Tag Archives: Spectra Energy

WWALS Goals for 2014

A surprising number of the Board’s nine goals for 2014 have been accomplished, and some new ones have already been added. What goals should WWALS have for 2015?

Goals accomplished include becoming an IRS 501(c)(3) and raising money for and purchasing insurance. Some we’ve been doing right along: cleanups, including Rivers Alive. Some are so much the core of what WWALS does that we didn’t even list them as goals, but we’ve been doing them anyway: monthly outings and indoor events.

The later-added goal of the Alapaha River Water Trail is Continue reading →

Sabal Trail ignored springs and underground connections –TSE Plantation

A Suwannee County, Florida landowner points to newly-discovered connections between springs under rivers and to other well-known springs Sabal Trail ignored, adding:

Note that the undersigned is a lay person attorney and NOT a karst expert. Basic research revealed the information contained herein and the omission of this infonnation by Sabal’s purported karst experts should raise serious questions as to the credibility of Sabal’s filings.

Filed with FERC 29 January 2015 as Accession Number: 20150129-5192, “Supplemental Information / Request of Edwards & Ragatz, P.A. under CP15-17. Supplemental Comments of Proposed Intervener, Thomas S. Edwards, Manager, TSE Plantation, LLC Opposing Portion of Sabal Trail Route and Related Motion to Accept Late Comments”, Continue reading →

Springs flow under the Suwannee River next to the Withlacoochee River (Falmouth Dye Trace)

The Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline route went through this area, and the new route is only slightly to the north. There are springs all over this area. The same karst limestone underlies the Withlacoochee River in Georgia, where the river already leaks into the aquifer north of Valdosta. A pipeline anywhere in the karst limestone containing the Floridan Aquifer is a very bad idea. Profit for Sabal Trail, FPL, or Spectra Energy is no excuse for risking our drinking water.

SRWMD PR 4 December 2014, Falmouth dye trace reveals unknown connectivity,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LIVE OAK, FL, December 4, 2014 — The District and Florida Geological Survey introduced dye into Falmouth Spring On September 4^th, in hopes of learning which other springs were connected to the known Falmouth Cathedral Cave System. Two days after the dye was release the dye appeared in two springs previously not known to be connected, Ellaville and Suwannacoochee.
Continue reading →

Landowner on Withlacoochee River in Hamilton County FL moves to intervene against Sabal Trail –Chris Mericle

Drilling under the Withlacoochee River could have catastrophic effects, a landowner near the Withlacoochee River in Hamilton County, Florida reminds us. Chris Mericle is also a WWALS board member.

Intervenor is a resident of Hamilton County, Florida and lives near the Proposed Sabal Trail Route where it crosses the Withlacoochee River. As such, I am concerned about the adverse and potentially catastrophic effects that the construction and operation of a 36” diameter gas pipeline will have on Fresh Water Resources including Springs and the Floridan Aquifer.

Here’s how you or your organization can file a motion to intervene.

Filed with FERC 22 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141222-5037, “Motion to Intervene of Christopher J Mericle under CP15-17, et. al.” Continue reading →

WWALS moves to intervene with FERC about Sabal Trail pipeline

This legal action should reserve the right of WWALS to participate in legal hearings, file briefs on legal actions by others, or even to bring legal action. In addition to all the county and city resolutions listed here, Hamilton County, Florida also just moved to intervene.

Filed with FERC 16 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141216-5051, “Motion to intervene and request for extension of filing deadline, by WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. under CP15-17.” Continue reading →

Not in our county, state, or aquifer: Valdosta votes against Sabal Trail pipeline tonight

Tonight at 5:30 PM the Valdosta City Council will vote on a resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline they discussed Tuesday at their Work Session. Valdosta added a clause about the Floridan Aquifer to the clauses already in the resolution Lowndes County passed Tuesday evening that Valdosta is supporting. Valdosta’s aquifer clause reads:

WHEREAS, the City of Valdosta has concerns regarding any potential effect the proposed pipeline or its construction might have on the Floridan aquifer, the primary source of the drinking water supply for our City, County and the south Georgia area; and

As VSU Prof. Don Thieme remarked yesterday, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail on GWC Dirty Dozen: contamination, sinkholes, aquifer –WCTV

WCTV’s Winnie Wright interviewed VSU’s Don Thieme, and VSU’s Can Denizman navigated her to the the Cherry Creek sinkhole site for part of her report about the Withlacoochee River in Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen 2014 Item 9 as threatened by the Sabal Trail pipeline. Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover is “disappointed” in being on the Dirty Dozen; does she also find it “hard to believe” like Sabal Trail’s well-documented eminent domain threats?

Winnie Wright, WCTV, 26 November 2014, Sabal Trail Pipeline Environmental Concerns Cited In Annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ Report, Continue reading →

Dirty Dozen, sinkhole, aquifer, drinking water, and corrosion –WWALS to FERC about Sabal Trail

“There is no reason anyone in WWALS’ watersheds should accept any risk for the profit of Williams Company, Spectra Energy, and FPL, when any need for the Sabal Trail pipeline is unproven, and in any case the pipeline does not serve anyone in Georgia.”

Filed with FERC 15 November 2014, and appeared in FERC’s ecomment system 17 November 2014 (PDF).

WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
3338 Country Club Road #L336
Valdosta, GA 31605
15 November 2014

VIA ELECTRONIC FILING
Ms. Kimberly Bose
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20426

Re: Southeast Market Pipelines Project,
Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC Docket No PFl4-1-000
Williams Transco Hillabee Expansion Project, LLC Docket No PFl4-6-000

Dear Ms. Bose,

I applaud FERC for getting Sabal Trail to move off of the Withlacoochee River in Hamilton County, Florida. However, the same karst limestone geology underlies the same Withlacoochee River and the Floridan Aquifer in Brooks and Lowndes Counties, Georgia, and WWALS Watershed Coalition continues Continue reading →

Rivers go underground at the Cody Scarp

The Alapaha River goes underground because the underlying karst limestone rises in what’s called the Cody Scarp, which runs across north Florida. Other rivers that go underground there include the Little Alapaha River and the Santa Fe River. The Withlacoochee River does not go underground, but it does sprout Madison Blue Spring.

Source: Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, vol. 123, no. 3-4, p. 457.

Here’s a cutaway diagram of how all that works underground: Continue reading →

Avoid karst and water and demonstrate need for the Sabal Trail pipelne –Dougherty County Commission to FERC

A county commission is representing its people and the waters of Georgia in a resolution Dougherty County sent to FERC which says in part:

SECTION II Thus, we are in opposition to the construction of the proposed pipeline in Dougherty County and request that FERC give serious consideration and analysis to alternative routes (1) that avoid unstable geologic areas such as karst and sink-hole prone areas, (2) that minimize impacts to drinking water and agricultural water supplies, (3) that minimize impacts to wildlife habitat, forest, wetlands, streams and rivers and (4) that do not compromise socio-economic and cultural issues.

Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.