Tag Archives: Creek

Tornado crosses Sabal Trail unfinished pipeline: more corrosion? 2017-01-20

It’s time to photograph and report all potential Sabal Trail violations after last night’s storm. Pipeline construction should stop until damage can be independently assessed. I-75 is shut down, and so should Sabal Trail be.

The sky was lit by lightning all night as a tornado killed two people in Brooks County and more in Cook County, Georgia. In between is Sabal Trail’s pipeline path across Okapilco Creek. I-75 is closed. What did that tornado do to the unfinished pipeline? What will all this water and wind do to all the Sabal Trail pipe exposed on top of the ground? What about that frac-out and sinkhole at Sabal Trail’s Withlacoochee River drilling only a short way downstream? What about Sabal Trail’s pipe going into that now probably waterlogged ream under the Suwannee River, or the Withlacoochee River South? What about Continue reading →

Sabal Trail now drilling under Suwannee and 5 other rivers and creeks 2017-01-03

Sabal Trail is drilling pilot holes under the Tallapoosa River in Alabama and the Withlacoochee (south) River in Florida, according to its latest biweekly report filed today. It’s already reaming a bigger hole under the Suwannee River in Florida and the Chattahoochee River at the Alabama-Georgia border, as well under Hillabee Creek and State Highway 22 in Alabama. Hillabee Creek seems to keep taking longer.

In Georgia, drilling is completed under Earth Dam, the Flint River, the Ochlockonee River, and the Withlacoochee River, and in Florida under the Santa Fe River, Shingle Creek, and Dyer Blvd.

Drilling has not started under Continue reading →

GA-EPD found Sabal Trail right of way violation 2016-12-14

Georgia EPD found Sabal Trail out of its right of way at Okapilco Creek in Brooks County, and an enforcement action is being prepared. This was while investigating the possible wetlands and water violations reported by WWALS. So reports do sometimes work, although sometimes for violations different than the ones you thought you were reporting.

Update 21 Dec 2016: Please report potential violations.

This afternoon GA-EPD called me to provide a preliminary report on what they found when they inspected the possible violations WWALS reported December 8th 2016. The call came from Tommy W. Fowler, Program Manager, Southwest District, Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD). These are my notes on what he said, in order from the WWALS complaint filing: Continue reading →

Drilling mud oozing up into the Withlacoochee River from Sabal Trail HDD

Update 2016-11-14: GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD 2016-11-16

Update 2016-11-13:Sabal Trail still leaking drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River at US 84 in GA 2016-11-12

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hahira, GA, November 11th 2016 — Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud up from their HDD pilot hole into the Withlacoochee River. They knew this before WWALS asked two weeks ago what is that yellow thing in the river? They did not tell WWALS or the public that this thing they testified could not happen did happen. The evidence is in writing from Sabal Trail’s contractor to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

This wasn’t even the actual horizontal directional drilling (HDD) borehole: it was just the smaller pilot hole. What will happen to the Withlacoochee River (or nearby water wells) with the main borehole? What will happen to the Ochlockonee River west of Moultrie, GA? What will happen to the Santa Fe River, where Sabal Trail is drilling now, or the Suwannee River, where it will drill soon, both Outstanding Waters of Florida, supposed to have extra measures of environmental protection? What about the Tallapoosa, Chattahoochee, or the other Withlacoochee (south) River?

“Why should we accept any risk to our waters, or eminent domain to take our lands, for an unnecessary pipeline, now that Continue reading →

What is Sabal Trail sending into the WIthlacoochee River between Quitman and Valdosta, GA? WWALS PR 2016-11-09

Update 2016-11-14: GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD 2016-11-16

Update 2016-11-13:Sabal Trail still leaking drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River at US 84 in GA 2016-11-12

Update 2016-11-11: Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud up into the Withlacoochee River.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hahira, GA, November 9th 2016 — Sabal Trail appears to have contradicted itself in its recent responses to WWALS, perhaps admitting it may be dumping drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River, which would explain the picture below of a black pipe coming from Sabal Trail’s Brooks County HDD site into the river. WWALS had to wait two weeks just to get those non-answers, so WWALS now asks for a written response by email tomorrow. In addition, at least two Sabal Trail yards (a contractor yard in Moultrie, GA and a pipe yard near Lake City, FL) appear never to have been approved by FERC.

