FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, Georgia, July 1, 2019 — Three judges are ready to pick the winners at the Second Annual Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest: two from Georgia and one from Florida. Tony Buzella, J.J. Rolle, and Tim Teasley will mark finalists on originality of lyrics and music, musical consistency, showing the integrity and value of the waters, historical value, performance, and more. Radio personality Chris Beckham of Tifton will M.C.
Continue readingUpdate 2023-07-23: Levy County 3RT Sand Mine is in Springshed of Rainbow Springs 2023-07-23
If this isn’t what Sabal Trail was scared of back in September when they settled three jury trials in Valdosta, Georgia, it should have been.
Andrew Caplan, Gainesville Sun, 12 November 2018, Sabal Trail must pay Levy landowners $1.3M
A 12-member jury in Gainesville awarded Levy County residents Lee Thomas and his son, Ryan, more than $1.3 million for land that Sabal Trail built its pipeline on.
Sabal Trail Transmission was back in federal court in Friday to defend its controversial $3 billion project and the offers it made to a pair of landowners for uprooting and burying a natural gas pipeline on their property.
That didn’t go over so well.
Continue reading
Solar in Florida is not just for Duke and FPL anymore: Tampa Electric is building 260 megawatt hours of solar power, and the Florida PSC and Office of Public Counsel are praising it for reducing coal and natural gas burning. Even FPSC, which approved the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle only five years ago, is starting to look up and see the sun in the Sunshine State.
Michael Moline, FloridaPolitics.com, 29 October 2018, Tampa Electric wins PSC clearance for solar power projects,
The Public Service Commission approved a deal Monday that allows Tampa Electric Co. to build five solar-generating plants and pass along the $46 million tab to its ratepayers.
Note that’s million with a letter m, not like the billions FPL is charging its customers for Sabal Trail. Continue reading
For discussion and getting the word out, there’s a new facebook group, Dangerous Liquefied Natural Gas on Trains/Trucks.
In a March 3, 2016, letter, the Federal Railroad Administration warned Florida East Coast Railway of the danger of transporting Liquefied Natural Gas on the same tracks as high-speed passenger rail. What could go wrong? Do the math…. If an LNG container is breached, accidentally or intentionally, the liquid begins to warm, resulting in a Flammable Vapor-Cloud that can be blown around by the wind, igniting everything in its path. In Fernley, Nevada, the Flammable Vapor-Cloud fire from a tanker truck loaded with 10,000 gallons of LNG appeared to have been caused by static electricity. Flames shot 40 feet into the air and fire officials evacuated the area. The fire burned for a couple of days, before eventually burning itself out.
Photo: Howard Salmon, for Tahoe Daily Tribune, of Fernley, NV, LNG tanker truck fire, 2005-09-14
As that facebook group says, if you want to help stop fires like that from happening in Florida or Georgia, you can contribute to the WWALS legal fund for the pending case against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for shirking its inland LNG oversight duty.
Thanks to Continue reading
Florida Bulldog reports on LNG exports right now from Fortress Energy’s Hialeah plant through Port Everglades via Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) through densely populated neighborhoods. The larger story includes FECR can export via Crowley Maritime from Jacksonville, and Pivotal LNG is already exporting LNG from Alabama and Georgia through JAX, arriving via truck down I-75 and I-10. Plus offshoot pipelines from Sabal Trail already go to both Jacksonville and Riviera Beach. Why should we let these corporations cash in on fracked methane now that solar power is already here?
An LNG export ship fueled by LNG.
Image:
Crowley Maritime;
“An artist’s rendering of one of Crowley’s LNGfueled, combination
container and roll-on/roll-off (ConRo) ships—El Coqui slated
for delivery in 2017.”
Ann Henson Feltgen, Florida Bulldog.org, 22 August 2018, Despite ‘disaster risk,’ trains haul hazardous gas cargo in South Florida,
About the same time Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) executives were convincing Florida’s east coast cities and counties to back its idea of privately owned passenger trains traversing downtowns and densely populated neighborhoods, it quietly sought and won permission to haul extremely flammable liquified natural gas along the same tracks.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a hazardous material Continue reading
Update 2023-05-08: Fixed some images.
Five Years Later: Hamilton County Planning Commission wants conditions on Nutrien phosphate mine permit renewal 2023-03-28.
See also: PCS Phosphate Mine dragline access permit application SAJ-1984-04652 2019-10-15.
Thanks to Jim Tatum of OSFR for spotting this op-ed in the Lake City Reporter yesterday by WWALS member and Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida about Nutrien (PCS) mining phosphate and water in Hamilton County and likely planning to expand to Columbia County.
