Tag Archives: Law

Hamilton County, FL formally requests Army Corps site inspection of Sabal Trail Suwannee River crossing 2016-03-18

Here’s the letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the Hamilton BOCC voted unanimously 15 March 2016 to send. Other counties in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama may want to send similar letters.

BETH BURNAM
District 1 — Jennings
JOSH SMITH
District 2 — Jasper
ROBERT E. BROWN
District 3 — Jasper
RANDY OGBURN
District 4 — White Springs
BUSTER OXENDINE
District 5 — Jasper

HAMILTON COUNTY
FLORIDA
Office of
Board Of County Commissmners

GREG GODWIN
Clerk of Courts
JOHN H. MCCORMICK
County Attorney

207 Northeast First Street
Room 106
Jasper, Florida 32052
(386) 792-1288
FAX (386) 792-3524

Format request for Army Corps site inspection March 18, 2016

Attn: Mark R. Evans, Senior Project Manager,
Jacksonville Permits Section
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Regulatory Division
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232

RE: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC
FERC Document No. CP15-17-000

Dear Mr. Evans:

The Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton County recently received the Environmental Geology report prepared by Dennis Price and dated 10/25/2015, a copy of which is attached hereto.

If you will note, the findings of Mr. Price directly contradict Continue reading →

Geological determinations about Sabal Trail and Suwannee River by Dennis Price P.G.

Sinkholes, springs, and caves abound where Spectra Energy wants to gouge its yard-wide Sabal Trail pipeline Figure 1. Location Map of Sabal Trail Pipeline through the heart of the Florida Springs Heartland, wrote a Practicing Geologist WWALS member to FERC, following up on his testimony in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP.

Here is the text of the report by Dennis Price, followed by the images (PDF in FERC accession number 20151027-5034), all about the same area where WWALS board member Chris Mericle recently guided Hamilton and Suwannee County Commissioners to see for themselves. -jsq

Continue reading →

Urgent call against fracking by Sierra Club Florida

Received today.

URGENT! — CALLS NEEDED TO STOP FRACKING BILL — SB 318

The fracking bill—SB 318—is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Appropriation Committee this Thursday, February 25.

We expect a close vote and need your help to stop the bill in this Committee.

If your State Senator is one of the 19 members of the Senate Appropriations Committee on the list below, please call him/her on now. Say that you live in the Senator’s district, and that you vote. Continue reading →

Online movie: At What Cost? Pipelines, Pollution and Eminent Domain in the Rural South

If you missed it in Live Oak last night, or in one of the previous premieres along the Georgia coast, you can see the movie online: At What Cost? Pipelines, Pollution and Eminent Domain in the Rural South, by Mark Albertin. And yes, he’s happy for it to be shown elsewhere; just ask.

Thanks to Push Back the Pipeline for getting this movie made about Kinder Morgan’s proposed petroleum products pipeline from South Carolina across the Georgia coast to Jacksonville, Florida. Special thanks to Eileen, Lori, and Debra and the Woman’s Club of Live Oak for the movie showing last night, and to SpectraBusters, Our Santa Fe River, and Gulf Restoration Network for helping promote it. Don’t forget the hike to the Suwannee River Sabal Trail crossing 8:15 AM Thursday 28 February 2016 with Suwannee and Hamilton County Commissioners.

Most of the issues are the same for the invading Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline which Continue reading →

Conversations with Noah Valenstein, E.D., SRWMD in Columbia County 2016-02-04

It’s not for shipping water to Jacksonville, it’s not much changed from last year, no money is allocated for it yet, and people should get involved in the process, said Noah Valenstein, the new Executive Director of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), in answer to questions from Jim Tatum and Merillee Malwitz-Jipson of Our Santa Fe River (OSFR) and me about the Falling Creek Aquifer Recharge Project at the Columbia County Commission meeting last Thursday, 4 February 2016. Plus Sabal Trail, Amtrak and that chicken farm.

Movie: Noah Valenstein, E.D., SRWMD (6.9M)

Valenstein answered Jim during the Commission meeting. See also Jim’s report for OSFR. I stayed afterwards and had a longer discussion with Valenstein. Some notes from memory: Continue reading →

At What Cost? Pipelines, Pollution and Eminent Domain in the Rural South –Movie in Live Oak, FL 2016-02-12

Please join us for a documentary about property rights and the environment vs. pipelines (PDF; facebook event; meetup event). Yes, FERC has issued certificates for Sabal Trail, but the fight is not over.

