Georgia Water Coalition Capitol Conservation Day, Wednesday, February 18, 2015.

Save the date for the Georgia Water Coalition’s Capitol Conservation Day on Feb. 18, 2015. While there, you can meet with your state legislators and tell them what you expect them to achieve during the 2015-2016 sessions. Bring your fellow members and other friends with you to support environmental and conservation causes!

The day will begin at 8:00 a.m. with Continue reading →