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
Thanks to Janet Barrow for this letter approved by the Marion County, Florida BOCC yesterday, 3 May 2016 (PDF). That makes three Florida Counties requesting investigation of Sabal Trail discrepancies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, after Hamilton County and Suwannee County.
Marion County
Board of County CommissionersDistrict 1 — David Moore, Commissioner
District 2 — Kathy Bryant, Chairman
District 3 — Stan McClain, Commissioner
District 4 — Carl Zalak ill, Vice Chairman
District 5 — Earl Arnett, ConnnissionarMcPherson Governmental Complex
601 SE ZSth Ave.
Ocala, FL 34471
Phone: 352-438-2323
Fax: 352-438-2324May 3, 2016
US. Army Corps of Engineers
Jacksonville District Regulatory Division
Jacksonville Permits Section
Attn: Mr. Mark R. Evans
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232RE: Sabal Trail Transmission and Sabal Trail Citrus County Line projects within Marion County, Florida
Dear Mr. Evans:
Over 30 miles of pipeline are expected to be installed within Marion County, Florida for the Sabal Trail Transmission and Sabal Trail Citrus County Line projects. These pipelines will cross important, sensitive environmental lands, While 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
So Lowndes County should have no problem asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come investigate what Sabal Trail didn’t tell FERC.
And if the county is concerned about legal expenses, maybe it should pay attention
to the lawsuits happening right now in California about a natural gas leak
that went up into the air, closing schools, evacuating hundreds, and making many of them sick.
The VDT article today doesn’t mention writing a letter to the Corps was one of my requests to the county. It does quote the Chairman expresssing interest in details of eminent domain, in differences in regulation of oil and gas pipelines, and in environmental and safety issues of natural gas pipelines. Treating his statements as questions, I have provided some further information below on those points.
And he does say the county might have incurred legal expenses if it hadn’t accepted Sabal Trail’s money for the easement. He doesn’t mention how much money Lowndes County spent suing a local company on behalf of a trash collection company financed out of New York City, or how much money the county spent suing a local church about a minor tax matter. It seems when Lowndes County wants to do something, it doesn’t worry so much about legal expenses. And maybe the county should worry more about legal expenses if something does go wrong with that pipeline, especially considering what’s happening with the Porter Ranch leak in California.
Besides, writing a letter 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
Delivered to the Lowndes County Commission Tuesday 12 April 2016 on paper and then by email
(PDF, plus
1-page Suwannee County, FL request to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and
28-page
WWALS invitation to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers),
following up from two previous addresses to the same Commission.
See also the Carter Way item in that same Commission meeting, also related to Sabal Trail. Continue reading
Here’s the letter the Suwannee County Commissioners voted 4:1 on 5 April 2016 to send to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (PDF), following the one Hamilton County already sent. Other counties in Florida and Georgia can do the same.
SUWANNEE COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
(386) 364-3450
FAX (386) 362-1032COUNTY OFFICES
13150 8001 Terrace
Live Oak, Florida 32060In the Heart of the Suwannee River Valley
April 6, 2016
Attn: Mark R, Evans, Senior Project Manager,
Jacksonville Permits Section
US Army Corps of Engineers
Regulatory Division
Post Office Box 4970
Jacksonville, Florida 32232RE: Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC
FERC Document No. CP15-177000Dear Mr. Evans:
The Board of County Commissioners of Suwannee 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, Continue reading
Not just for compressor station counties, also apparently also for where Sabal Trail has promised side taps, including Moultrie, Georgia, as seen today in the Tifton Gazette and the Valdosta Daily Times.
When: 11AM – 2PM Friday, April 15th 2016
Where: Southern Regional Technical College, Seminar Center, 361 Industrial Drive, Moultrie, GA 31788
This Moultrie job fair is scheduled one month after Colquitt County sent FERC exorbitant claims of benefits in property tax revenue, wildly high and out-of-context construction jobs claims, and discounted safety and environmental concerns, with no mention whatever of agriculture, nevermind Colquitt County’s letter to FERC two years before about agricultural concerns.
The Colquitt letter to FERC made no mention of lowered property values reducing tax revenue, cited no source, just “It is estimated that”. However, in the same paragraph: 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