About 2000 feet upstream (north) of the US 84 bridge. Many more pictures here.

“FERC granted permission in less than a week for Continue reading →

CY3-6 full less than a day after FERC approval: Sabal Trail Moultrie contractor yard 2016-10-22

Less than a day after FERC rubberstamped (or did it?) Sabal Trail’s request for a new contractor yard on the east side of Moultrie, Georgia, WWALS saw that yard already full of materials. Did Sabal Trail really move everything in that fast, or were those things already there, like the notorious Lake City, Florida pipe yard that never has gotten any formal FERC approval that we’ve seen?

Here’s what we saw from the Southwings flight for WWALS on Saturday October 22nd 2016:

Compare with the overview map Sabal Trail filed with its request to FERC of Monday October 17th 2016: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail requests variance to Colquitt County, GA creek 2016-10-17

Monday Sabal Trail asked FERC to add a contractor yard in Colquitt County, and to change routing under a small stream. No rush: Sabal Trail wants approval by tomorrow, Thursday, October 20th 2016. Presumably because they’re racing hell-for-leather to meet their May 2017 in-service drop-dead date, after which (according to FPL’s RFP) they could forfeit a $200 million bond or lose the contract.

Here, courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE), are Sabal Trail’s October 17th 2016 maps of that stream, plus Sabal Trail’s April 2016 maps of where it wants to cross the stream it flows into, Hog Creek and that stream’s downstream Okapilco Creek.

We’ve already seen where Sabal Trail is drilling under the Withlacoochee River between Valdosta and Quitman, Georgia and under the Suwannee River in Suwannee River State Park. Plus there’s an encampment of water protectors in Suwannee County.

Contractor Yard CY3-6

Continue reading →

All 527 Sabal Trail alignment maps from April 2016

Courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, you can now see small, big, huge, and PDF versions of all 527 alignment maps Sabal Trail filed with FERC in April 2016: follow this link.

Having these maps online like this makes it easier to see what’s in them. Sabal Trail told FERC Okapilco Creek was not among the streams for which the Georgia legislature denied river-drilling easements (and for which Sabal Trail got the easements later anyway by suing the state in county Superior Courts). Yet Sabal Trail’s alignment maps from April 2016 seem to say that fracked methane pipeline crosses Okapilco Creek a couple of times in Brooks County, Georgia.

Here’s one of those times, in which the road names don’t match Continue reading →

FERC Authorization for Sabal Trail to Commence Drilling under Georgia Rivers 2016-08-25

Update 2016-10-10: Going beyond the ones named in FERC’s commence order, this blog post includes maps for ALL RIVER CROSSINGS IN ALL THREE STATES!

Update 2016-10-10: All 527 of Sabal Trail’s April 2016 alignment maps are now available in small, big, huge, and PDF formats, courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE): follow this link to the LAKE website.

Nevermind that historic 128 to 34 Georgia House vote against river-drilling easements. The Georgia Attorney General’s office declined to defend lawsuits in county Superior Courts (including Lowndes County, GA), and judges gave Sabal Trail the easements. Then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued its permit. So Thursday John Peconom of FERC told Sabal Trail to start drilling under Georgia’s Chattahoochee, Flint, Ochlockonee, and Withlacoochee Rivers, as well as Hannahatchee Creek. They avoided Okapilco Creek by Continue reading →

Leadership is supporting the county’s own people against the Sabal Trail invader –WWALS in Suwannee Democrat

In the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th, 2016.

WWALS Watershed Coalition showed Suwannee County Commissioners sinkholes in the middle of the pipeline path that Sabal Trail didn’t mention to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). All of them, except Jason Bashaw, studied a report by a local geologist and showed leadership by voting to tell that “truth that exists in the middle” to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The quotation above is a reference to Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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