Tag Archives: FERC

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 →

Non-answers in Sabal Trail Biweekly Status Report 2016-11-04

If drilling mud may be released, how can this also be? “No wastewater has been or will be dumped into the Withlacoochee River.” Sabal Trail seems to have contradicted itself. And didn’t answer the permit questions from WWALS. Nonetheless all their responses are marked “Resolution Date: 10/30/2016”. Nope, not resolved, Sabal Trail. See new questions.

Sabal Trail also said (see the PDF) it was completing drilling under the Flint River, was drilling under the Ochlockonee and Withlacoochee Rivers in Georgia, had just started under the Santa Fe River, was doing clearing and pad preparation for the Chattahoochee and Suwannee Rivers, and hadn’t yet started anything at the Withlacoochee (south) River in Florida. Plus quite a few complaints and questions, including some from FERC, and some archaeological discoveries which Sabal Trail and FERC hid under “Privileged and Confidential information”.

The Sabal Trail responses labeled 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 →

Gulf and south Atlantic Waterkeeper Retreat

FERC reform as an initiative was one result of this year’s meeting, this time where Georgia Water Coalition usually meets, of the Riverkeepers and other Waterkeeper members and affiliates from Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and beyond as far as Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

Front row by himself: Pete Harrison (Waterkeeper Alliance attorney).
Kneeling: Rick Frey (St Marys), Dan Tonsmeire (Apalachicola), Laura Jackson (Mobile), Rachael Thompson (Satilla), Dale Caldwell (Chattahoochee), Kemp Burdette (Cape Fear), Gordon Rogers (Flint)
Standing: Jason Ulseth (Chattahoochee), Bill Strangler (Congaree), Casi Callaway (Mobile), Susan Wendel (Altamaha) Earl Hatley (Grand), Elena Fodera Richards (Savannah), Emily Markesteyn (Ogeechee), John S. Quarterman (WWALS), Bart Mihailovich (Waterkeeper), Bruce Bodson (Galveston), Krissy Kasserman (Youghiogheny, wearing the blue and gray plaid shirt) Henry Jacobs (Chattachoochee, wearing the beanie cap leaning against the wall), Jacob Oblander (Lower Savannah River Alliance Affiliate, right behind Krissy), Michael Mullen (Choctawhatchee, right next to Jacob), Rebecca Jim (Tar Creek, right next to Krissy), Tonya Bonitatibus (Savannah), Matt Starr (Upper Neuse, right behind Gordon), Cade Kistler (Mobile, against wall), Sam Perkins (Catawba), Lisa Rinaman (St Johns).
Not pictured: Kaitlin Warren, Seth Clark, and Jen Hilburn (Altamaha), Rachel Sliverstein (Miami), Kelly Cox (Miami), Neil Armingeon (Matanzas), Gretchen Quarterman (WWALS), Anna Alsobrook (French Broad), Bill D’Antuono and Harrison Langley (Collier), Misha Mitchell (Atchaflaya), Myra Crawford (Cahaba), John Paul (Caloosahatchee), Kevin Jeselnik (Chattahoochee), Frank Chitwood (Coosa), Hartwell Carson (French Broad), Rob Walters (Three Rivers).

That group picture was taken late after many people had left, and some never arrived, due to hurricane or other reasons. Some of the missing are below in pictures Gretchen took, including one of Altamaha Riverkeeper Jen Hilburn, in whose extensive watersheds we met. And of course FERC reform wasn’t the only initiative: trash, biological contamination, CAFOs, and others are on the agenda.

Bart Mihailovich, Waterkeeper Alliance, 3 November 2016, 2016 Gulf and South Atlantic Regional Retreat Recap, Continue reading →

From the air: US 84 HDD Withlacoochee River Sabal Trail 2016-10-22

Update 2016-10-24: Questions filed with FERC in Docket CP15-17 as Accession Number 20161024-5049 and emailed to USACE and GA-EPD (PDF).

What is that yellow thing in the river, Sabal Trail? Is that a sinkhole you’ve marked at the Lowndes County HDD site? And does blue pipe mean thinner for rural areas like your executive from Houston told us in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP?

