Tag Archives: Politics

Suwannee-Satilla and GA coastal river water councils in Dublin, GA 2016-11-17

Next month, once again the upper Suwannee that drains into the Gulf gets pulled into a meeting with coastal Georgia Water Planning Councils. This is the meeting that got delayed by hurricane.

GA DNR, Bulletin, 18 October 2016,

Joint Regional Water Planning Council Meeting NEW DATE: November 17, 2016

Georgia Department of Natural Resources sent this bulletin at 10/18/2016 09:18 AM EDT

NOTICE:

JOINT REGIONAL WATER PLANNING COUNCIL MEETING

Announcement Date: October 18, 2016

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES:

A Joint Council Meeting will be held for the Altamaha, Coastal Georgia, Middle Ocmulgee, Savannah-Upper Ogeechee, Suwannee-Satilla and Upper Oconee Regional Water Planning Councils at the following date, time, and location:

Continue reading →

Suwannee-Satilla and GA coastal river water councils in Dublin, GA 2016-10-06

Update 2016-10-07: Postponed due to Hurricane Matthew. New date not yet known.

Next week, once again the upper Suwannee that drains into the Gulf gets pulled into a meeting with coastal Georgia Water Planning Councils.

GA DNR, Bulletin, 27 September 2016, Statewide Water Plan – Joint Council Meeting #2 Agenda – October 6 / Dublin, GA,

Joint Council Meeting #2 — Eastern Councils
Thursday, October 6, 2016

Dubose Porter Center
Oconee Fall Line Technical College
560 Pinehill Road
Dublin, GA 31021

Agenda Continue reading →

Federal permits inflame opposition to Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle WWALS PR 2016-08-16

PDF FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hahira, Georgia, August 16th 2016 — There is no excuse for $3 billion down this rathole of a 20th century dying fossil fuel industry now that there are more solar power jobs than in all of oil and gas extraction. One federal permit Friday and another federal go-ahead impending for the Sabal Trail invasion of private property and wetlands in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama stiffens the resolve of the rapidly expanding opposition. WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) has revealed apparent wetlands violations and federal rule violations by Spectra Energy, the Houston, Texas pipeline company that wants to gouge under our Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers, risking our water supply for its profit. Sierra Club has vowed to use “all legal means necessary to stop this fracked gas pipeline.” Opposition across Georgia continues as dozens of new groups joined the fight a week ago in Gainesville, Florida. News Friday of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) wetlands permit has inflamed opposition across the country to this latest fossil fuel land and water grab.

Last month WWALS reported to USACE and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that Sabal Trail already has Continue reading →

Florida Congress members ask EPA to stop ERC toxic water level hikes

One Senator and eight representatives want the EPA to fix what ERC broke last Tuesday. Letter Two of them are running against each other for Senate yet they signed this letter together: that’s how serious this situation is. Here’s PDF and the text is below.

Congress of the United States
Washington, DC 20510

July 26, 2016

The Honorable Gina McCarthy
Administrator
US. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20460

Dear Administrator McCarthy,

We’re writing to alert you to our serious concerns with a problematic public health proposal in Florida that will soon be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for approval.

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Two new reasons for a SEIS: WWALS to USACE, GA-EPD, and FERC 2016-07-08

LiDar Filed Friday as FERC accession number 20160708-5096, http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?document_id=14476452, “Two new reasons for a USACE Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and a halt to Sabal Trail permits; see also accession numbers 20160708-5089 and 20160708-5088, by WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. under CP15-17.” (PDF) Continue reading →

Madison, FL BOCC tonight: WWALS on agenda about Sabal Trail 2016-06-22

Sabal Trail would go far too close to Madison Blue Spring and water wells in Madison County, it doesn’t have all permits, and the Madison BOCC could help stop this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous fracked methane pipeline boondoggle. I have five minutes to say all that tonight to the Madison Board of County Commissioners.

Madison County, FL Courthouse Annex
Photograph by George Lansing Taylor Jr.

Anybody else who wants to speak, please sign up in advance, according to the Madison BOCC meeting rules. And the more people who come, the more likely they’ll pay attention.

When: 6PM Wednesday June 22nd 2016

Where: Courthouse Annex, 229 S.W. Pinckney Street, Madison, Florida 32340

Excerpt from the agenda. 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 →

Joint Regional Water Planning Council Meeting, Dublin, GA 2016-06-23

Apparently we get dragged into a meeting of all regional councils with waters flowing into the Atlantic Joint because the Suwannee-Satilla RWPC includes much of the Satilla and St Marys Rivers, even though most of the SSRWPC territory is in our Upper Suwannee watershed. A tiny bit of our Little River Watershed is in Wilcox County, which is in the Altamaha RWPC.

Received from GA-DNR May 25th 2016, NOTICE:

JOINT REGIONAL WATER PLANNING COUNCIL MEETING Continue reading →

Sanford Bishop GA-02 requests Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement for Sabal Trail from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 2016-05-27

Rep. Sanford Bishop GA-02 just stood up again against the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline invader, for the Flint River, the Floridan Aquifer, and his constituents in Albany, and Dougherty and Terrell Counties, pointing out FERC shouldn’t have issued a certificate before all the state Clean Water Act Section 401 permits were in, and asking for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

Many counties and county seats have passed resolutions against Sabal Trail I’m sure we’re all looking forward to similar requests from Austin Scott GA-07, in whose Congressional district Sabal Trail would cross Okapilco Creek and the Withlacoochee River, and in which Moultrie, Valdosta, and the counties of Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes passed resolutions against the pipeline. And especially from Ted Yoho FL-03, in whose district Sabal Trail would cross the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers through the most vulnerable recharge area of the Floridan Aquifer in the Florida Springs Heartland, and in which the counties of Hamilton, Suwannee, and Marion have already sent letters to the Corps, like Rep. Bishop just asked for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).

We know the Corps did a SEIS for Keystone XL. The Corps should do a SEIS for Sabal Trail, so Continue reading →

We have a right to expect waterways and groundwater to be clean –Dennis J. Price

Another letter against Sabal Trail and for the rivers and the aquifer in the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th 2016.

In response to Jason Bashaw’s, Chairman of the Suwannee County Commission, article in the Suwannee Valley Times, I have this to say. Why is it that if people are concerned about the environment they live in, they are automatically placed into this environmental left category? Like many, many people in our surrounding counties, I hunt, fish, hike and paddle our local rivers. I use the environment as do we all.

I use the environment as do we all. So, for working and paying taxes all my life — as a Vietnam Veteran, as a person who chose to live in this rural part of Florida and raise his kid, as a person who is not now nor ever will be wealthy — I count our public lands, our woods and rivers as a reward for doing the right thing. I do not mind my tax dollars going towards public lands. Mr. Bashaw uses the environmental left in a derogatory manner as a means of denigrating them, and he is including me in it and I resent it. I resent it for my friend’s in WWALS and others who show concern for the pipeline route. I have not met an environmental lefty among them.

WWALS is, Continue reading →