See the beautiful blackwater Alapaha River while it’s high,
in the middle of the Alapaha River Water Trail,
from Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County to Mayday in Echols County.
When: 8AM Saturday 23 April 2016
Put in: Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County, 30.93669, -83.0406
Take out: Mayday in Echols County, 30.82827, -83.017179
Distance: 12.7 miles
Duration: about 6 hours
Directions: Continue reading
Update 2016-01-17: Report with pictures.
This Saturday, 11AM to 1PM, come to Suwannee River State Park for an educational and organizational meeting about why and how to stop the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and to promote solar power instead, hosted by Suwannee-St Johns Group, Florida Sierra Club. At 1PM the media are invited to a hike to the river with signs!
Do we want
a fireball like a mere 4″ FGT spur made in Bell, Florida in 2012 when a tree fell on it?
Sabal Trai would carry 80 times as much fracked methane.
Or like FGT’s 2009 explosion between the Florida Turnpike and I-95, flying a 104-foot piece of 18-inch pipe through the air, shutting down both roads, and fortunately missing a high school?
Or like
Spectra’s pipeline blowout under the Arkansas River in Little Rock last May?
The same Spectra Energy that wants to drill a 36″ pipeline under the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers.
The same industry that’s caused Los Angeles County and the state of California to declare a state of emergency after four months of the Porter Ranch fracking well blowout causing sickness and evacuations near Los Angeles.
When: 11AM-1PM, Saturday, 16 January 2016
Where: Continue reading
Update 2017-03-31: Newer version of PHMSA pipeline maps.
Two pipelines, one by Southern Natural Gas (SONAT), and one named Florida Gas Transmission (FGT), both owned by Kinder Morgan (KMI),
already cross under the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers into Suwannee County: FGT does so twice under the Suwannee River and once under the Santa Fe River.
All these pipelines carry “natural” gas, which is to say fracked methane.
When they were originally built, economically they made some sense.
Now that solar power is cheaper, easier and faster to build, and far safer and cleaner, there is no excuse for any more such pipelines, neither Kinder Morgan’s
Jacksonville Expansion Project (JEP), nor Spectra Energy’s Sabal Trail.
It’s about Kinder Morgan’s Palmetto petroleum products pipeline, but eminent domain for Spectra’s private profit from its proposed Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. From the facebook event by our sibling Satilla Riverkeeper:
When: 7PM Friday 15 January 2016
Where: Theater by the Trax, 100 Osborn Street, St Marys, GA 31558
Join Satilla Riverkeeper, St. Marys Earthkeeper and film maker Mark Albertin for the release of a new documentary called “At What Cost? Pipelines, Pollution and Eminent Domain in the Rural South”. This is a FREE event but limited to the first 160 attendees.
This film discusses Continue reading
Update 2016-03-24: Pictures.
Explore the Withlacoochee River as it meanders thru the edge of Valdosta,
past
Shadrick Sink,
Cherry Creek, and
under
North Valdosta Road,
on the
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.
Wave at some of your friends in the houses nearby.
Update 2016-03-19: Yes, there are potholes at Staten Road Bridge, but that never stopped us from paddling. Come on down!
Update 2016-03-14: Langdale Park will be closed, but VLPRA will let us in.
When: 9AM Sunday March 20th 2016
Put in: Staten Road Bridge, 7.1 miles north of Valdosta, Lowndes County.
Take out: Langdale Park Boat Ramp, 3781 N. Valdosta Rd., Valdosta, GA 31602, Lowndes County.
Distance: About 5 miles
Duration: About 2.5 hours
Shuttle: About half an hour
Take out: Langdale Park Boat Ramp
Also passing: Bay Branch, Sermons Branch (if that is its real name), Withlacoochee Slough at Cherry Creek, Cherry Creek Sink, and Stillhouse Branch coming out of Valdosta Country Club.
