Tag Archives: methane

Withlacoochee and Suwannee paddle: springs, shoals, and pipeline 21 Sept 2014

Update 20 September 2014: Now with a lunch stop at Chris and Deanna’s house! Bring your own lunch or snacks, but the Mericles have picnic tables and bathrooms. Chris reports the Withlacoochee is high enough that the shoals are no problem, and the weather report says clear all day tomorrow. See also his report on FERC and Sabal Trail’s recent visit to this same area and what Sabal Trail wrote to FERC the next day.

Sabal Trail may be thinking of moving their pipeline, but WWALS is still padding past the original location 10AM Sunday September 21st. All are invited to come see for themselves the springs, shoals, and sinkholes that we value more highly than pipeline profit for a company from Houston. Join us for a fine day on two of our fabulous southern blackwater rivers: the Withlacoochee River and the Suwannee River, in Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, Florida.

The meeting place is the CR 143 Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River near Jennings, Florida. For directions, please see the earlier post about this outing.

This event is FREE! All we ask is Continue reading →

Atlantic Sunrise: Williams fracking pipeline through Sabal Trail to LNG export in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and elsewhere

Fracked methane would come from Pennsylvania across our Withlacoochee River twice to LNG export in Florida, and many other rivers and aquifers would have the same problem throughout North America, as would domestic natural gas users as LNG export drives prices up, and local and state taxpayers having to clean up after insufficiently-insured pipeline companies. All the named coastal arrows on this map from Williams’ Atlantic Sunrise project in Pennsylvania branch off from Williams Transco to LNG export operations:

Continue reading →

Springs, shoals, and pipeline: Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers 21 Sep 2014

Update 5 September 2014: Join us on the rivers even if you’re not yet a member, and many things have happened in the past few weeks: see new post.

Update 25 August 2014: Chris Mericle, our local host for this outing, spoke to the Hamilton County Commission Tuesday 19 August 2014 about what he’s trying to protect from the pipeline.

Paddle past springs, shoals, sinkholes, and where Sabal Trail proposes a fracked methane pipeline to cross the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers in Florida: the WWALS September Outing. Spend five Sunday hours on about ten miles of two of our fabulous southern blackwater rivers.

Meet 10AM Sunday September 21st at the CR 143 Ramp at mile 8 on the Withlacoochee River, 30.449111, -83.221352 or 30° 26′ 56.796″ N 83° 13′ 16.8666″ W. Take out at Anderson Spring, just past I-10, 30° 21′ 10.6806″ N 83° 11′ 21.7314″ S

This event is FREE! All we ask is that you are a current member of WWALS Watershed Coalition. If not, its easy to join online today at /donations/. Continue reading →

LNG export proposed from Suwannee and St Johns River Watersheds

A fourth Florida LNG export operation seeks approval, this one explicitly wanting to use methane from the Sabal Trail Transmission fracked methane pipeline. It’s on the divide between our Suwannee River Basin and the St Johns River Basin, where Jaxport is proposing to ship out liquid natural gas from Jacksonville. St Johns Riverkeeper and Our Santa Fe River beware.

The Sabal Trail pipeline itself was already proposed to cross three rivers in the Suwannee Basin: Continue reading →

Water and property rights more important than methane pipeline profits

This is a long version of the op-ed sent to many newspapers in WWALS’ watersheds; there is also a short version. -jsq

Protesters drove as far as nine hours to Leesburg, GA July 10th, where Spectra Energy lost its eminent domain demand for its Sabal Trail 36-inch, hundred-foot right-of-way natural gas pipeline, and local landowners countersued. Spectra hobbled back to Houston, Texas bound by strict conditions for surveying that one Mitchell County property, and bound to haunt south Georgia again for a trespass jury trial.

The ensuing flurry of newspaper op-eds by Spectra’s Andrea Grover plus a page-long Sabal Trail interview in the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), didn’t mention numerous Sabal Trail downsides. Continue reading →

Water and property rights over methane pipeline profits

This is an op-ed submission sent to many newspapers in WWALS’ watersheds and beyond. There is also a longer version. -jsq

Protesters drove up to nine hours to Leesburg, GA July 10th, where Spectra Energy lost an eminent domain demand for its Sabal Trail 36-inch, hundred-foot right-of-way natural gas pipeline, and local landowners countersued. Spectra hobbled back to Houston, Texas, bound by strict conditions for surveying that one property, and bound to haunt south Georgia again for a trespass jury trial.

Spectra bragged in op-eds about 50 public meetings, never mentioning overwhelming public opposition in Moultrie, Valdosta, Clyattville, Madison and elsewhere to that gash through our fields, forests, and wetlands, and under our Withlacoochee River twice.

Sabal Trail’s air quality permit application with Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division met immediate Continue reading →

Billboard for Withlacoochee Paddle Event 2014-04-19

This billboard has already been spotted on Bemiss Road in Valdosta.

Please join us at 7:30 AM Saturday 19 April 2014 on the Withlacoochee River between Valdosta and Quitman, to put in at Old Quitman Road on the Brooks County side (just south of US 84) and paddle past where the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline would cross the Withlacoochee River, Continue reading →

Cancelled! Paddle Against the Pipeline on the Withlacoochee River: 19 April 2014

Update 9PM 16 April 2014: Cancelled due to flood-stage water levels in the Withlacoochee River, with more rain expected Friday. To be rescheduled.

7:30 AM Saturday 19 April 2014 on the Withlacoochee River between Valdosta and Quitman, put in at Old Quitman Road on the Brooks County side (just south of US 84): Paddle past where the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline would cross the Withlacoochee River, digging into our fragile karst limestone, above our drinking-water Floridan Aquifer. This is a joint event of Continue reading →