We’ll float down the Suwannee River to this spot Sunday afternoon: come join us!
Picture from
Hamilton County, by
Marsanne Petty,
on
page 12; found by Chris Mericle.
Tag Archives: Suwannee River
WWALS informal outing on the Suwannee –Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman 2015-11-15
A nice Sunday afternoon from Suwannee Campsites to Suwannee River State Park.
WWALS held an informal outing for visitor Johanna deGraffenreid, Coastal Campaign Manager for Gulf Restoration Network, where she’s so newly hired she doesn’t have a picture on their staff page yet. You’ll be able to see her in action when Continue reading
Resolution to move Sabal Trail’s Hildreth Compressor Station passed by Suwannee County BOCC
They wanted to pass this resolution, already in the handouts at the beginning of the meeting,
without even waiting for citizen comments.
They did listen first to a few people who had signed up to
to talk about the compressor station,
including WWALS member David Shields, whose family has an organic farm and discovered they’d be downwind of the compressor station,
and Johanna deGraffenreid, the new Gulf Coast Campaign Coordinator for Gulf Restoration Network. Everybody else got to speak later in the meeting.
David and Ginger Shields on left in audience;
Chris and Deanna Mericle directly in front of camera
Here’s what the Board of Commissioners of the one county targetted by every Continue reading
Sabal Trail pipeline challenged by recommended order, plus Suwannee County resolution tonight
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
WWALS files Proposed Recommended Order with DOAH 2015-11-16
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
Two Valdosta sewer spills in Withlacoochee River watershed
What crosses Lee Street and Gornton Road heading to the
Withlacoochee River? 
One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek, but you wouldn’t know that
from Valdosta’s press releases.
Valdosta PR 27 October 2015, Grease Blockage Causes Small Sanitary Sewer Spill in City,
At approximately 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2015, the City of Valdosta Utilities Department responded to a grease blockage that caused Continue reading
Sabal Trail resolution at Suwannee County Board of Commissioners Tuesday 2015-11-17
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
EPA letter could change pipeline path –Jasper News
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
Sabal Trail can leak into rivers and cause sinkholes according to its own Karst Mitigation Plan
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
Sabal Trail on Dirty Dozen again in VDT
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