Apparently that wet area I saw
March 20, 2017 at Sabal Trail’s Suwannee River HDD access in Suwannee County
was
a “depression”
they had just
logged
the previous day.
Two more recent ones show up in Sabal Trail’s latest bi-weekly report,
along with a couple of earlier ones they still haven’t even attempted to fix.
Why should we expect these sinkholes will stop happening if Sabal Trail finishes and takes all their workers back to Houston, leaving us to deal with the damage?
I also wondered what they were up to a bit southeast of that drill site,
beyond the dirt berm where I could only see their heads and hats.
Apparently that was another sinkhole from January at the
Suwannee River HDD in Suwannee County.
Or maybe it was in Hamilton County in Suwannee River State Park;
their description is so sloppy it’s hard to tell.
“We’ve got loss of production for the future that will take not my
lifetime, not my kids’ lifetime, but my kids’ kids’ lifetime to
recover from,” Randy Dowdy
Randy Dowdy is a major corn and soybean producer. In fact, he holds
a world’s record for soybean production and a U.S. record for corn
production but now he says his award-winning farm is in jeopardy.
Daniel Demersseman (VDT), Randy Dowdy (farmer), photo by John S. Quarterman for WWALS Watershed Coalition
Environmentalists held a press conference this week alongside Dowdy
to say their worst fears about the pipeline have been realized.
Tom Potter, WWALS, Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, Sierra Club; Daniel DeMersseman, Valdosta Daily Times; Randy Dowdy, the farmer whose fields were destroyed by Sabal Trail
Valdosta, May 3, 2017 — U.S. corn production record holder and
world soybean record holder Randy Dowdy, whose record-producing
fields were severely eroded in rains after Sabal Trail’s pipeline
construction destroyed his terraces and caused massive erosion of
his cropland, will be at the Rainwater Conference Center in Valdosta
11:30 AM this morning at a pipeline safety exercise to talk about
the implications of Sabal Trail’s destruction for pipeline safety
and his livelihood.
Randy Dowdy is the 2014 50-year record holder for U.S. corn
production and the world record holder for soybean production. Sabal
Trail gouged its pipeline through his terraces on the land he used
for those soybeans in Brooks County. Despite his warnings, they left
that damage unfixed until rains in January caused massive erosion,
washing his topsoil into a nearby creek. Beyond immediate damage,
this destruction affects Dowdy’s ability to grow such record yields,
and the basic productivity of his fields. What further economic
damage has Sabal Trail done to other farmers and landowners? Where
else will Sabal Trail’s pipeline cause erosion, perhaps in some
places exposing the pipe and risking corrosion and breaks?
The event 11:30 AM this morning at Rainwater Conference Center in Continue reading →
Let’s connect the dots from Sabal Trail to LNG export through Jacksonville.
To cut to the chase: Crowley Maritime’s Carib Energy is already exporting LNG
from Jacksonville, and is authorized to get LNG from both Floridian Natural Gas (FLiNG)
in Martin County at the end of the Transco → Sabal Trail → FSC pipeline chain,
and from Florida Gas Transportation (FGT)’s Jacksonville Expansion Project
from Sabal Trail in Suwannee County to Jacksonville.
Crowley-owned Carib Energy has already begun small scale exports of
LNG to Puerto Rico and has plans for expansion to a number of
countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.
In Brooks County south of Quitman, draining into
Piscola Creek and the Withlacoochee River,
in the same industrial park where WWALS caught Sabal Trail illegally burning,
a poultry breeder will be setting up shop.
Aviagen, a leading broiler breeding company, will create 100 jobs
and invest approximately $18 million in a new parent stock hatchery
at Brooks County Industrial Park, 17 miles west of Valdosta, in
Quitman, Georgia.
LIVE OAK — Charges against three Sabal Trail pipeline
protesters who were scheduled to be tried in court this week were
dropped by the state attorney’s office.
Jeff Siegmeister, state attorney for Florida’s third judicial
circuit, said the decision was made for a couple of reasons.
“We made a decision to not give the protesters a platform and
not waste the taxpayers money,” Siegmeister said.
How about the waste of taxpayer money on arrests and going this far in those cases? How about the state providing dozens Continue reading →
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?
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 →