FERC gave you permission to Continue reading →

FSC Alignment Maps from May 2016

Small, big, huge, and PDF versions of each and every one of the 144 alignment maps FSC filed with FERC in May 2016 are available online courtesy of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

21040-510-ALS-00132 STA: 6250+00 TO 6300+00, MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA
PDF

The map shown here is where FSC crosses SW Martin Highway (FL 141) between Okeechobee City and Juno Beach, Florida. There will be a rally against this pipeline in Juno Beach at FPL HQ Friday and another in Okeechobee City Saturday.

Follow the link for details of what, and how you can help.

For maps of the rest of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project (SMPP), see SMPP.

-jsq

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

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 →

Pipeline Panel #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail @ VSU 2016-09-28

Come hear how the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota are protecting their water from the same fossil industry and the same companies that want to drill the Sabal Trail pipeline under our Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers in south Georgia and north Florida.

When: 7PM Wednesday September 28th 2016

What: The Pipeline Controversy

Where: Cypress Room
University Center
Valdosta State University Continue reading →

WWALS and 182 Organizations from 35 States Call for Congressional Review of FERC 2016-09-21

For Immediate Release

WWALS and 182 Organizations from 35 States Call for Congressional Review of FERC

PDF

Hundreds of Nonprofit Organizations Join to Demand Reform of Rogue Agency

Washington, DC, September 21, 2016 — More than 180 organizations representing communities across America called on leaders in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee to hold congressional hearings into the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) extensive history of bias and abuse. The groups are also requesting reform of the Natural Gas Act, which the groups say, gives too much power to FERC and too little to state and local officials.

“The time has now come for Congress to investigate how FERC is using its authority and to recognize that major changes are in fact necessary in order to protect people, including future generations, from the ramifications of FERC’s misuse of its power and implementation of the Natural Gas Act,” says Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and a primary organizer of the effort.

“A prime example of FERC’s dereliction of duty to the public benefit is the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline Spectra Energy is drilling through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida and under our Withlacoochee River in Georgia and our Suwannee River in Florida,” says John S. Quarterman, president of WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS), the Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the upper Suwannee River. He added, “FERC failed in its due diligence by opaque selection of environmental contractors, by issuing its permit before permits from two states and the Army Corps, by ignoring copious new geological and other evidence, and by giving Sabal Trail construction go-ahead while a lawsuit is still pending by Flint Riverkeeper, Sierra Club, Gulf Restoration Network, and others, including construction through properties whose landowners have not even had eminent domain compensation hearings. Most egregiously, despite FPL, the source of the $3 billion for this boondoggle, admitting in its 2016 Ten Year Plan that Florida needs no new electricity until 2024 at the earliest, FERC refuses to even reconsider the alleged “need” for this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipeline. Corporate profits for Spectra Energy from Houston, Texas and Enbridge from Calgary, Alberta are no justification for taking local land and risking our water, air, taxes, and safety.”

The letter to Continue reading →

No new Florida electricity needed, says FPL, so why Sabal Trail?

FPL admits Florida needs no new electricity, so why should Sabal Trail get eminent domain?

PDF FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

Hahira, GA, September 6th 2016 — Two Georgia brothers are stuck with paying almost ten times as much in Sabal Trail’s legal fees as they spent defending their property against that invading fracked methane pipeline, even though FPL apparently admitted this year that all three of its 2013 excuses for that pipeline are no longer valid. Two federal agencies and numerous state agencies issued permits based on those excuses. Sabal Trail used those permits to get eminent domain, including to drill under rivers in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama and through the fragile limestone containing our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer. It is time for this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous boondoggle to be shut down and its $3 billion in FPL ratepayer money to be used for solar power in the Sunshine State.

James Bell, one of the brothers stuck with having to pay Sabal Trail attorney fees, says:

"First and foremost, this is a multi-billion dollar company that is for profit. In my personal opinion I don’t see how a private for-profit company should be allowed eminent domain. I don’t understand that. That makes no sense to me. I might could understand it if it was for the greater good of the country but this is not. And it is certainly not the federal government or the state government building some road or highway."

Florida Power & Light claimed Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.