A cleanup and a new WWALS banner! Thanks to Bret Wagenhorst for both, at the Alapaha River at GA 135 on the Atkinson County side today.
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Tag Archives: quality
Reminder: GA 135 Alapaha River Cleanup 2015-09-26
Bret Wagenhorst invites you:
For anyone who likes to paddle the pristine waters of our region’s lovely Alapaha River, I’d like to encourage you to come out for an hour this coming Saturday and help make a noticeable difference by picking up trash along the bank at one of the put in sites for the Alapaha River Water Trail. 9 a.m. at the Hwy 135 bridge south of Willacoochee.
It’s the annual WWALS Adopt-A-Stream cleanup, Continue reading
Proposed Sabal Trail River Permits –USACE and GA-EDP
An opportunity for more and different public hearings!
The Withlacoochee River doesn’t even rate a mention, nor the Ochlockonee River.
Nor any county other than Stewart, nevermind the ones that have passed
resolutions against the Sabal Trail pipeline: Terrell, Dougherty, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties, Georgia and Hamilton County, Florida, plus the
cities of Albany, Moultrie, and Valdosta, Georgia.
This is the Savannah Army Corps of Engineers Public Notice,
issued the same Friday September 11th 2015 as the ones from
Mobile
and
Jacksonville,
each slightly different.
So is that one, two, or four possible new public hearings? Continue reading
WWALS in Albany, GA newspaper
Sabal Trail opposition aware across Georgia and Florida.
Carlton Fletcher, Albany Herald, 13 September 2015, FERC Sabal Trail ruling comes amidst protest: Group holds fasting vigil outside federal agency’s offices,
Photo: TONY CASSADY, 31 May 2015, in Arkansas River pipeline blowout occurred on Sunday morning, cause still unknown, by Benjamin Hardy, Arkansas Blog, 3 June 2015Meanwhile, in Florida an environmental group has filed a petition with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to stop development of the pipeline over concerns about the safety record of Spectra Energy, the Houston-based company that will build the pipeline. The group points to a May pipeline rupture under the Arkansas River that forced two miles of the river to be shut down after an estimated 3.9 million cubic feet of natural gas was released.
Nope, WWALS doesn’t want that Arkansas River rupture to be repeated under the Suwannee River in Florida, the Withlacoochee River in Georgia, or any other river. The reporter seems to have heard about WWALS via Continue reading
GA-EPD plans to certify Sabal Trail within 30 days unless public comments; ditto USACE
People can request a hearing by the state of Georgia or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
to stop GA-EPD or the USACE
from rubberstamping
Sabal Trail’s use of wetlands within 30 days from Friday.
USACE explicitly asks for public comments on
“cumulative impacts of the proposed activity on the public interest”,
unlike
FL-DEP’s attempts to narrow the issue.
Presumably this includes crossings of the Chattahoochee, Flint, Ochlockonee, and Withlacoochee Rivers in Georgia (and the Suwannee, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee (south) Rivers in Florida and other rivers in Alabama), although
this USACE Jacksonville office public notice
about the Clean Waters Act and the
Rivers and Harbors Act
doesn’t specify.
It was released Friday September 11th
just like the one USACE Mobile District released that same day on
Proposed Discharge of Sabal Trail Fill Material.
Apparently you can ask for a public hearing by USACE in Alabama or Florida
as well as in Georgia.
Here’s the Jacksonville USACE public notice: Continue reading
Proposed Discharge of Sabal Trail Fill Material –U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Late on a Friday, in a USACE public notice:
The USACE has not verified the adequacy of the applicant’s avoidance and minimization statement at this time….
The USACE has not verified the adequacy of the applicant’s proposed off-site mitigation plan at this time.
After how many years has this Sabal Trail project been going on? And still no verification?
PUBLIC HEARING REQUESTS: Any person may request, in writing, within the comment period specified in this notice, that a public hearing be held to consider this application. Requests for public hearings shall state with particularity, the reasons for holding a public hearing.
How about as a reason somebody needs to examine Sabal Trail’s mitigation plans?
This Friday USACE release frequently mentions Continue reading
Sabal Trail in most vulnerable area of the Floridan Aquifer –Orlando Sentinel
Orlando is just as affected as the Suwannee River by risks of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline proposed by Spectra Energy of Houston, Texas. You can protest to FL-DEP, FERC, and your local, state, and federal elected and appointed officials, and to the news media.
Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel, 9 September 2015, Natural-gas pipeline to Florida draws environmental concerns,
The Sabal Trail Pipeline has drawn opposition from a Florida group affiliated with WWALS Watershed Coalition Inc., which is based in Georgia. A chief concern is that the pipeline could impact Florida waterways and the drinking-water supply, said John S. Quarterman, director of the Florida and Georgia WWALS groups.
This is according to evidence FL-DEP itself sent to FERC in March 2014, showing the proposed pipeline path going through the most vulnerable area of the Floridan Aquifer, which as you can see on the map they included continues down to Orlando. Continue reading
Hazardous Site Inventory –GA-EPD
Press Release, 28 August 2015, Public Advisory: Georgia EPD Issues 2015 Hazardous Site Inventory with Interactive Map,
The Hazardous Site Inventory (HSI) is a list of sites in Georgia where there has been a known or suspected release of a regulated substance above a reportable quantity and which have yet to show they meet state clean-up standards. The HSI is published annually by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. The new interactive Map uses the familiar Google Maps interface and includes basic information about each site as well as links to individual Site Summary pages. More information about the HSI, including the Google Maps feature, is available at: http://epd.georgia.gov/hazardous-site-inventory.
Follow that link and you’ll find an interactive map plus an introduction and lists by name, county, site number, and class.
Not all the hazardous sites shown above are in WWALS territory. For comparison, Continue reading
Valdosta wastewater fixes schedule update
Thanks, Emily and Henry, and to the City of Valdosta for all your efforts. But could somebody please update the schedule on Valdosta’s website?
Subject: COV Sanitary Sewer System Improvement Update
Good afternoon Chris,
Thank you for reaching out to me today for an update on the sewer improvements that the City has underway. We have continued to make substantial progress since our meeting back in March that you attended. As discussed then, the city has two major projects underway. One is a $36 million dollar Force Main project and the other is a $23 million dollar Plant Relocation. As of today, the Force Main project is 5 months ahead of the July 2016 schedule and the Plant Relocation is 16 months ahead of schedule. Both projects are tracking a timeline to be complete and online around February 2016. Please note that we have not had any overflow or major permit violations at the wastewater treatment plant since making the emergency repairs in February 2014.
Below is a quick summary of an update I recently received in reference to the sewer manhole overflows: Continue reading
WWALS cites dangers to environment and conflict of interest against Sabal Trail –Miami Herald via Florida Bulldog
A major Miami newspaper picked up a Florida Bulldog story after a week. Meanwhile, CBS Miami covered FL-DEP asking for an administrative law judge. And see previous post for what’s safer than any pipeline: solar power, ready now for the Sunshine State.
Dan Christensen, Miami Herald, 6 September 2015, Pipeline foes ask DEP to deny key permit, cite ‘conflict of interest’ by Gov. Rick Scott,
Opponents of a proposed natural gas pipeline in North Florida are asking Florida regulators to reject the project, citing both dangers to the environment and a “conflict of interest” by the regulators’ boss, Gov. Rick Scott.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced in July its intention to award a crucial environmental permit and rights to drill beneath riverbeds that would allow Houston-based Spectra Energy to construct the controversial, $3 billion Sabal Trail Transmission.
State records show Spectra Energy’s investors have included Scott.
Continue reading