Two dozen agricultural parcels owned by a shell of a shell of a shell company
investing for Bill Gates in Hamilton County, Florida.
Two parcels are in the Withlacoochee River
watershed and within the blast radius of the original
path of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.
The Hamilton County, Florida, Property Appraiser shows these results for a search for Lakeland Sands: Continue reading
Here is
the WWALS item #9
in the
Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen 2014;
I added the links and the illustrations. -jsq
2014’s
Worst Offenses Against
GEORGIA’S WATER
WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER & FLORIDAN AQUIFER
Gas Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Water, Way of Life
INTRODUCTION:
Southwest Georgians are fighting an invader—one every bitas worrisome as the boll weevil that destroyed cotton harvests in the 1900s, except this one takes farmers’ land as well as crops. Continue reading
The Withlacoochee River and the Floridan Aquifer affected by the
Sabal Trail pipeline is #9 in the Georgia Water
Coalition’s Dirty Dozen 2014: A Call to
Action, 
and here’s the
press release,
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 22, 2014 — Today, Georgia’s leading water coalition named its “Dirty Dozen” for 2014, highlighting 12 of the worst offenses to Georgia’s waters. The annual Dirty Dozen shines a spotlight on threats to Georgia’s water resources as well as the polluters and state policies or failures that ultimately harm—or could harm—Georgia property owners, downstream communities, fish and wildlife, hunters and anglers, and boaters and swimmers.
“The Dirty Dozen is not a list of the most polluted water bodies in Georgia, nor are they ranked in any particular order,” said Joe Cook, Advocacy & Communication Coordinator at the Coosa River Basin Initiative. “It’s a list of problems that exemplify the results of inadequate funding for Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD), a lack of political will to enforce existing environmental protections, and ultimately misguided water planning and spending priorities that flow from the very top of Georgia’s leadership.”
WWALS submitted #9 of the Dirty Dozen:
9. Withlacoochee River & Floridan Aquifer: Gas Pipeline Threatens Southwest Georgia Water, Way of Life
The Sabal Trail pipeline’s path across Continue reading
Drilling through fragile sinkhole-prone
karst limestone under the Withlacoochee River (or the Suwannee River,
or the Santa Fe River): what could possibly go wrong?
Sabal Trail now proposes to move off of the Withlacoochee River in
Florida, but still plans to cross the Withlacoochee in Georgia,
and to cross the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers, all of which have
the same hydrogeology.
You can talk directly to Sabal Trail and FERC at the
Open House in Jasper, Florida, 5-7PM Tuesday 21 October 2014,
and you can join WWALS where the Alapaha River
disappears entirely into a sinkhole,
at the
Alapaha Sink, 2PM Sunday 26 October 2014.
Here are before and after diagrams by Continue reading
Due to fine work by WWALS members Chris and Deanna Mericle in Hamilton
County, Florida,
Sabal Trail proposes to move its fracked methane
pipeline off of the Withlacoochee River in Florida, and invites the public
to an Open House in Jasper, FL Tuesday October 21st about that and
other matters. We can ask them to move it off the Withlacoochee River
in Georgia, too. And it’s still possible to file ecomments with FERC,
and to contact your local, state, and national elected and appointed officials.
In FERC’s 15 October 2014 Sabal Trail Notice of EIS Intent and Route Alternatives, Continue reading
Update 2 Oct 2014: WWALS will have a table at the conference. See you there!
This conference coming up next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday
looks quite interesting.
I wonder if they know they’re directly on the Sabal Trail fracked methane
pipeline Alternative 3
which would gouge through the Floridan Aquifer from Albany, GA through
Monticello and then east and south across the Ochlockonee, Aucilla, Ecofina, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers?
Sharing Water:
The Floridan Aquifer in Alabama, Georgia and Florida Continue reading
Will Sabal Trail actually move off the Withlacoochee River in Florida?
That depends on how you interpret which version of what Sabal Trail has said
about its seven (7) different proposed fracked methane pipeline
routes through Suwannee County, Florida.
And all but one of the five proposed Georgia routes still would
cross the Withlacoochee River in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Beware that no matter what Sabal Trail says, FERC could pick any of these
routes or some other.
And no matter what FERC says, other agencies, including state and local,
also have to approve permits and other evaluatios of any route,
plus both Spectra Energy and Williams Company have recently “suspended”
or cancelled pipelines as uneconomic.
There is something you and your local elected bodies can do.
Amber Vann wrote for the Suwannee Democrat 19 September 2014, Gas pipeline concerns continue, Continue reading
Here’s the cover letter I sent to the Lowndes County Commission
about the
action letter to county commissions, text of which was appended.
They meet tonight at 5:30 PM.
-jsq
From: “John S. Quarterman”
Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 21:07:54 -0400
cc: wwalswatershed@gmail.com
To: “Joyce E. Evans”, Richard Raines, Crawford Powell, Demarcus Marshall, Clay Griner
Subject: Resolutions other counties have passed against Spectra pipelinesDear Lowndes County Commissioners,
With FERC’s recent instructions to Sabal Trail adding three more pipeline alternates that could go through Lowndes County, Lowndes has become even more of a key county regarding that pipeline. Please see the appended letter signed by many groups and individuals for resolutions and an ordinance that other counties have already passed.
Thanks,
John S. Quarterman, President, WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. Continue reading
Chris Mericle’s Florida state rep.,
Elizabeth Porter,
who also attended the recent
GA EPD briefing to SRWMD about Valdosta’s plans to fix
its wastewater overflowes into the Withlacoochee River, just objected to FERC about Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline (PDF).
Chris and Deanna Mericle are our local hosts for the
WWALS Withlacoochee and Suwannee River
paddle past the pipeline 21 September 2014.
FLORIDA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Continue reading
Representative Elizabeth Porter
District 10
Elizabeth.Porter@myfloridahouse.gov
Update 20 September 2014: Now with a lunch stop at Chris and Deanna’s house! Bring your own lunch or snacks, but the Mericles have picnic tables and bathrooms. Chris reports the Withlacoochee is high enough that the shoals are no problem, and the weather report says clear all day tomorrow. See also his report on FERC and Sabal Trail’s recent visit to this same area and what Sabal Trail wrote to FERC the next day.
Sabal Trail may be thinking of moving their pipeline, but WWALS is
still padding past the original location 10AM Sunday September 21st.
All are invited to come see for themselves the springs, shoals, and sinkholes
that we value more highly than pipeline profit for a company from Houston.
Join us for a fine day on two of our fabulous southern blackwater rivers:
the Withlacoochee River and the Suwannee River, in Hamilton and Suwannee
Counties, Florida.
The meeting place is the CR 143 Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River near Jennings, Florida. For directions, please see the earlier post about this outing.
This event is FREE! All we ask is Continue reading