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
A Spectra Energy pipeline blew up east of Pittsburgh,
incinerating a man’s house and sending him to the hospital with burns.
Spectra
declared force majeure (Act of God) and is fiddling gas deliveries
all over the east coast,
as far away as Little Rock, where
a branch of that same Spectra Texas Eastern pipeline blew up under the Arkansas River in May 2015.
Do you want that under the Withlacoochee or Suwannee River or Okapilco Creek?
For Lowndes County, Georgia, you can write to commissioner@lowndescounty.com.
You can ask them to Continue reading
Sent yesterday to the Chairman, the other five elected Lowndes County Commissioners, and the County Clerk (PDF). They meet again 5:30PM Tuesday evening, April 25th 2016.
Dear Commissioners,
Thanks to Chairman Bill Slaughter for saying in the Valdosta Daily Times that the Commission signing an easement contract was not an endorsement of the Sabal Trail pipeline.[1] Therefore I ask you to:
- Invite the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to investigate on site and on paper the numerous omissions by Sabal Trail of springs and underground water transmissivity in what it told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; .please see the letter from WWALS to the Army Corps,[2] attached with the letter from WWALS to you of April 12th.
Ask our U.S. Congress member Austin Scott (GA-08) to join the four Georgia Congress members who have already asked FERC to fix its processes or deny a permit for Sabal Trail.[3]
- Join the hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals who have already asked the U.S. Congress to call in the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review FERC’s permitting processes.[4]
Please find appended further information about the issues the Chairman raised in the VDT of eminent domain, in differences in regulation of oil and gas pipelines, and in environmental and safety issues of natural gas pipelines.
Since I wrote to you on April 12th, two more major natural gas pipelines have run into serious problems.
On April 20th, Kinder Morgan shelved Continue reading
WWALS signed onto a letter asking for Sabal Trail to be examined for LWCF compliance.
Jonathon Berman, Sierra Club Georgia Chapter, 12 April 2016, Conservation groups call for public parks to be put ahead of corporate polluters’ pipeline plans,
Atlanta, GA — Today, seven groups called on the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) state liaison officers for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi to ensure that the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, a joint venture by Duke Energy, NextEra Energy, Inc., and Spectra Energy Corp, and Magnolia Extension, owned by American Midstream, does not threaten public parks and recreation areas.
The letter highlights the environmental dangers the proposed Sabal Trail and Magnolia Extension projects pose to at least 11 parks and public recreation areas paid for by the LWCF.
Created in 1965, the LWCF is a federal program that provides matching grants and other federal assistance for public parks and recreation areas. The program has safeguards to ensure that lands purchased with its funds are protected for public outdoor recreation. The groups warn that rapidly multiplying planned pipeline projects do not appear to be compliant Continue reading
In today’s Sunday April 10th 2016 Valdosta Daily Times:
The Georgia House on March 22nd by an unprecedented 34 ayes to 128 nays rejected easements for Sabal Trail
to drill our Withlacoochee and other Georgia Rivers. This was a historic victory by the Georgia Water Coalition, including Georgia Sierra Club, WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, plus SpectraBusters, and thanks to all of you who called their state reps.
That same day, Continue reading
You can send a message to your member of Congress asking them to support
a petition from hundreds of organizations and even more individuals
asking them to:
Help secure an independent investigation by the Government Accountability Office into the abuses of power, process and law by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) when it comes to interstate natural gas pipelines and LNG export facilities. Write your congressional representative now to urge their help in securing this necessary independent review.
Abuses like Continue reading
Sent this morning to the Suwannee Board of County Commissioners. They meet 6PM tonight, 5 April 2016, at the Suwannee County Judicial Annex, 218 Parshley St. SW, Live Oak, FL, and Sabal Trail is on the agenda.
Dear Chairman Bashaw and Commissioners,
Thank you for coming to see with your own eyes at Suwannee River State Park and Falmouth Spring some of what Sabal Trail did not tell FERC. As you know, after that site visit, the Hamilton Board of County Commissioners sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inviting them to come see for themselves, as well.
Despite what Sabal Trail and FPL will tell you, pipelines are not inevitable.
As you may be aware, Continue reading
Sent 5 April 20156. PDF.
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Continue readingDoes FERC actually look at what counties and other people send it?
FERC made the figures illegible in its posting of
Dennis Price’s geology report
that Hamilton BOCC appended when it forwarded to FERC its
site visit request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
This reminds me of when FERC lost half of Dougherty County’s Sabal Trail resolution and just happened to lose page 3 of Bill Kendall’s letter, the page about lack of need, false pretense, and duress. Does FERC actually care what anybody thinks, other than the industries it “regulates” while they pay all its costs?
FERC Filing 28 March 2016, Accession Number 20160328-0091, “Correspondence from Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton, FL to U.S. Army Corp of Engineers re the Environmental Geology report under CP15-17.” Continue reading
Update 2016-03-28: “It’s the most votes I’ve ever gotten on anything.” —Neill Herring of Georgia Sierra Club.
Tuesday and today, Georgia’s elected legislators stood up for the people against a fracked methane pipeline invader:
Y’all! We don’t win votes on the House floor every day, and the effort to keep the state easements for the Sabal Trail pipeline was truly a joy to watch. R’s, D’s, lawyers, community folk, everyone pitched in and it “went down in flames” 34-128 — AJC [Atlanta Journal Constitution] reporter’s words, not mine! Congrats to all the Georgia Water Coalition….
That’s how Georgia Sierra Club’s Colleen Kiernan summed up what happened Tuesday to the river drilling easements for Spectra Energy’s fracked gas Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail pipeline. Yes, the same Spectra of the Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Project, PennEast, Atlantic Bridge, South Texas Expansion, the West Coast Pipeline in British Columbia, and far too many other unnecessary pipeline invasions throughout North America.
Georgia Water Coalition organized this excellent result, including Continue reading