6:30 PM Friday 12 Feb 2016, Live Oak, FL

When: 6:30 PM Friday February 12th

Where: Live Oak Womans Club,
1308 11TH St SW, Live Oak, FL 32064

What: View the film:
“At What Cost? Pipelines, Pollution and Eminent Domain in the Rural South”
A documentary film by Mark Albertin
Video Trailer

Thanks: to Push Back the Pipeline for getting this movie made

This film is about the Kinder Morgan petroleum products Palmetto Pipeline proposed across coastal Georgia to Jacksonville, but the issues are the same for Spectra Energy’s proposed fracked methane Sabal Trail pipeline from Continue reading →

Sabal Trail response to WWALS exceptions to ALJ’s Order in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP 2016-01-04

Does this sound like a level playing field to you? Basically Sabal Trail claims “reasonable assurances” mean the pipeline can be completed and that’s a public good for the state of Florida, nevermind any destruction or hazards, while WWALS would have had to demonstrate specific direct damages to many of its members because of pipeline installation just to get standing. A Spectra Energy executive from Houston, Texas automatically has standing to claim safety using evidence from other pipelines and even other pipeline companies,explicitly referencing the U.S. Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, while WWALS and its local members in Florida are precluded from introducing any evidence about safety in the same case, or so Sabal Trail seems to say in its objections filed today 4 January 2016 (PDF) to the judge’s Order in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP.

Seems like the limestone underlying the Floridan Aquifer are not the only cracks and fissures in Florida.

-jsq

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

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 →

WWALS exceptions to judge’s recommended order in WWALS v. Sabal Trail & FDEP

Who could achieve standing or win a case with these criteria?

The judge’s Recommended Order applied the wrong standard as to whether the pipeline is in the public interest (Exception 25), applied an incorrect standard of proof (Exception 16), ignored the additional protections due the Outstanding Florida Waters of the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers (Exception 17), and ignored evidence that the granting of a Sovereign Submerged Lands Easement would adversely affect the lands under those rivers (Exception 19), not to mention the Floridan Aquifer.

In alleging WWALS does not have standing, the judge ignored a case previously cited by FDEP (Exception 23), and added an unprecedented factor of “potential injury” that would prevent associations from ever achieving standing unless they could prove the ultimate facts of the case (Exception 14).

Did the judge really mean to imply FDEP’s and Sabal Trail’s own witnesses were not competent when they upon questioning provided testimony that FDEP failed to acquire reasonable assurances that the issuance of an environmental resource permit and easement on sovereign submerged lands would not be contrary to the “public interest” (Exception 15)? If those public servants’ testimony wasn’t competent, how can those same personnel be competent to evaluate permit applications?

These are just a few of the 25 exceptions filed Monday 28 December 2015 by WWALS Counsel William R. Wohlsifer and Leighanne C. Boone. See also the WWALS video of Attorney Wohlsifer’s concluding statement in the hearing.

Here is PDF of the judge’s Recommended Order and PDF of the WWALS Exceptions. Below is the text of those exceptions. Continue reading →

FERC, EPA rubberstamp Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline: opposition continues –VDT

The FERC FEIS isn’t a permit, the Army Corps hasn’t issued a permit, GA-EPD is still considering an air quality permit for the Albany, GA air compressor, and it’s still possible to stop the GA-DNR easements for drilling under Georgia rivers including the Withlacoochee and Okapilco Creek. This is all regardless of whether FDEP issues its drilling permit for the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers. You can still help stop this invasion by the “Sinkhole Trail” of our local lands, water, and air.

Among the press recently by Politico, Law360, Natural Gas Intelligence, the Suwannee Democrat, the Ocala StarBanner, the Palm Beach Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Valdosta Today, and others, is this long local piece. Joe Adgie, Valdosta Daily Times, 20 December 2015, EPA reverses stand on impact pipeline would have on aquifer,

In addition, according to FERC, Sabal completed analysis of the subsurfaces where the pipeline is proposed.

That’s what FERC’s announcement of its Final Environmental Impact Statment (FEIS) said, but where is the LiDAR, as Continue reading →