Tag Archives: avoidance

EPA chooses to believe Sabal Trail’s intent over Sierra Club and WWALS warnings

It looks awful strange when EPA chooses to name and believe Florida Audubon, which agrees with Sabal Trail, but doesn’t even name Sierra Club, when discounting SC’s much larger concerns. Why should EPA, or we, believe Sabal Trail’s “intent” when Sabal Trail’s parent company, Spectra Energy, has repeatedly not even followed federal law or its own corporate procedures?

Addresses Bruce Ritchie, Politico, 16 December 2015, EPA reverses course on several Sabal Trail pipeline issues,

TALLAHASSEE — The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has reversed itself on numerous points in opposition to a proposed natural gas pipeline that would extend from Alabama across Southwest Georgia and North Florida.

In October, the EPA said in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that it had “very significant concerns” that the proposed route posed a threat to the Floridan Aquifer, the drinking water supply for much of the region. The agency also raised concerns about the pipeline’s impact on wetlands, conservation lands, and minority communities in the region.

But in a Dec. 11 letter sent to the Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA’s James D. Giattina said the agency had met with representatives of Sabal Trail Transmission LLC and reviewed the company’s comments sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. As a result, the EPA has come to different conclusions on several issues.

The EPA’s change of heart raises suspicions for Frank Jackalone, senior organizing manager for the Sierra Club in Florida.

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Proposed Sabal Trail River Permits –USACE and GA-EDP

An opportunity for more and different public hearings! Joint Public Notice The Withlacoochee River doesn’t even rate a mention, nor the Ochlockonee River. Nor any county other than Stewart, nevermind the ones that have passed resolutions against the Sabal Trail pipeline: Terrell, Dougherty, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties, Georgia and Hamilton County, Florida, plus the cities of Albany, Moultrie, and Valdosta, Georgia. This is the Savannah Army Corps of Engineers Public Notice, issued the same Friday September 11th 2015 as the ones from Mobile and Jacksonville, each slightly different.

So is that one, two, or four possible new public hearings? Continue reading

GA-EPD plans to certify Sabal Trail within 30 days unless public comments; ditto USACE

People can request a hearing by the state of Georgia or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop GA-EPD or the USACE from rubberstamping Southeast Market Pipelines Project Overview Sabal Trail’s use of wetlands within 30 days from Friday. USACE explicitly asks for public comments on “cumulative impacts of the proposed activity on the public interest”, unlike FL-DEP’s attempts to narrow the issue. Presumably this includes crossings of the Chattahoochee, Flint, Ochlockonee, and Withlacoochee Rivers in Georgia (and the Suwannee, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee (south) Rivers in Florida and other rivers in Alabama), although this USACE Jacksonville office public notice about the Clean Waters Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act doesn’t specify. It was released Friday September 11th just like the one USACE Mobile District released that same day on Proposed Discharge of Sabal Trail Fill Material. Apparently you can ask for a public hearing by USACE in Alabama or Florida as well as in Georgia.

Here’s the Jacksonville USACE public notice: Continue reading

Proposed Discharge of Sabal Trail Fill Material –U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Late on a Friday, in a USACE public notice:

Sabal Trail Project Overview The USACE has not verified the adequacy of the applicant’s avoidance and minimization statement at this time….

The USACE has not verified the adequacy of the applicant’s proposed off-site mitigation plan at this time.

After how many years has this Sabal Trail project been going on? And still no verification?

PUBLIC HEARING REQUESTS: Any person may request, in writing, within the comment period specified in this notice, that a public hearing be held to consider this application. Requests for public hearings shall state with particularity, the reasons for holding a public hearing.

How about as a reason somebody needs to examine Sabal Trail’s mitigation plans?

This Friday USACE release frequently mentions Continue reading