To see Sabal Fail in inaction at Dunnellon, jump to The Dunnellon odorant leaks, where the pipeline stooges wrapped it in towels, sprayed a deodorant, and waited until morning. Really, according to the incident report from Marion County Fire Rescue. It doesn’t get better in this summary: none of the state or federal permitting or safety agencies did anything, leaving Marion County to deal with the situation unassisted.
If you want to know some background, see also Continue reading
“Once the court officially returns the matter to FERC, the pipeline should cease operations while FERC undertakes the new analysis,” wrote Elly Benson, lead attorney for the case Sierra Club just won against Sabal Trail.
She summed up: ”Instead of sacrificing our communities and environment to build unnecessary pipelines that “set up surefire profits” for pipeline companies at the expense of captive ratepayers, the focus should be on transitioning to clean renewable energy and energy efficiency—especially in the Sunshine State. Forcing federal agencies to grapple with the true climate impacts of dirty fossil fuel projects is a big step in the right direction.”
She leads off this fourth in a WWALS news roundup series (1, 2, 3) about that case, followed by Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, another party to the case.
WWALS is not a party to that case and does not speak for the parties, so I can be a cheerleader for them. Shut it down! Let the sun rise!
How many pipelines do we want? None!
When do we want them? Never!
—WWALS at the Sabal Trail Suwannee River crossing, 15 August 2015.
Update 2017-08-31: More maps and other information in the Phosphate Mining page.
A couple of 24″ and 30″ natural gas pipelines run west to east across the New River right through the HPS II mine site, turning at the Brooker FGT compressor station to head northeast as 16″ and 20″ pipelines to Jacksonville, carrying Sabal Trail fracked methane from Suwannee County for export from Duval County through Eagle LNG and Crowley Maritime. What could possibly go wrong there with massive mining equipment?
I’ve drawn Florida Gas Transmission (FGT)’s pipeline routes in blue onto the HPS II map Citizens Against the Phosphate Mine (CAPM) already annotated.
Those FGT routes came from the maps below of Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) through Union and Bradford Counties from the Public Map Viewer of the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).
Update 2017-08-29: Fourth news roundup: From pipelines to renewable energy and efficiency –Sierra Club 2017-08-29
“This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail,” Quarterman said, on the front page of the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee Basin, the Valdosta Daily Times.
We got sails no one can see.
Suwannee Riverkeeper Vessel on the Suwannee River protesting Sabal Trail 2017-01-14
As Frank Jackalone says (see below), FERC has been getting away with murder. And now maybe they can’t.
Thomas Lynn, Valdosta Daily Times, 23 August 2017, Court decision to impact Sabal Trail pipeline, Continue reading
Update 2017-08-29: Fourth news roundup: From pipelines to renewable energy and efficiency –Sierra Club 2017-08-29
Update 2017-08-24: Third news roundup: This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail —Suwannee Riverkeeper in VDT 2017-08-24
OilPrice.com calls it “a critical decision yesterday, that could jeopardize the future for pipeline projects across the country”; pipeline companies could be “spooked” and “…the court ruling raises the unsettling possibility that the project may be forced to shut down — after billions were spent putting it in into service.” Other stories say this ‘huge’ win could also affect the Atlantic Sunrise, Penneast, Atlantic Coast, and Rover Pipelines, among others.
(L to R) Lea Fox, 4, Finn Ryder Purdy, 4, and Mason Dana, 7, of Lake
Worth, sit with gas pipeline protesters outside of Florida Power and
Light headquarters on Universe Boulevard in Juno Beach on October
14, 2016. The Sabal Trail Pipeline began supplying FPL’s plants in
June. Groups opposed the pipeline that will start in Alabama and
bring fracked gas through several counties in Florida’s springs and
wetlands. (Richard Graulich / The Palm Beach Post)
Sad for FPL, Duke, Spectra, and all the other pipeline-building purveyors of fracked methane, maybe, but glad for all the landowners whose land was taken, local citizens who don’t want a 500+-mile IED next to their homes, schools, and waterways, and all people who want clean sun and wind energy, not more polluting fossil fuels.
It’s good the industry press agrees with what I told the VDT: “This is wind in our sails and could be the end of Sabal Trail.”
Here’s a news roundup, in addition to Continue reading
The biggest asset any of us, all together, will ever own, is water.
Phosphate mining is complicated, but your choice is not.
Please choose wisely and make your moratorium on phosphate mining permanent.
Sent to Union BOCC this afternoon as PDF along with copy of previous letter to Bradford BOCC.
August 21, 2017
To: James Tallman, Chairman
Union County Board of County Commissioners
15 NE 1st Street, Lake Butler, FL 32054
(386) 496-4241
ucbocc@windstream.netCc:
Scott R. Koons, Executive Director
North Central Florida Regional Planning Council
2009 NW 67th Pl, Gainesville, FL 32653
(352) 955-2200
koons@ncfrpc.orgRe: Phosphate Mine zoning and land use
Continue reading
OSHA says the Mercaptan that was smelled miles from the leak “can cause problems for the respiratory system and the central nervous system” but Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover says “there is no danger to the public”. Which do you believe?
Hint: this is the same Andrea Grover about which
the newspaper of record in Valdosta, Georgia wrote four years ago:
Letters submitted to the Valdosta Daily Times and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could contradict a recent statement by Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover.
Looks like we have Pinocchio with her nose growing doing PR for the Three Stooges.
Jessica Lipscomb, Miami New Times, 17 August 2017, Stinky Leaks From Florida’s Controversial Sabal Trail Pipeline Scares Residents, Continue reading
Sent to Bradford BOCC this morning as PDF. You can send a letter, too, or come speak at the Commission meeting in Starke Thursday afternoon.
August 17, 2017
Danny Riddick, Chairman
Bradford County, Florida, Board of County Commissioners
P O Drawer B, Starke, Fl. 32091
(904) 966-6327
bocc@bradfordcountyfl.gov
Re: HPS II Phosphate Mine proposalDear Chairman Riddick, Commissioners, and Staff,
Thank you for your warm welcome at your meeting of July 20, 2017. The videos I took of the entire meeting are on YouTube as promised: /?p=35374
I look forward to seeing you all again this Thursday at your meeting of August 17, 2017.
In that meeting and in others, I urge you not to limit your review Continue reading
Let’s try another agency about Sabal Trail’s chronic Mercaptan leaks in Marion County, OSHA:
WWALS members in Marion and Citrus Counties have asked me to write you about this situation, especially since all the state and federal permitting agencies and PHMSA have done nothing about it. Sabal Trail did not notify them, and none of them notified any of the local emergency management departments that are left unassisted to deal with this chronic safety problem.
The text is below, or see Continue reading
Update 2017-08-11: Complaint filed with OSHA.
The smell of hazardous Mercaptan “would come and go” for at least two days starting August 5, 2017, and Sabal Trail had been doing some sort of work at the Dunnellon Compressor Station starting the previous day, although they hadn’t bothered to inform local first responders.
Still from The Three Stooges: A Plumbing We Will Go, Columbia Pictures, 1940
Only two weeks after the July 16-17 stink leak, Sabal Fail again caused expense for Marion County Fire Rescue in sending trucks and personnel. Unlike the private Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, Marion County responded to an open records request, and here are the narrative incident reports.