Tag Archives: pipeline

Sabal Trail is overbuilt Florida gas infrastructure

Even FPL admits Florida needs no new electricity until 2024, so what is Sabal Trail really for? Could it corporate profit and LNG export? Meanwhile, solar power prices keep going down as deployments rocket up.

Larry Buhl, DeSmogBlog, 9 December 2016, Sabal Trail Opponents Say Pipeline Is Part of Florida’s ‘Overbuilt’ Gas Infrastructure,

John Quarterman, president of [… WWALS] Watershed Coalition, recalled that Sabal Trail representatives, when pressed at public hearings, maintained that, as a pipeline company they had no idea where gas going through their pipes might end up, a claim that he and other activists find hard to believe.

Chris Pedersen, writing for the industry publication OilPrice.com in October 2014, wrote that Transco and Sabal Trail pipelines could be used to explore new overseas markets for Utica and Marcellus Shale gas.

Sabal Trail opponents say gas flowing through the Sabal Trail pipeline could easily end up at export terminals on the Florida coast. For example, Continue reading →

No sign of sinkhole with equipment in it 2016-12-18

There’s a rumor that Sabal Trail has some equipment stuck in a sinkhole at the Suwannee River. Multiple people have gone and videoed and seen nothing like that there, on either side of the Suwannee River. We’ve also checked the Withlacoochee River at US84: nothing like that is visible at the visible HDD site in Georgia (it could be at the Brooks County, GA site that we can’t see).

The drilling equipment formerly at the Martin Lane Withlacoochee HDD site in Lowndes County, Georgia is gone, and the drill truck photographed recently at the Suwannee south bank HDD site looks like the same Southeast Directional Drilling truck with the Arizona address on its side.

Incidentally, unlike some other Sabal Trail contractors, Continue reading →

GA-EPD found Sabal Trail right of way violation 2016-12-14

Georgia EPD found Sabal Trail out of its right of way at Okapilco Creek in Brooks County, and an enforcement action is being prepared. This was while investigating the possible wetlands and water violations reported by WWALS. So reports do sometimes work, although sometimes for violations different than the ones you thought you were reporting.

Update 21 Dec 2016: Please report potential violations.

This afternoon GA-EPD called me to provide a preliminary report on what they found when they inspected the possible violations WWALS reported December 8th 2016. The call came from Tommy W. Fowler, Program Manager, Southwest District, Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD). These are my notes on what he said, in order from the WWALS complaint filing: Continue reading →

Sabal Trail Hamilton County Suwannee River HDD

The pipe to go under the Suwannee RIver is laid out, welded, and has pressure test fittings at the Hamilton County side of the Suwannee River, but the drill site itself has nothing but a generator. So it looks like they’re drilling under from the Suwannee County side Here are some pictures and videos taken in Hamilton County near CR 141. Sabal Trail didn’t like that.

This is the site at 30.410381, -83.165874 that you see in the foreground in an aerial picture in a previous post.

Here’s a playlist of WWALS videos, and there are more pictures below. Continue reading →

Sabal Trail violations FDEP assured us would not happen are happening

Already under the Withlacoochee River in Georgia there’s been a frac-out and a sinkhole at a drilling site, upstream from the Suwannee River in Florida, under which FDEP told us it couldn’t happen:

“ Well, the Suwannee River crossing doesn’t, in fact, have any impacts to an outstanding Florida water….”
“Well, any work within, or could have adverse effects on OFW, is considered. In this case, we determine that there would be no impacts to the OFW.”

Apparently not only FDEP’s sole witness Lisa Prather believed Sabal Trail; according to a video yesterday by Cody Suggs at the Suwannee River, Sabal Trail’s own workers seem to believe their company’s propaganda.

Much more about WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP is on the WWALS website, including videos and transcripts of the landowners who also tried to warn FDEP that sinkholes happen like they already have including under at least two public roads in Suwannee County, Florida. And more about what already happened is on the WWALS website, plus things you can do to stop this $3 billion dollar fracked methane boondoggle.

