Why is the SRWMD Executive Director on the Columbia County agenda a few days before the SRWMD board meeting with the Falling Creek Aquifer Recharge project?
Under
“Presentation of Ministerial Matters Not Requiring Public Comment”,
on the
February 4th agenda for the Columbia Board of County Commissioners:
Noah Valenstein, Executive Director, Suwannee River Water Management District
(1) Introduction
Introduction of what? Of the Continue reading
Even as
Our Santa Fe River and others held a
demonstration in Gainesville yesterday against fracking bills in the Florida
legislature, especially Senate Bill 318 now that
House Bill 191 passed,
Audubon Florida published a letter concluding:
“So my request to you right now: hold off of the emails to the committee, they know you are paying attention.”
This has not sit well with many opponents of fracking in Florida. WWALS is among the members of Floridians Against Fracking that call for Floridians to call their state legislators.
WWALS remembers when Continue reading
Several Suwannee County Commissioners are studying the difficult and constantly-changing subject of energy, although the Chairman said he had already made up his mind,
Carl McKinney’s droll legend refers on his picture refers to Chris Mericle
as “Jasper man”.
The map shows sinkholes near the proposed pipeline path across the Suwannee River
and the Falmouth Cathedral Cave System.
at the Suwannee County Board of Commissioners meeting last night.
They did nothing about a further resolution against Sabal Trail,
although numerous citizens (many of them WWALS members)
from Suwannee County and nearby counties helped discuss the situation.
Carl McKinney, Suwannee Democrat, 16 December 2015, The future of energy: Debate takes over Suwannee commission meeting,
Following the Suwannee County Commission’s decision last week not to formally oppose the Sabal Trail pipeline entering its jurisdiction, the public engaged commissioners in a debate over the future of energy.
At Tuesday evening’s commission meeting, several members of the public discussed with commissioners the advantages of solar power, Florida’s energy needs and environmental stewardship.
During public comment, local resident Debra Johnson asked Continue reading
WWALS board member Chris Mericle just asked FERC:
Why the huge discrepancy….? [W]hy should we believe that the information Sabal Trail provided anywhere is correct?
Apparently unlike FERC, Chris knows what he’s talking about, from
on-the-ground observation to a local study by a geologist, to Sabal Trail’s own docuemnts.
Filed with FERC as Accession Number: 20151207-5015, “Comment of Christopher J Mericle in Docket(s)/Project(s) CP15-17-000 Submission Date: 12/6/2015”, Continue reading
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sabal Trail pipeline challenged by recommended order, plus Suwannee County resolution tonight
Jasper, Florida, November 17, 2015 — The day after WWALS filed its
Proposed Recommended Order (PRO) in WWALS v. Sabal Trail & FDEP
saying FDEP didn’t do proper due diligence on what Sabal Trail’s application, especially for the Outstanding Florida Waters of the Suwannee River and the Santa Fe River,
the Suwannee County Commission is considering tonight a resolution against Sabal Trail’s proposed Hildreth Compressor Station.
Suwannee County resident Debra Johnson remarked,
“How about nowhere in our county. It’s like who wants this dangerous compressor station in Suwannee County ANYWHERE?”
David Shields testified at the hearing in Jasper that he had purchased land in Suwannee County because: Continue reading
DEP failed to sufficiently review or verify Sabal Trail’s application,
failed to timely place comments from affected landowners in the public record,
and disregarded heightened protection requirements of Florida Outstanding Waters.
Sabal Trail admitted Spectra Energy is its operator in perpetuity,
and that horizontal directional drilling could adversely affect water quality
of the Suwannee River, yet DEP failed to adequately consider such effects.
DEP professed to be unaware of other potential risks such as crossing existing pipelines, including the Southern Natural Gas pipeline.
Springs, fragile karst geology, leaks, LiDAR, and geologic collapse:
all insufficiently considered by DEP.
Sinkholes, springs, and gopher tortoises pointed out by landowners
never examined by Sabal Trail or DEP.
A Spectra Energy executive from Houston deigned to come to “the middle of nowhere” to tell us they’d use thinner pipe in low population areas such as Suwannee County. He testified at length about Spectra’s safety history, even Continue reading
ACTION ALERT! SBOCC will be drafting a resolution concerning the Sabal Trail pipeline and compressor station at the next meeting. (facebook event)
When: 6PM Tuesday, Nov 17, 2015
Where: 218 Parshley Street Southwest, Live Oak, Florida 32064
Directions: Turn right at post office, go through stop sign, next building on right.
Please attend and show your support for this very important initiative by our county officials. Your input would be greatly appreciated.
-Debra Johnson
This item is not on the Suwannee BOCC agenda yet. However, we have reason to believe it will be discussed and probably voted on.
This is huge, because Continue reading
Sabal Trail won’t comment in Florida about the EPA letter to FERC that validates what WWALS and many others have been saying, although Sabal Trail did comment in Georgia.
Carl McKinney, Jasper News, 5 November 2015,
front page, apparently not online,
EPA letter could change course of gas pipeline,
…In an Oct. 20 letter, the EPA maintained it always had serious concerns about the project, and recommends the approximately 515-mile-long pipeline’s path be redrawn to avoid environmentally sensitive areas in Florida.
Now, the WWALS Watershed Coalition environmental group has filed to get the letter admitted as evidenm in a legal challenge to prevent the Florida Department of Environmental Protection from issuing a permit for the project, said WWALS president John Quarterman.
“It validates everything we’ve been saying,” he said.
Here is that EPA letter to FERC.
Last month, WWALS and Tallahassee attorneys representing Sabal Trail met face-to-face at Continue reading
You can believe
what Spectra’s Andrea Grover said in the VDT today,
or you can believe more from
Sabal Trail’s own Karst Mitigation Plan,
which says they already lost drilling fluids from test drillings under the Withlacoochee River between Brooks and Lowndes Counties, and if they cause a sinkhole they can’t fill they’ll “monitor” it.
How will they do that if a sinkhole forms under the pipeline under the river, or it breaks or explodes, like a Spectra pipeline did in Little Rock, Arkansas in May of this year?
As filed in the FERC DEIS, Karst Mitigation Plan, in Section 7.3.2., on page 31 of 31:
- If drilling fluid loss downhole affects nearby springs or rivers and complete drilling fluid loss to the formation cannot be prevented, reaming operations will continue and the affected waterbody will be monitored in accordance with the Best Drilling Practices Plan for the Sabal Trail Project.
Not just for pilot holes: drilling fluid loss is quite possible during reaming for the actual pipe hole. And this drilling fluid can contain lubricants with unspecified ingredients.
Sabal Trail knows about fracture traces such as Continue reading
In which Spectra Energy’s Andrea Grover claims “The pipeline will not contaminate water or aquifers,”, despite Spectra’s own SEC 10-K and Sabal Trail’s own Karst Mitigation Plan.
Joe Adgie, Valdosta Daily Times, 5 November 2015,
Sabal makes Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen,
The proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline made the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen list for the second consecutive year.
The proposed pipeline made the list for its path through sinkhole-prone regions in Georgia and Florida, including Lowndes County.
Here’s GWC Dirty Dozen 2015 #11: Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail.
John Quarterman, WWALS Watershed Coalition president, said there is some hope for opponents of the pipeline, in the form of a strong letter from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which will have the final say on construction of the pipeline.
“We got a federal agency actually doing its job, and I don’t mean FERC, I’m talking about the EPA,” Quarterman said. “They filed an amazing letter that validates pretty much everything the opposition’s been saying about this pipeline.”
Last week, the EPA recommended Continue reading