Tag Archives: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Still possible to keep Sabal Trail out –WWALS in VDT 2016-03-22

Update 2016-02-22: We all won by a landslide in the Georgia House! There’s more to do tomorrow until Sabal Trail is ended for good; see below.

Please call your Georgia state representative and ask them to vote No today on SR 954 that would give Sabal Trail easements to drill under our rivers. Here’s why:

John S. Quarterman, VDT, 2016-03-22, Still possible to keep Sabal Trail out,

WWALS at the proposed Sabal Trail Withlacoochee River crossing just upstream from US 84 After two years going to Sabal Trail open houses and FERC scoping meetings, filing e-comments, guiding them to the river crossings and a legal hearing in Jasper, FERC still tells us customers for Spectra Energy from Houston, Texas, constitute a need that outweighs local property rights, environmental destruction, and hazards to our Withlacoochee and Suwannee rivers and the Floridan Aquifer, and to taxes, life, and limb.

Yet Georgia is the fastest-growing U.S. solar market, while solar Continue reading →

Hamilton County, FL unanimously asks Army Corps for on-site independent study of Sabal Trail

Thanks to the Hamilton Board of County Commissioners for standing up for its people, Hamilton BOCC deliberating and for all those affected by the invading Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.

Debra Johnson, SpectraBusters, 15 March 2016, Hamilton County takes exception with Sabal Trail,

Tonight, Tuesday March 15, 2016, Hamilton County unanimously voted to request that the Army Corps of Engineers perform an independent study on site concerning the ommisions and discrepancies contained in the final environmental study that FERC and Florida DEP used to issue the[ir] permit[s] for the Sabal Trail pipeline.

These ommisions in the EIS were discovered by Mr Chris Mericle when Continue reading →

Where pipelines already cross rivers into Suwannee County, Florida

Update 2017-03-31: Newer version of PHMSA pipeline maps.

Two pipelines, one by Southern Natural Gas (SONAT), and one named Florida Gas Transmission (FGT), both owned by Kinder Morgan (KMI), already cross under the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers into Suwannee County: FGT does so twice under the Suwannee River and once under the Santa Fe River. All these pipelines carry “natural” gas, which is to say fracked methane. When they were originally built, economically they made some sense. Now that solar power is cheaper, easier and faster to build, and far safer and cleaner, there is no excuse for any more such pipelines, neither Kinder Morgan’s Jacksonville Expansion Project (JEP), nor Spectra Energy’s Sabal Trail.

SONAT

Continue reading →

Ask Congress to have GAO investigate FERC

It’s time to throw a spotlight on FERC’s favoratism. Maya K. van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, who has been fighting pipeline projects for years, asks all of us to sign a petition to ask two Senators to get the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to “conduct an official investigation into the operations of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”).”.

Or ask your member of the House of Representatives Continue reading →

To protect the aquifer and to protect the river: Suwannee County against Sabal Trail 2015-12-01

Standing on their previous resolution against the Hildreth compressor station, SBOCC decided to vote next time on a much stronger resolution to keep the pipeline completely out of Suwannee County. Will Sabal Trail show up for that meeting, 15 December 2015, like Andrea Grover told Carl McKinney of the Suwannee Democrat they would if they had advance notice? I suggest all interested parties come to tha meeting to see, not to mention to counter any “information” Sabal Trail may supply.

Here is SBOCC’s own video of that meeting, in which you can see Commissioner Larry Sessions raise the issue:

Commissioner Larry Sessions I’d like to discuss one thing. Last meeting we discussed at length the Sabal Trail issues, possibly coming through our county and crossing the river a couple times.

I’d like to propose that staff make up a letter or a proposal to restrict the pipeline or maybe have the pipeline avoid all karst areas and wetlands coming through our county. We’re trying to Continue reading →

WWALS moves to enter EPA letter to FERC into evidence in Florida case

Everyone from the Atlanta Journal-Constition to the Palm Beach Post to the Ocala StarBanner Comes now, Petitioner... and moves.... considers the EPA letter to FERC to be of great significance. WWALS agrees, and has filed a motion to ask the judge to take notice in WWALS v. Sabal Trail & DEP.