Responsible party: Chris Mericle
Local host: John S. Quarterman
Directions from Valdosta: head north on Ashley Street, turn left on Oak Street Extension,
Directions from I-75: take exit 22, go east on North Valdosta Road, left on Perimeter Road, left on Oak Street, continue onto Staten Road, cross Orr Road, and after about 2/3 of a mile just before the bridge, turn off to the right.
Too low: we’re guessing 2 feet on either the at Skipper Bridge or US 41 gauges.
Too high: flood stage is 15 feet at Skipper Bridge and at US 41.
This outing is Free! But we encourage you to join WWALS today to support our fun outings and important work: /donations/. See our newsletters, and the press Releases and news. And consider joining the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail Committee.
Where: Ray’s Millpond
When: 9AM March 20th 2016
Directions: From Valdosta, north on Bemis Road (GA 125) to Ray City, right on Jones St. to boat ramp.
Coming up even sooner:
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!
Does this sound like a level playing field to you?
Basically Sabal Trail claims “reasonable assurances” mean the pipeline can be completed and that’s a public good for the state of Florida, nevermind any destruction or hazards, while WWALS would have had to demonstrate specific direct damages to many of its members because of pipeline installation just to get standing.
A Spectra Energy executive from Houston, Texas automatically has standing to claim safety using evidence from other pipelines and even other pipeline companies,explicitly referencing the U.S. Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, while WWALS and its local members in Florida are precluded from introducing any evidence about safety in the same case, or so Sabal Trail seems to say in its objections filed today 4 January 2016
(PDF) to
the
judge’s Order in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP.
Seems like the limestone underlying the Floridan Aquifer are not the only cracks and fissures in Florida.
-jsq
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Valdosta has a water treatment byproduct over the recommended limit in its drinking water. Janet McMahan supplied the image below of part of a notice, which says there’s no cause for alarm at the moment:
There is nothing you need do at this time. These violations do not pose Continue reading
It’s time to throw a spotlight on FERC’s favoratism.
Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, who has been fighting pipeline projects for years, asks all of us to
sign a petition
to ask two Senators to get the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to “conduct an official investigation into the operations of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”).”.
Or ask your member of the House of Representatives Continue reading
Who could achieve standing or win a case with these criteria?
The judge’s Recommended Order applied the wrong standard
as to whether the pipeline is in the public interest (Exception 25),
applied an incorrect standard of proof (Exception 16),
ignored the additional protections due the Outstanding Florida Waters
of the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers
(Exception 17),
and
ignored evidence that the granting of a Sovereign Submerged Lands Easement
would adversely affect the lands under those rivers
(Exception 19), not to mention the Floridan Aquifer.
In alleging WWALS does not have standing, the judge ignored a case previously cited by FDEP (Exception 23), and added an unprecedented factor of “potential injury” that would prevent associations from ever achieving standing unless they could prove the ultimate facts of the case (Exception 14).
Did the judge really mean to imply FDEP’s and Sabal Trail’s own witnesses were not competent when they upon questioning provided testimony that FDEP failed to acquire reasonable assurances that the issuance of an environmental resource permit and easement on sovereign submerged lands would not be contrary to the “public interest” (Exception 15)? If those public servants’ testimony wasn’t competent, how can those same personnel be competent to evaluate permit applications?
These are just a few of the 25 exceptions filed Monday 28 December 2015 by WWALS Counsel William R. Wohlsifer and Leighanne C. Boone. See also the WWALS video of Attorney Wohlsifer’s concluding statement in the hearing.
Here is PDF of the judge’s Recommended Order and PDF of the WWALS Exceptions. Below is the text of those exceptions. Continue reading
About 7 miles north of the Lowndes County Courthouse in Valdosta, Georgia,
you can get to the Withlacoochee River at the new(-ish)
Staten Road Bridge,
30.9324760, -83.2883453.
This is at Mile 73.3 on the
Withlacoochee River Water Trail.
From Valdosta, go north up Oak Street until Continue reading