Sabal Trail is asking for permits for its fracked methane pipeline from
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
One of them is for our Withlacoochee River.
ERP is Environmental Resource Permit, and here’s a permit found in ERP Exemption Permit applications, FL DEP Northeast Office: Continue reading
Mercury in the Alapaha River probably comes from coal Plant Scherer near Macon. EPA is holding public hearings on its proposed Clean Power Plan next week, 29-30 July 2014, in Atlanta. You can also comment online until 16 October 2014 on Docket ID EPA-HQ-OAR-2013-0602. And you can express your opinion outside with Georgia Sierra Club at the Atlanta Climate Rally Tuesday at high noon. Maybe you want to mention shifting from coal to “natural” gas (fracked methane) actually may make matters worse here, so EPA needs to go further.
While that proposed carbon rule may help clean up coal plants like Scherer, it says nothing about methane, which EPA says is Continue reading
Update 2015-04-28: See EPA 2002 report that spells out Plant Scherer as the largest mercury point source in the Alapaha Airshed.
Background to the EPA hearings on its proposed Clean Power Plan: EPA previously said nonpoint source pollution is the biggest water quality problem, and EPA and GA EPD say our Alapaha River is contaminated with mercury. That mercury comes from Plant Scherer, the country’s dirtiest coal plant.
The problem, effects, and cause are spelled out in these Comments on CAMR Draft, Language Options by Jill Johnson, Georgia Public Interest Research Group, April 6, 2006: Continue reading
The South Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC)
produced this interesting map of the Alapahoochee River Watershed
I saw on the counter while visiting the USDA FSA office in Valdosta about something unrelated.
Curiously, it doesn’t show the actual river nor its tributaries
Mud Creek and Grand Bay Creek.
But it does show that this watershed includes much of Valdosta,
half of Dasher, and all of Lake Park. Continue reading
Clean natural water systems for drinking, agriculture, and recreation, now and in the future:
Georgia Water Coalition spelled those things out in six recommendations at its
recent partner meeting.
Dave Hetzel represented WWALS at that meeting.
Beginning of the Georgia Water Coalition Partners Meeting June 5, 2014 Report Prepared by Hans Neuhauser, Facilitator, Georgia Land Conservation Center: Continue reading
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes some new rules to
clarify Clean Water Act protection.
Some people and organizations have concerns about that,
and the EPA has now responded to those concerns.
Comment periods are still open for you to provide input directly to EPA
about the proposed rule.
Here’s the EPA’s Waters of the United States Proposed Rule. EPA says clarification of the Clean Water Act was requested by a broad range of state, tribal, and local government agencies and elected officials and NGOs, ranging from AASHTO to the National Association of State Foresters. One of the two examples EPA cites of state enforcement problems is on the Flint River in Georgia:
Recreation in Lake Blackshear, Georgia
Continue reading
Related to
population centers in the Suwannee River watershed,
someone asked,
“Do we need an interstate Suwannee Bioregion Coalition to guard the waters that feed into the Suwannee River?”
We’ve got pieces of it already cooperating to some extent in opposing
the Sabal Trail pipeline.
There are many other even larger issues that everyone in the Suwannee River
basin faces.
In south Georgia and north Florida we have Continue reading
6-8PM Thursday 17 July 2014
Memorial Stadium, 715 Dewey St., Waycross, GA 31501
The Environmental Protection Agency, GA Environmental Protection
Division, and Georgia Department of Public Health will be present to
discuss sample collection and results from the Seven Out Tank site
in downtown Waycross.
EPD will also be available to address issues and answer questions regarding CSX.
From Satilla Riverkeeper’s facebook event. Here’s a map: Continue reading
Bacterial Monitoring on Friday and Chemical Monitoring on Saturday
in Waycross, by
Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (AAS), Satilla Riverkeeper,
and other.
This is not a WWALS event, but everyone is invited. -jsq Continue reading
A Greenway Trail is an onland version of the sort of Blueways or Water Trails WWALS is working on. WWALS board member Chris Graham got a very nice spread in one of the Lakeland newspapers today about Greenways, speaking for himself. -jsq
Lanier County Advocate, 4 June 2014, Page 12, Local nature enthusiast hoping to bring Greenway Trail to Lakeland,
Naylor native Christopher Graham has spent the majority of his life exploring the great outdoors every chance he gets.
Currently, Graham serves on the board of the Water Shed group to help ensure local rivers are clean and safe for citizens to enjoy. But what Graham has been striving for is to bring a Greenway Trail to the local area.
What are Greenway Trails? Continue reading