Sabal Trail in most vulnerable area of the Floridan Aquifer –Orlando Sentinel

Orlando is just as affected as the Suwannee River by risks of the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline proposed by Spectra Energy of Houston, Texas. You can protest to FL-DEP, FERC, and your local, state, and federal elected and appointed officials, and to the news media.

Mary Shanklin, Orlando Sentinel, 9 September 2015, Natural-gas pipeline to Florida draws environmental concerns,

The Sabal Trail Pipeline has drawn opposition from a Florida group affiliated with WWALS Watershed Coalition Inc., which is based in Georgia. A chief concern is that the pipeline could impact Florida waterways and the drinking-water supply, said John S. Quarterman, director of the Florida and Georgia WWALS groups.

This is according to evidence FL-DEP itself sent to FERC in March 2014, showing the proposed pipeline path going through the most vulnerable area of the Floridan Aquifer, which as you can see on the map they included continues down to Orlando.

Environmental opponents have already issued pipeline concerns to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the federal government. A state administrative-hearing officer will oversee the WWAL group’s complaint, although a date hasn’t been set. On Friday, the federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a draft environmental-impact statement on the project.

Indeed, that DEIS is a couple thousand pages of excuses. FERC will be holding a series of meetings about it in Florida the first two weeks of October.

The story quotes Duke about “stable, reliable”; Duke didn’t mention it’s buying solar power bigtime in its native South Carolina, nor that Duke and Southern Company are backing solar power in Florida.

The story says Spectra’s Andrea Grover claims “about half” of the tracts needed for the pipeline have been purchased: where’s that landowner list, Ms. Grover?

In the Orlando region, the 36-inch diameter pipe will be laid at least 3 feet underground. Grover said it would run along parts of the Lake/Sumter county line, through about 22 miles of Lake and Osceola counties and southwest of Kissimmee to a compressor station at Reunion.

Only three feet of top cover is exactly what Colquitt and Brooks Counties, Georgia passed resolutions against, because that’s unsafe in an agricultural region (or anywhere).

Quarterman said his group has concerns about some of the land that has been purchased. The buyers, he said, have failed to note all of the springs and sinkholes, where pollution could more easily leach into the water supply.

Actually, I was referring to Sabal Trail neglecting to mention to FERC numerous springs and sinks, as pointed out by Thomas Edwards, who owns the south bank of the Suwannee River where the pipeline would resurface in Suwannee County. Edwards most definitely has not sold his land to Sabal Trail, and is prominently featured in the WWALS amended petition to FL-DEP, along with other landowners in Hamilton County.

Without that landowner list, how can anyone verify or dispute Sabal Trail’s constantly-shifting claims of purchases of easements?

Meanwhile, a judge has been assigned for WWALS v. Sabal Trail and FL-DEP.

-jsq

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!