Category Archives: Pipeline

Gas pipeline leak near Withlacoochee River in Valdosta

If a small city gas pipeline leak shuts down major roads, imagine what the much larger Sabal Trail pipeline could do.

North Valdosta Road is US 41, and the section between Country Club Road and Val Del that was shut down is there it crosses the Withlacoochee River:

Music Funeral Services
Map from Lowndes County Property Appraiser.

I can’t find this notice anywhere on the city’s website or the Valdosta Police website, so here it is from the VDT:

Valdosta Daily Times, 27 April 2017, City issues gas leak caution, Continue reading

Suwannee BOCC approves Duke solar plant 2017-04-18

Duke to build solar farm in Suwannee County instead of new natural gas turbines. How about more solar farms to help reduce fertilizer nitrogen runoff and solve the BMAP problem?

Parcel 25-01S-11E-1090700.0000
Parcel 25-01S-11E-1090700.0000, Suwannee County Property Appraiser.

Thomas Lynn, Suwannee Democrat, 23 April 2017, Suwannee County BOCC approves 62 acres worth of solar panels,

LIVE OAK — The county commissioners approved a special permit to allow Duke Energy to install 62 acres worth of solar panels that will provide electricity to 1,700 homes.

During a county commissioners meeting on Tuesday, the county held a Continue reading

Court suggests FERC is derelict of duty about pipelines including Sabal Trail

Two judges accused FERC of not doing its duty. At stake: shutting down Sabal Trail, and maybe reforming FERC, in oral arguments today on Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, and Chattachoochee Riverkeeper v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Case No. 16-1329 in the U.S. DC Court of Appeals.

Lena Moffit, Sierra Club Florida News, 18 April 2017, Sierra Club attorneys argue against Sabal Trail gas pipeline at DC Circuit Court of Appeals,

Judge [Judith W.] Rogers said at one point to the FERC lawyer, regarding their need to assess the full climate impacts of the project, “So, FERC just doesn’t have to do it’s duty because it thinks someone else will?”

Ellen M. Gilmer, E&E News, 18 April 2017, Judge slams FERC’s climate review,

[Judge Thomas B.] Griffith also appeared skeptical of FERC’s position, asking Continue reading

Ask FL Sen. Nelson to oppose Sabal Trail 2017-04-18-21

When: 9AM-5PM April 18-21, 2017

Where: Call Florida Sen. Nelson’s offices

Event: facebook

Why: Because Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline is unneeded, by FPL’s own admission, and destructive and hazardous. It’s time to get on with solar power for the Sunshine State.

NelsonSabalCalls

Statewide Week of Action: Continue reading

Protests across Florida against Sabal Trail, which is worse than reporters think

It’s not just two connected pipelines; it’s at least five just in Florida. Audubon Florida did endorse Sabal Trail starting with FPL’s first announcement. And sure, Ms. Grover, your “safety programs are designed to prevent pipeline failures”, but they haven’t actually stopped numerous incidents of corrosion, leaks, explosions, and compressor station blowouts. Other than those things, it’s a pretty good story.

Beth Kassab and Kevin Spear, Orlando Sentinel, 2017-04-01, Gas pipeline across Central Florida brings cheap energy and protests,

The WWALS Watershed Coalition, which advocates for protection of Florida and Georgia rivers, has staunchly opposed nearly every aspect of Sabal Trail, which crosses under the Suwannee, Santa Fe and many other rivers.


South to Suwannee River, HDD Suwannee County, RoW with pipe already buried, 30.4117310, -83.1566490

Coalition spokesman John Quarterman called the pipeline a profit bonanza for private companies and a boondoggle for utility customers.

Well, I said it’s a boondoggle for the utility, namely FPL, at the expense of its customers. Here’s why I say that, including Continue reading

Sabal Trail a month late and still sending the press disinformation

No, Ms. Grover, your pipeline is not a job generator for Florida, Georgia, or Alabama, and yes, you’ve slipped your schedule.

“Florida is swarming with protests, like an antbed stirred up by a 600-mile pipeline stick,” John S. Quarterman, president, WWALS Watershed Coalition

You know what would bring economic benefits to the Sunshine State? Solar power, which already employs more people than coal, oil, and natural gas combined, which produced 1 in 20 new jobs last year, and last year solar power produced more new electricity than any other source.

Ms. Grover is paid to picture that fossil-fuel cash-out in the best possible light. Yet once you know the actual facts, it looks more like the Picture of Dorian Gray.


“How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June…. If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!” —Dorian Gray, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde

Joseph A. Mann Jr., FloridaBulldog.org, 23 March 2017, With help from investor-Gov. Scott, Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline looks to open in June, Continue reading

Videos: Water, Agriculture, and Forestry; WWALS @ VSU 2017-03-28

You can’t use traditional models for the karst Floridan Aquifer; new and harsher pesticides are expected this summer; but you can help raise native species; and later this month you can go see many of them in Berrien County, plus WWALS monthly outings, the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, and the Alapaha River Water Trail and some WWALS history.

Yeah, 2,4-D and Dicamba are head-scratchers --Tom Potter
Yeah, coming this summer, and they’re head-scratchers.

All this was at the quarterly WWALS public meeting, this one on Water, Agriculture, and Forestry at Valdosta State University, March 28, 2017.

Here are links to each WWALS video of each talk, with a few notes and a few extra pictures, followed by a WWALS video playlist. Continue reading

Hunters Creek Pipeline, Sabal Trail, Osceola County, FL 2017-02-07

The south end of Sabal Trail connects its Hunters Creek Pipeline, running through many wetlands and past many subdivisions and malls through Davenport and Kissimmee to connect to Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) just west of Florida’s Turnpike. This is all about six miles south and east of Disney World.

NW past Central Florida Pipeline Corp. to Reunion Compressor Station, 6781 Osceola Polk Line Rd, Davenport, FL 33896,
NW past Central Florida Pipeline Corp. to Reunion Compressor Station, 6781 Osceola Polk Line Rd, Davenport, FL 33896, 28.2610489, -81.5572004

Here are aerials taken Continue reading

What is Sabal Trail up to at Pilgrim’s Pride and Suwannee River? 2017-03-20

Following up on Cody Suggs’ pictures of pipeline dug up at Pilgrim’s Pride, I found a flock of glow-shirts inspecting a fancy new pipeline sign. Remember, where Sabal Trail goes through Pilgrim’s Pride property is right next to at least two large sinkholes and on top of the world-famous miles-long Falmouth Cathedral Cave System that feeds the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink. They were also across US 90 and the railroad, and then at the Suwannee River HDD site in Suwannee County, Florida. Here are many pictures, a video playlist, and a Google Map.

Red and white trucks on US 90 at Pilgrims Pride 30.3726492, -83.1553016

Red and white trucks on US 90 at Pilgrims Pride

Continue reading

PHMSA Pipelines in Suwannee County, Florida

Here are updated maps of the two big pipelines in Suwannee County (before Sabal Trail): SONAT and FGT, feeding Duke’s Suwannee River Power Plant and Pilgrim’s Pride, from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Agency (PHMSA) Public Map Viewer that shows where the main pipelines go, county by county.

Pipelines, Suwannee County, FL

PHMSA says there are only two main pipelines in Suwannee County, one east-west across the top, and one north-south and then over into Columbia County.

pipelines-suwannee-county-fl

Here’s an older version from January 2016 before PHMSA changed their map viewer: Continue reading