Tag Archives: Palmetto Project

DNR board ignores people of Georgia, unanimously approves invading Sabal Trail pipeline easements for Withlacoochee and other rivers

DNR board unanimously gave away river crossings to Sabal Trail for the Withlacoochee, Ochlockonee, Flint, and Chattahoochee Rivers. But the legislature would also have to approve, and the AJC just turned this obscure board meeting into an earned media event for pipeline opponents.


VALDOSTA: Professor Don Thieme, Valdosta State University, checks the water color and clarity in a sinkhole called Shadrick’s Pond by the Withlacoochee River. The sinkhole is near the site of a proposed pipeline that would cross the Withlacoochee River. Curtis Compton / ccompton@ajc.com
See video.

Dan Chapman, AJC, 23 September 2015, South Georgia pipeline moves forward,

The proposed Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline cleared another regulatory hurdle Wednesday with state approval for the pipeline to pass under five Southwest Georgia rivers and creeks.

The unanimous vote by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ board doesn’t sanction the pipeline to run 157 miles across Georgia while crossing the Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee and Ochlocknee rivers. Additional state and federal reviews, and votes, are necessary before digging begins.

Pipeline opponents, though, hoped that the board would slow Sabal Trail’s seemingly inexorable push to deliver gas to Florida. They cited ongoing safety, environmental and property rights concerns held by thousands of Southwest Georgia residents.

Those opponents included Continue reading →

WWALS signs on to Global Frackdown

Ban fracking before it spreads, and ban it quickly enough to stop new pipelines! WWALS signed the Global Frackdown organized by Food and Water Watch:

Fracking threatens the air we breathe, the water we drink, the communities we love and the climate on which we depend.

The specific message WWALS added when signing 29 June 2015 was:

Fracking is driving a company from Houston, Texas to try to gouge a pipeline across our fragile watersheds and drinking water aquifer. Georgia is already the fastest-growing U.S. market for solar power, and just passed a solar financing law that will make it grow even faster. Meanwhile, a shale gas basin has been discovered under south Georgia and north Florida. Ban fracking before it spreads, and ban it quickly enough to stop new pipelines!

Remember, WWALS supports a fracking ban in Floirida, and Continue reading →

Pipeline corrosion: seawater and acid blackwater rivers in the fragile karst limestone Floridan Aquifer

Who could have suspected that corrosion caused the crude oil pipeline rupture still pollution California’s coastline from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, according to PHMSA’s amended corrective order as reported by Giana Magnoli, Noozhawk, Santa Barbara, 3 June 2015?

Right after TransCanada Keystone 1 Pipeline Suffered Major Corrosion Only Two Years In Operation, 95% Worn In One Spot, as reported Julie Dermansky, Desmogblog, 30 April 2015?

Both pipeline companies claimed they used cathodic protection, which is supposed to detect and prevent such leaks.

Kinder Morgan, proposing to gouge its Palmetto petroleum products pipeline across South Carolina and the Georgia coast to Jacksonville, also claims to use cathodic protection and other measures, yet is no stranger to many incidents of corrosion and leaks.

There’s lots more evidence that such preventative measures don’t work, and often aren’t even applied, not for oil pipelines and not for fracked methane (“natural gas”) pipelines. You can sign the petition to help stop Texas pipelines from invading Georgia. Continue reading →

Against Sabal Trail in Savannah 2015-05-21

Like Kinder Morgan and its Palmetto Project through southeast Georgia, Spectra Energy, also of Houston, acts entitled to gouge its Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline through southwest Georgia, taking local lands, causing widespread environmental destruction, and risking leaks and explosions local and state taxes would have to pay for. Come hear about the fight so far against this invader and some ideas on what to do next, 7PM Thursday May 21st in Savannah. WWALS President John S. Quarterman and an affected landowner will speak.

State and local taxes will end up paying to clean up any leaks or explosions from either pipeline: both Spectra Energy from Houston, half owner of Sabal Trail, and Kinder Morgan from Houston, behind the Palmetto Project, tell the SEC every year they don’t have enough insurance to cover major incidents. Push Back the Pipeline, recently convinced Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to oppose the Palmetto pipeline, and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, too. Maybe they can help persuade both to oppose Sabal Trail.

Connect Savannah, today, (also on Push Back the Pipeline), Georgia’s Other Unwanted and Unneeded Pipeline,

When: Thu., May 21, 7 p.m.
Phone: 912-961-6190
Price: Free
Where: First Presbyterian Church
520 Washington Ave Savannah-Eastside
912-354-7615
www.fpc.presbychurch.net

The Palmetto Pipeline is not the only pipeline project in Georgia Continue reading →

South Georgia pipeline plan fuels fight –AJC

Atlanta is surrounded by pipelines, says the AJC reporter and photographer who came to to Dougherty, Colquitt, and Lowndes Counties in February.

Dan Chapman, AJC, 3 April 2015, South Georgia pipeline plan fuels fight,

300x225 Dan Chapman and Don Thieme at Cherry Creek Sink, in Sinkholes near the Withlacoochee River, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 18 February 2015 Valdosta — Southwest Georgia is roiling mad over a proposed gas pipeline to Florida that virtually nobody in Atlanta, except Ted Turner, has heard about.

Electric Light & Power has more of the text: Continue reading →

Don’t risk river for foreign oil sales –Clay Montague

Yes, it seems like robbery, and no, we don’t have to tolerate any of this.

Satilla Riverkeeper’s board member Clay Montague wrote in the Camden County Tribune & Georgian 26 March 2015, Don’t risk river for foreign oil sales,

Dear Editor,

A fuel pipeline across the Satilla River is a danger to our county. Imagine a broken pipe spilling fuel into the Satilla for just one day.

Kinder Morgan’s proposed pipeline would transport 167,000 barrels per day of refined petroleum products to Jacksonville, Fla. It will likely cross the Satilla about a mile downstream of Burnt Fort. The river is tidal there. Any spill will quickly head both directions, spreading fuel into swamps and marshes, killing fish and trees, and reach the beaches of Cumberland and Jekyll.

How much is 167,000 barrels? Continue reading →