![[Dennis Price explains, 13:50:12, 30.57871, -83.05231]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2018-01-27--hike-dead-river-sink/20180127_135013.jpg)
Photo by John S. Quarterman of Dennis J. Price at the Dead River of the Alapaha River, 2018-01-27.To the Editor:
Much has been written in the last year about Sam Oosterhoudt’s mitigation bank. I was involved in permitting the bank through the Army Corps (ACOE) and The Florida Department of Environmental Regulation. It took about 5 years to get all the permits. Now, 9 years after work began on the project, the phosphate company (then PCS now Nutrien) petitioned the state to shut down the mitigation bank.
I do not know for sure, but, Nutrien may tell you that during the recent sale of PCS and the review of mineral interests owned, they discovered that the mitigation bank had snuck in there and set up shop over their minerals. This probably has some truth to it but I think there is a much more involved reason.
In Hamilton County, Nurtrien/PCS is planning to run out of phosphate to mine in about 10 years, give or take a few years either way. I do not believe they are planning on shutting the doors and leaving. Occidental Chemical Company started mining in Hamilton County Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Valdosta, GA, July 2, 2017 —
In a good time with good food and good music, at the Salty Snapper in Valdosta, Saturday afternoon, June 23, 2018, three judges from Georgia and Florida deliberated a long time after six songwriters from Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida sang, and selected winners of the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2018.
The WWALS Songwriting Contest Committee met many times to plan for the first annual contest. The purpose of the contest was to raise awareness of the WWALS watershed and its accomplishments. Will Eason of the Salty Snapper welcomed us, WWALS Ambassador Dave Hetzel spoke about the origins of WWALS, Board member Bret Wagenhorst spoke about Outings, Committee Chair Eileen Box spoke about the Committee, and WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman was the M.C.
Winners and Judges (Sharon Yeago), left to right:
Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman, WWALS E.D. and contest M.C. Gretchen Quarterman, ? (JJ), ? (JJ), Jay Jourden (JJ), Judge J.J. Rolle, Emmett Carlisle, Laura D’Alisera, Mike Tappan, Judge Cindy Bear, Dave Pharr, ? Tom Shed (JJ), Don Austin (JJ), Hollin Gammage, and the small child is next year’s contestant (JJ marks members of Jay Jourden’s band).
The finalists, who played in random order, selected by drawing straws, with sound by Will Eason and other help by Scotti Jay, were: Continue reading
Update May 15, 2018: Deadline extended to Friday, June 1, 2018!
Jay Jourden says we can say he submitted a song, and you can, too!
ReverbNation Jay “Blue Jay” Jourden, Jacksonville Beach, FL,
Jay “Blue Jay” Jourden Singer/Songwriter/Performer/Activist Producer/Writer/Actor/Film & Video Toronto Pictures/Global Film Studios BMI, a world renowned producer and musical/vocal artist as well as an accomplished concert promoter/performer having worked on and help organize major concerts for The American Indian Movement AIM, Wounded Knee & The Longest Walk, The No Nukes Concert Series, Disaster Relief 96′, The 40th Anniversary of Woodstock 1969-2009 “West Fest”, and many, many, more, is currently signed with Toronto Pictures, a socially active, major international film company, under internationally acclaimed director Bruno Pischiutta and producer Daria Trifu, Toronto Pictures is currently in pre-production of several films in Romania and other parts of the world, addressing important socially significant issues, affecting changes in global thinking, all done without the “Hollywood Standard” gratuitous sex and violence “norm”.
We don’t announce which song someone may have submitted, but Continue reading
Update May 15, 2018: Deadline extended to June 1, 2018!
The Songwriting Contest Committee has chosen three judges. After the Committee picks seven finalists, the judges at the contest will pick winners from those finalists, all according to criteria listed in the Rules.
The judges are, in alphabetical order: Cindy Bear, Dan Crews, and J.J. Rolle.
Cindy Bear is an award winning singer-songwriter based in Jacksonville, FL, who performs at music festivals, house concerts, listening rooms, and charity fundraisers throughout the Southeastern U.S. She is a successful solo artist, and also half of Bear and Robert (pronounced “Row-bear”), a Blues, Folk and Americana duo with her husband, Franc Robert….
Cindy Bear is also Continue reading
On its website stromsolutions.com since 2014: “Strom, pronounced with a long O (Ström) is the German word for current…. Strom is a proud Florida based corporation that intends to be a strong corporate partner to the State of Florida.” So why German?
Photo:
LNG World News, 19 May 2015,
Strom files for non-FTA export authorization with DOE.
The CEO of Strom, Inc. listed on various filings with the Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Fossil Fuels (FE) is Michael Lokey, who his LinkedIn profile went to Clemson University and has been involved in various ventures in the Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida area Continue reading
![[Three]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-08-24--suwannee-riverkeeper-songwriting-contest/judges.jpg)