Tag Archives: Florida Southeast Connection

State and local responses to Dunnellon Sabal Trail stink

Sabal Trail did not notify state or local officials about their “odorant” leak at the Dunnellon Compressor Station site, and Sabal Trail’s response to WWALS failed to mention local people called the same stink in to 911 two days in a row. FDEP said there’s no need so long as Sabal Trail follows various permits, but gave no indication of who is checking to see if Sabal Trail does that. Apparently we the people have to keep doing what the state and federal agencies still aren’t doing: watch Sabal Trail like a hawk.

Google map of locations of Dunnellon High School and Sabal Trail Dunnellon Compressor Station. You can see most of the 100-foot Sabal Trail right of way.

Below are responses from FDEP and more details from Marion County Public Relations and Fire and Rescue, and from Dunnellon Fire and Rescue: none of them were notified by Sabal Trail, and FDEP seems OK with that. For the rest, an emergency plan would be prudent: “Run like hell” as in Spectra compressor station incidents elsewhere, is probably not adequate. Continue reading →

Enbridge about Sabal Trail stinks 2017-07-28

No gas leak, just a stink leak, said Spectra Energy’s new owner Enbridge in an emailed response yesterday to the WWALS 19 questions about the Dunnellon Compressor Station leak.

These are apparently the “two odorant tanks and equipment” mentioned by Sabal Trail, visible from FL 200.

That response was no more substantive than we used to get in the bi-weekly reports: no indication of who notified Sabal Trail; no indication that they worked on it more than one day, even though multiple witnesses attest to that; no indication of who Sabal Trail notified, if anybody; no indication of what they were doing working in a different part of the site a week later when I took the pictures in the WWALS submission; no answer as to whether they are feeding methane to the Citrus County Pipeline; etc.

The responses from FERC and from USACE are the same as usual: nothing at all. We did get a reply from FDEP; more on that in a later post.

Previously Sabal Trail has provided its non-answers to WWALS and others in Continue reading →

Hard data on lack of need for Sabal Trail –SeekingAlpha

An analyst on a leading stock blog confirms what we’ve been saying for years: there is no need for Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline. Instead, Sabal Trail is taking gas away from FGT and Gulfstream. The article does not mention all those LNG export operations right where this pipeline chain goes. It does get to the heart of what even FPL admits:

“The challenge is natural gas in Florida faces growing competition from residential, commercial and utility scale solar resources as well as power forecasts that are revising lower despite a growing population and customer counts….”

You can help fight Sabal Trail even now that its gas is on, and reform FERC so we don’t get any more pipeline boondoggles.

BTU Analytics, SeekingAlpha, 20 June 2017, Sabal Trail Adding Pipeline Capacity But Not Demand, Continue reading →

Videos: Tallahassee: Hold Regulatory Agencies Accountable for Sabal Trail and FSC fracked gas pipelines 2017-01-23

If you had any doubts that Sabal Trail is a boondoggle, our water, land, and wildlife are more important than corporate greed, and we should go solar right now, these speakers may help resolve them.

WWALS Videos of Hold Regulatory Agencies Accountable for Sabal Trail and FSC fracked gas pipelines on the steps of the Old Florida Capitol, Monday January 23, 2017. This event was organized by Shannon Larsen, Bobby C. Billie, and ReThink Energy Florida.

The indigenous prayers are omitted. I clarified with Bobby C. Billie, and he specifically wanted those prayers omitted, but not the rest of what he and Shawn Mulford said. Yes, the sound is low when Bobby is speaking; he doesn’t like to use a microphone.

Here are links to each WWALS video, followed by a video playlist. You may reuse these videos, provided Continue reading →

Spot Sabal Trail violations from the air: Indiegogo crowdfunding

To cover the entire 600+ mile length of the Sabal Trail and FSC pipelines from Alabama through Georgia and Florida to Indiantown will require probably seven small plane flights, so we’ve started a crowdfunding campaign:

Spot Sabal Trail & FSC violations from the air

Flights will be handled by the participating Riverkeepers.

Please follow the link to learn more and to contribute.

If you have a small plane Continue reading →

Tallahassee: Hold Regulatory Agencies Accountable for Sabal Trail and FSC fracked gas pipelines 2017-01-23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Live Oak, FL, January 20, 2017 — You are invited to the Historic Florida State Capitol steps Tuesday January 23rd noon to 3:30 PM to hear principal guest speaker Karenna Gore and others Hold Regulatory Agencies Accountable. John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®, will talk about how we all fought the invading Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline and its extension Florida Southeast Connection for the past three years. Deanna Mericle will talk about what her personal experiences of moving Sabal Trail off the Withlacoochee River in Florida and continuing the fight with WWALS Watershed Coalition through a legal case, WWALS vs. Sabal Trail & FDEP. Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, Sierra Club Campaign Organizer, will present an extensive list of complaints and violations. The festivities will include #FLEXIT, the Florida Statewide Bank Exit, and delivery of a statement to Governor Scott.

When: 12 Noon- 3:30 pm, Monday, January 23, 2017

Where: Florida State Historic Capital Steps
400 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, Florida

Event: facebook

Below is 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!

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 →

FDEP silently issued Sabal Trail permit and easement 2016-021-22

Despite being on FDEP’s permit announcement list, I never got anything about a Sabal Trail permit. After much digging, the other day I found that FDEP went ahead and issued the Sabal Trail permit 22 January 2016 (PDF), conveniently before FERC issued certificates 2 February 2016.

That FDEP permit was also before the appeal deadline of 15 February 2016 in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP. They did not copy the petitioner in that case, namely WWALS. They did copy Audubon Florida, which, as you may recall back in October sent FERC a letter supporting Sabal Trail (and then tried to walk back part of it). A letter that EPA chose to mention by name to the Army Corps of Engineers, while not naming Sierra Club or WWALS in opposition. Apparently if you go along with FDEP you get preferential notification.

And that, that’s nothing. FDEP issued 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 →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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