For example, you may want to ask the permitting agencies some of the questions WWALS asked, including this one:

Which of FERC, FDEP, GA-EPD, USACE, SRWMD are working to protect the health, welfare and safety of the communities surrounding this pipeline and how are they doing that?

Given that I asked them for a prompt answer and two weeks later have gotten no answer at all, it sure looks like we the people will have to find and report violations and use other methods to stop this pipeline.

The transcript questions quoted below are Continue reading →

Calypso Court sinkhole 2000 feet from Sabal Trail pipeline

A major sinkhole developed today within about 2000 feet of Sabal Trail’s path in Osceola County, Florida. Rather like what we warned them about last year in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP.

Caitlin Doornbos, Orlando Sentinel, 9 Dec 2016, Sinkhole displaces residents of condo complex west of Disney World,

Multiple families were displaced after a sinkhole developed in a gated condominium complex west of Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Friday, Osceola County officials said.

The sinkhole was first reported in Continue reading →

Sabal Trail at Okapilco Creek 2016-12-06

Update 2016-12-08: Complaint filed with GA-EPD, USACE, FERC: PDF .

We didn’t see any silt fences where Sabal Trail has red pipe laid out across Okapilco Creek and Little Creek, north of Coffee Road, west of GA 333 in Brooks County, Georgia, between Barwick and Barney.

Red pipe, Okapilco Creek Middle Bridge, Sabal Trail, 30.9174160, -83.5892520

Continue reading →

College mutual fund VA529 owns Sabal Trail stranded assets

Update 2016-12-08: Letter sent to VA529 board: PDF.

Do the parents and grandparents who bought Virginia529 funds as safe investments for future college know VA529 is the biggest mutual fund investor in risky investments Spectra Energy of Sabal Trail and Enbridge of the Dakota Access Pipeline? Maybe you’d like to point that out to Mary G. Morris, the Chief Executive Officer of Virginia529 College Savings Plan, the biggest mutual fund investor in both Spectra Energy and in Enbridge, which is buying Spectra.

There’s a handy VA529 contact form or you can call or write: Continue reading →

Madison Blue Spring and Sabal Trail pipeline 2016-11-23

Sabal Trail only barely misses the Withlacoochee River in Florida, even though it no longer crosses over into Madison County. And it’s the same Floridan Aquifer on both sides of the river.

Springs and pipeline, 30.4828540, -83.2577470: The red line is Sabal Trail in Hamilton County. In the foreground in Madison County is Madison Blue Spring on the Withlacoochee River, and the P is Pot Spring farther downstream. The N is Nestle; you’d think they’d care about potential damage to the aquifer from which they suck water.

Withlacoochee River, pipeline, 30.4591650, -83.2224900: Close enough? Continue reading →

National coverage of Sabal Trail as Florida’s DAPL: #NoDAPL, #NoSabalTrail, #WaterIsLife

Some national coverage! Now that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has backed off letting the Dakota Access Pipeline drill under the Missouri River in North Dakota because of concerns of local water users, the Corps, FERC, and FDEP should do the same: stop Sabal Trail from drilling under the Suwannee River.

Larry Buhl, DeSmogBlog, 4 December 2016, Critics Call $3 Billion Sabal Trail Pipeline Florida’s Dakota Access Pipeline,

As opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline swells at home and abroad, another pipeline project at the other end of the U.S. is quietly being installed as fast as possible, critics say, displacing residents, threatening water supplies, and racking up alleged construction violations.

And most people in the region — even those in the pipeline’s path — haven’t even heard about it.

Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC, known as Sabal Trail, is using $3 billion of Florida Power and Light (FPL) ratepayer money to build a 515-mile pipeline to transport natural gas obtained via fracking from eastern Alabama to central Florida.

…

Activists Document Construction Violations
Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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