§ 373.414 Florida Statutes, begins:

(1) As part of an applicant’s demonstration that an activity regulated under this part will not be harmful to the water resources or will not be inconsistent with the overall objectives of the district, the governing board or the department shall require the applicant to provide reasonable assurance that state water quality standards applicable to waters as defined in s. 403.031(13) will not be violated and reasonable assurance that such activity in, on, or over surface waters or wetlands, as delineated in s. 373.421(1), is not contrary to the public interest. However, if such an activity significantly degrades or is within an Outstanding Florida Water, as provided by department rule, the applicant must provide reasonable assurance that the proposed activity will be clearly in the public interest.

Not just “not contrary to the public interest”. For an Outstanding Florida Water applicant (Sabal Trail) “must provide reasonable assurance that the proposed activity will be clearly in the public interest.” The Suwannee River is an Outstanding Florida Water. And the EPA letter is pretty good evidence that Sabal Trail did not provide such reasonable assurance.

Filed October 30, 2015 4:43 PM Division of Administrative Hearings (also PDF on WWALS website): Continue reading →

Soon down to the wire to oppose Sabal Trail invasion

The fracking that drives new pipelines was a crime until ten years ago, and it should be again: injecting poisons into the ground under our water supply was always a bad idea.

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson and Jim Tatum, Suwannee Democrat, 14 September 2015, The FERC flexes its muscles on Sabal Trail,

The time frame is coming down to the wire as to Sabal Trail and its invasion of our riverbeds and springs systems. They have met with nothing but negative comments throughout Georgia and Florida. People have turned out in droves to express their dissent. In spite of this, they move onward with their plan to install a 36” pipeline under the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers, and through the center of this fragile spring system. Our springs heartland is a regional identity unlike any in the world, but vulnerable to developers and oil and gas companies.

Many environmental groups have been active in resisting. Our Santa Fe River Inc. was consistently Continue reading →

AES Port of Palm Beach LNG export at end of Transco → Sabal Trail → FSC pipeline chain

A company from Wyoming based in Chicago was rubberstamped in November 2013 to export liquid natural gas (LNG) from the Port of Palm Beach, and it can transport LNG “over highways and/or by rail”. Advanced Energy Solutions (AES) intends to get its fracked methane from Floridian Natural Gas Storage Company (FLiNG), which is conveniently located right where the Transco → Sabal Trail → FSC pipeline chain goes in Martin County, FL. This LNG approval was done without public hearings, with public input hidden, and with a clause to hide LNG export contract details. This they claim is “consistent with the public interest”. And this only one of four LNG export operations right where this pipeline chain goes. Yet neither Sabal Trail nor FERC ever said anything about LNG export until questioned by local citizens. And then they had little or no comment.

This AES LNG export operation was approved for Martin County, Florida 14 November 2013, one month after Continue reading →

Sabal Trail faces opposition in Florida and Georgia –Palm Beach Post

The evidence stacks up against the three-part pipeline, Sabal Trail, Florida Southeast Connection, and Hillabee Expansion Project, despite rote denials by FPL and Sabal Trail. And this article ties the WWALS petition against drilling under the Suwannee River with the Georgia opposition to a compressor station in Albany.

Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Post, 31 August 2015, Gas pipeline slated to supply FPL’s plants faces opposition,

A proposed $3.5 billion natural gas pipeline is either essential to Florida’s energy future or a looming disaster that has the potential to damage the iconic Suwannee River and the state’s fragile limestone Floridan Aquifer on its way to Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast….

In recent months, concerns have been raised Continue reading →

FL DEP to issue permit trusting Sabal Trail to prevent leaks into the Floridan Aquifer

Canada’s National Energy Board just ordered Spectra Energy to fix chronic corrosion and leak problems after numerous fines, as did U.S. PHMSA before, yet 300x194 Horizontal Directional Drilling, in Suwannee River crossing, by Sabal Trail Transmission, for WWALS.net, 10 July 2015 Florida’s DEP plans to trust Spectra to build the Sabal Trail pipeline on top of our Floridan Aquifer, drilling under the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers.

This in the Notice of Intent to Issue Sabal Trail Transmission of 10 July 2015 sounds good without that context: Continue reading →