Sent yesterday to the Chairman, the other five elected Lowndes County Commissioners, and the County Clerk (PDF). They meet again 5:30PM Tuesday evening, April 25th 2016.
Dear Commissioners,
Thanks to Chairman Bill Slaughter for saying in the Valdosta Daily Times that the Commission signing an easement contract was not an endorsement of the Sabal Trail pipeline.[1] Therefore I ask you to:
- Invite the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate on site and on paper the numerous omissions by Sabal Trail of springs and underground water transmissivity in what it told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; .please see the letter from WWALS to the Army Corps,[2] attached with the letter from WWALS to you of April 12th.
Ask our U.S. Congress member Austin Scott (GA-08) to join the four Georgia Congress members who have already asked FERC to fix its processes or deny a permit for Sabal Trail.[3]
- Join the hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals who have already asked the U.S. Congress to call in the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review FERC’s permitting processes.[4]
Please find appended further information about the issues the Chairman raised in the VDT of eminent domain, in differences in regulation of oil and gas pipelines, and in environmental and safety issues of natural gas pipelines.
Since I wrote to you on April 12th, two more major natural gas pipelines have run into serious problems.
On April 20th, Kinder Morgan shelved its $3.3 billion Northeast Direct (NED) pipeline through Massachusetts and New Hampshire, “after failing to sign up enough utility customers and facing stiff consumer and political opposition.”[5]
On April 22nd, Earth Day, the State of New York Department of Environmental Protection denied a water quality permit for Williams Company’s $1 billion Constitution Pipeline.[6]
Pipelines are not inevitable. You can help stop Sabal Trail. I ask you to do so.
The address for the Savannah District of the Corps is:
To: Commander, U.S.A.C.E.,
Savannah District
Attn: Mr. Terry C. Kobs
1104 N. Westover Boulevard, Unit 9
Albany, Georgia 31707
(229) 430-8566
terry.c.kobs@usace.army.milCc: Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection Division
Watershed Protection Branch
Attn: James A. (Jac) Capp – Branch Chief
2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
Atlanta, Georgia 30334
404-463-4911
James.Capp@dnr.state.ga.usRe: Application Number: SAS-2013-00942
Applicant: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, Attn Mr. George McLachlan
Thank you for your consideration.
For the rivers and the aquifer,
[/s]
John S. Quarterman, PresidentAppended: WWALS blog post of 21 April 2016
[1] "BOC Chairman: Sabal Trail vote not endorsement", by Michael Praats, Valdosta Daily Times, 20 April 2016, http://goo.gl/L5lRAq
[2] “ WWALS invites Army Corps of Engineers to inspect and investigate Sabal Trail” , 4 April 2016, /?p=19392
[3] "PROPOSED SABAL TRAIL RAISES ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, HEALTH CONCERNS CONGRESSMAN BISHOP AND GEORGIA HOUSE DEMOCRATS DEMAND ALTERNATIVES", Office of Congressman Sanford Bishop, 23 October 2015, http://spectrabusters.org/?p=6637
[4] "Support a GAO Review of FERC by sending letters to your state’s representative!", Delaware Riverkeeper Network, web form, accessed 12 April 2016, http://goo.gl/yKBz5U
[5] "Kinder Morgan shelves $3 billion pipeline project", by Jon Chesto, Boston Globe, April 20, 2016, https://goo.gl/L5fssp
[6] "New York Environmental Regulators Deny Permit for Constitution Pipeline: Cuomo administration said pipeline doesn’t comply with state’s water quality standards", by Erin Ailworth, Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2016, http://goo.gl/lEwx4p
-jsq
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