Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
Here’s a much better map:
Proposed Mining Areas, Application CPA 17-02, 2017-09-18
PDF of this map
I was confused by the mining areas map in the NCFRPC materials for the recent Union County Comprehensive Plan workshop Monday 21 August 2017. That map in the previous post appears to show almost all of Union County as mining areas. So I asked NCFRPC E.D. Ed Koons. He clarified: Continue reading
Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
Update 2017-08-30: Follow this link for a proposed new and much better mining areas map.
Here are copies of the original searchable and high resolution PDFs of the three main items presented by NCFRPC (a slide presentation, the evaluation amendments, and a draft mining text amendment) at the Union County Comprehensive Plan workshop Monday 21 August 2017.
Illustration A-X: Mining Areas on page A-25 of the
Evaluation Amendments.
PDF of this page.
Thanks to Scott R. Koons, Executive Director, North Centra Florida Regional Planning Council, for sending these documents in response to a public records request from Suwannee Riverkeeper.
The documents are (with links to the PDFs): Continue reading
“Once the court officially returns the matter to FERC, the pipeline should cease operations while FERC undertakes the new analysis,” wrote Elly Benson, lead attorney for the case Sierra Club just won against Sabal Trail.
She summed up: ”Instead of sacrificing our communities and environment to build unnecessary pipelines that “set up surefire profits” for pipeline companies at the expense of captive ratepayers, the focus should be on transitioning to clean renewable energy and energy efficiency—especially in the Sunshine State. Forcing federal agencies to grapple with the true climate impacts of dirty fossil fuel projects is a big step in the right direction.”
She leads off this fourth in a WWALS news roundup series (1, 2, 3) about that case, followed by Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, another party to the case.
WWALS is not a party to that case and does not speak for the parties, so I can be a cheerleader for them. Shut it down! Let the sun rise!
How many pipelines do we want? None!
When do we want them? Never!
—WWALS at the Sabal Trail Suwannee River crossing, 15 August 2015.
Update 2017-08-29: Fourth news roundup: From pipelines to renewable energy and efficiency –Sierra Club 2017-08-29
“This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail,” Quarterman said, on the front page of the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee Basin, the Valdosta Daily Times.
We got sails no one can see.
Suwannee Riverkeeper Vessel on the Suwannee River protesting Sabal Trail 2017-01-14
As Frank Jackalone says (see below), FERC has been getting away with murder. And now maybe they can’t.
Thomas Lynn, Valdosta Daily Times, 23 August 2017, Court decision to impact Sabal Trail pipeline, Continue reading
Update 2017-08-29: Fourth news roundup: From pipelines to renewable energy and efficiency –Sierra Club 2017-08-29
Update 2017-08-24: Third news roundup: This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail —Suwannee Riverkeeper in VDT 2017-08-24
OilPrice.com calls it “a critical decision yesterday, that could jeopardize the future for pipeline projects across the country”; pipeline companies could be “spooked” and “…the court ruling raises the unsettling possibility that the project may be forced to shut down — after billions were spent putting it in into service.” Other stories say this ‘huge’ win could also affect the Atlantic Sunrise, Penneast, Atlantic Coast, and Rover Pipelines, among others.
(L to R) Lea Fox, 4, Finn Ryder Purdy, 4, and Mason Dana, 7, of Lake
Worth, sit with gas pipeline protesters outside of Florida Power and
Light headquarters on Universe Boulevard in Juno Beach on October
14, 2016. The Sabal Trail Pipeline began supplying FPL’s plants in
June. Groups opposed the pipeline that will start in Alabama and
bring fracked gas through several counties in Florida’s springs and
wetlands. (Richard Graulich / The Palm Beach Post)
Sad for FPL, Duke, Spectra, and all the other pipeline-building purveyors of fracked methane, maybe, but glad for all the landowners whose land was taken, local citizens who don’t want a 500+-mile IED next to their homes, schools, and waterways, and all people who want clean sun and wind energy, not more polluting fossil fuels.
It’s good the industry press agrees with what I told the VDT: “This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail.”
Here’s a news roundup, in addition to Continue reading
Of course they expect HPS II to sue, but this is still good news.
Photo by Jim Tatum, OSFR, of
Scott Koons, Executive Director of North Central Florida Regional Planning Council before Union BOCC
Jim Tatum, OSFR, 21 August 2017, Union County Will Consider Mining Comprehensive Plan Amendments, Continue reading
This Monday, TV from the much bigger Alachua County to the south covered the water protectors at the Bradford County Commission meeting last Thursday.
Stewardship is a sacred responsibility, not a license to plunder!
Haley Wade, WCJB, 21 August 2017, Protestors Picket Phosphate Mine, Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Florida Drops All Charges Against the 14 Gilchrist County Sabal Trail Protesters
Valdosta, July 17, 2017 — Eight months after she and a dozen other people were unnecessarily arrested for holding signs on a public road, WWALS member Cindy Noel reports:
“All charges against those who protested the Sabal Trail Pipeline in Gilchrist County, Florida, on November, 12, 2016, have now been dropped, except for those who were intimidated into accepting plea bargains. Karrie Ford, Jodi Wheeler, Panagioti Tsolkas, Cindy Noel, Allie McDaniel, Alayna Erhard, Felicia Sobieski, Jordan Lacie, Josh Weber, and Nicole Williams were all facing Felony Trespassing on a Construction Site and Disorderly Conduct charges for speaking out against the Sabal Trail Pipeline. The reason cited by the State of Florida when it filed its NOLLE PROSEQUI action was “Insufficient Evidence to Sustain a Prosecution.”
Photo: Cindy Noel. Left to right: David Hensley, Josh Birmingham, Michael Roth (not arrested, left early), Jodi Wheeler, Alayna Erhard, Stephan Barron, Karrie Ford, Felicia Sobieski, Allie McDaniel, Josh Weber, Jordan Lacie, Nicole Williams“These exaggerated charges were intended to Continue reading
Eight months after she was arrested for holding a sign on a public road right of way, Cindy Noel learned today the charges have been dropped by the state for “INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO SUSTAIN A CONVICTION”:
I asked Cindy if she minded if I blog this. She answered: Continue reading
Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
The proposed HPSII phosphate mine on the New River in Bradford and Union Counties, Florida, features in Dave Wilson’s talk from April. HPSII would be upstream from the Santa Fe River, and thus upstream from the Suwannee River.
WWALS Watershed Coalition opposes the HPSII phosphate mine. We see no benefit in Union and Bradford Counties suffering effects such as those outlined in Dave Wilson’s slides, and looking like Hamilton County in these aerials: Continue reading
