It looks like Hermine will have moved along east by Saturday, or at least by Sunday, which is the fallback date for the WWALS paddle outing this weekend from Redoux Suwannee River Roline to Cypress Creek. We won’t be able to tell for a day or so what the situation will be, but so far we’re still planning on Saturday morning. Expedition leader Phil Hubbard will make a determination before then.
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
8AM Friday morning WWALS will be on Chris Beckham’s drive-time radio show.
WWALS president John S. Quarterman will be talking about
Saturday morning’s Suwannee River paddle outing
and other outings upcoming on the Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers,
along with other developments on the
Alapaha River Water Trail and the
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail,
along with
many other things WWALS does.
Plus what you can do about
the FERC rubberstamp of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline
drilling under the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers.
When: 8:00 7:30AM Friday September 2nd 2016
Where: Continue reading
Sites in WWALS watersheds include Paradise Public Fishing Area (PFA)
at the headwaters of our Withlacoochee River,
Reed Bingham State Park on our Little River,
Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area (WMA) upstream from our Alapaha River,
and
Stephen C. Foster State Park at the headwaters of our Suwannee River in the Okefenokee Swamp,
all on the Anhinga Trek of the
Southern Rivers Birding Trail.
You can buy a license for any of these parks or WMAs from the state, and you can also see anhingas and other fascinating wildlife on our water trails.
Or come along on upcoming WWALS outings: Continue reading
Update 2016-10-10: Going beyond the ones named in FERC’s commence order, this blog post includes maps for ALL RIVER CROSSINGS IN ALL THREE STATES!
Update 2016-10-10: All 527 of Sabal Trail’s April 2016 alignment maps are now available in small, big, huge, and PDF formats, courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE): follow this link to the LAKE website.
Nevermind that
historic 128 to 34 Georgia House vote against river-drilling easements.
The Georgia Attorney General’s office declined to defend lawsuits in
county Superior Courts (including Lowndes County, GA), and judges gave Sabal Trail the easements.
Then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued its permit.
So Thursday John Peconom of FERC told Sabal Trail to start drilling under
Georgia’s Chattahoochee,
Flint, Ochlockonee, and
Withlacoochee Rivers,
as well as
Hannahatchee Creek.
They avoided Okapilco Creek by Continue reading
Update 2016-09-04: “We’re on for Monday morning! River excellent condition,” says expedition leader Phil Hubbard.
Update 2016-09-02: Delayed until 10AM Monday 5th September due to aftereffects of Hurricane Hermine.
Update 2016-09-01: Watching Tropical Storm Hermine.
More people want to go after the pictures and reports from a few weeks ago,
so WWALS has scheduled a redo from Roline to Cypress Creek on the iconic Suwannee River in north Florida.
Also with a slightly later start this time; more convenient for far-away folks.
When: 10AM Saturday September 3rd 2016
Put in: Roline Launch, 30°33’51.0″N 82°43’30.6″W or 30.564185, -82.725167
Duration: 7.5 miles, about 4 hours.
Directions: Continue reading
Sierra Club Campaign Organizer Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson has taken the Lake City pipe yard ball and run with it. Monday she got TV coverage at that illicit Sabal Trail storage yard for 36-inch fracked gas pipe, and today she’s called a press conference and protest there. Plus Sierra Club has filed two legal actions. Here’s how you can help.
Haley Wade, WCJB-TV, Gainesville, Florida, 15 August 2016, New pipeline has protestors,
There is something you can do: you can say no.
They didn’t even bother to fill in the year on the date, and “File with original letter”. Here’s what the Corps wrote (PDF) in response to Madison County’s request for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) about Sabal Trail.
File with
original letterDEPARTMENT or THE ARMY
JACKSONVILLE DISTRICT CORPS 0F ENGINEERS
POST OFFICE BOX 4970
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 32232-0019July 29, 201
Reply to attention of
Regulatory Division
North Permits Branch
Jacksonville Permits Section
SAJ-2013-03030Madison Board of County Commissioners
Attn: Mr. Brian Kauffman, County Coordinator
Post Office Box 539
Madison, Florida 32341Dear Mr. Kauffman:
Please accept this correspondence as Continue reading
This request for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), mentioning Madison Blue Spring in particular, was sent July 18th or 19th 2016, one copy to each of the Corps addresses. (PDF). That’s the fourth Florida county to make such a request, after Hamilton, Suwanee, and Marion Counties. The Corps already responded to Madison County.
Board of County Commissioners
Madison County, Florida
Jacksonville Permits Section
U.S.A.C.E. Regulatory Division
Attn: Mark R. Evans,
Senior Project Manager,
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232Commander, U.S.A.C.E.,
Savannah District
Attn: Mr. Terry C. Kobs
1104 N. Westover Boulevard, Unit 9
Albany, GA 31707U.S.A.C.E.
Mobile District Reg. Div.
Montgomery Field Office
Attn: Mr. James S. Cherry II
605 Maple Street
Building 1429 Room 105
Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6017
Norman C. Bay, Chairman Continue reading
Don’t forget, 8AM tomorrow August 13th 2016, its a WWALS paddle outing
from Roline to Cypress Creek on the iconic Suwannee River.
The water level is looking good.
Follow this link for directions, facebook event, meetup, etc.
If you can’t paddle tomorrow, WWALS holds monthly paddle outings, with the occasional on-land cleanup like next month:
For more outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS calendar.
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
The Chair said they would send a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and everyone applauded,
in the middle of a record number of people speaking
Tuesday morning to the
board of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD),
most against Sabal Trail, among other topics.
Please send names of the unidentified speakers to contact@wwals.com.
And you can still send your message to the SRWMD board via
Robin Lamm, Coordinator, rrl@srwmd.org; in the Subject say SRWMD Board Members; and remember to copy Noah Valenstein, Executive Director, NVD@srwmd.org NDV@srwmd.org.
(Thanks to Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson for the updated Coordinator name and address.)
Below are links to each of the videos, followed by a video playlist. These are the complete videos of everything before the lunch break, except for a camera failure at the beginning of one talk. See also the Agenda and board packet.
Continue reading