Tag Archives: Safety

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:

Lisa Prather, sole FDEP witness “ 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.

Calypso Court Sinkhole and Sabal Trail 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 →

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 →

Informative forum against Sabal Trail in Citrus County –Harriet Heywood

WWALS member Harriet Heywood, Citrus County Chronicle, 3 December 2016, Sabal Trail forum was informative,

I was an attendee at the Public Forum on Sabal Trail on Nov. 21.

As an attendee, I found the forum at the Unitarian Universalist Church, endorsed by the League of Women Voters, to be both educational and well-presented, and the event was well-attended. To read the Sabal Trail-perspective piece, in The Chronicle almost a week post-forum, you might believe speaker and attendee fears were unfounded. However, Spectra Energy, the parent company of Sabal Trail has an extremely bad safety record, with blowouts, leaks and explosions occurring far more often than Sabal Trail’s spokesperson admitted in the Sunday article, including an explosion in Pennsylvania last April and a huge blowout in The Arkansas River in 2015, among many other accidents and safety violations. The article covering the forum colored speakers and attendees as ill-informed worrywarts. As far as I could tell, no one from Sabal Trail attended the forum.

I have since learned that sinkholes and drilling blowouts have already occurred recently, in both Georgia and North Florida, video-documented by Sierra Club’s Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson and John S. Quarterman, president, WWALS Watershed Coalition. A sinkhole opened at a Sabal Trail construction site in Suwannee County, near the Santa Fe River, on C.R. 49 between Branford and Live Oak (the site of the O’Brien, Hildreth Compressor Station) damaging at least the road there.

And another well-documented Valdosta, Georgia area Withlacoochee River drilling blowout occurred as Sabal Trail was drilling under the river. Impossible events, according to Sabal Trail’s spokesperson. There are other documented incidents of wildlife and wetland destruction in the Hunter Creek region as the pipeline makes its way to South Florida for export. Forum attendees were not ill-informed worrywarts. They were well-educated concerned citizens.

There were numerous safety concerns raised about Continue reading →

Bell, Gilchrist County, FL, Sabal Trail, Santa Fe River 2016-11-23

Bell EMS looks a stone’s throw from the Sabal Trail pipeline corner, in these WWALS aerials from the Santa Fe River to Bell, Florida, in Gilchrist County.


Bell Emergency Management Services (lower right), Sabal Trail bend to the east (top left)
Photo: John S. Quarterman for WWALS, Southwings flight, 23 November 2016

Sabal Trail had a bunch of buses and trucks next between 91st Lane and 94th Street in Gilchrist County. Continue reading →

WWALS: “It did happen”, Sabal Trail: “inadvertent”, WUSF, Tallahassee

Do you think Sabal Trail’s excuse that it was “inadvertent” is enough? Come on down to the US 84 bridge 9:30 this morning, hear more, and have your say.

Turbidity curtains with human for scale (Chris Mericle) Nick Evans, WUSF, 14 November 2016, Drilling Mud Leak In South Georgia Raises New Sabal Trail Pipeline Concerns,

Water activists are raising the alarm over a South Georgia drilling leak in the Withlacoochee River. Sabal Trail is drilling beneath the river to build a more than 500-mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Alabama to Florida.

WWALS Watershed Coalition works to protect Continue reading →

Non-answers in Sabal Trail Biweekly Status Report 2016-11-04

If drilling mud may be released, how can this also be? “No wastewater has been or will be dumped into the Withlacoochee River.” Sabal Trail seems to have contradicted itself. Sabal Trail responses to WWALS questions And didn’t answer the permit questions from WWALS. Nonetheless all their responses are marked “Resolution Date: 10/30/2016”. Nope, not resolved, Sabal Trail. See new questions.

Sabal Trail also said (see the PDF) it was completing drilling under the Flint River, was drilling under the Ochlockonee and Withlacoochee Rivers in Georgia, had just started under the Santa Fe River, was doing clearing and pad preparation for the Chattahoochee and Suwannee Rivers, and hadn’t yet started anything at the Withlacoochee (south) River in Florida. Plus quite a few complaints and questions, including some from FERC, and some archaeological discoveries which Sabal Trail and FERC hid under “Privileged and Confidential information”.

The Sabal Trail responses labeled Continue reading →

From the air: US 84 HDD Withlacoochee River Sabal Trail 2016-10-22

Update 2016-10-24: Questions filed with FERC in Docket CP15-17 as Accession Number 20161024-5049 and emailed to USACE and GA-EPD (PDF).

Extreme closeup yellow in Withlacoochee River, 30.7952780, -83.4524840 What is that yellow thing in the river, Sabal Trail? Is that a sinkhole you’ve marked at the Lowndes County HDD site? And does blue pipe mean thinner for rural areas like your executive from Houston told us in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP?

FERC gave you permission to Continue reading →

Gov. Deal issues executive order to help pipeline company

The same Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal who has done nothing to protect Georgians from the invading Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline yesterday issued an executive order to help out a pipeline company spilling gasoline in Alabama.

Tomorrow morning you can come help protect our Withlacoochee River from Sabal Trail 9AM Saturday Sept. 17th 2016 at the US84 bridge, halfway between Quitman and Valdosta, GA, off I-75 exit 16.


Photo: Colonial Pipeline

Dennis Pillion, al.com, 15 September 2015, Alabama, Georgia declare state of emergency after pipeline spill, Continue reading →

Sabal Trail, Bell Bros, WWALS, Solar in APN 2016-09-12

The Bell brothers, Flint Riverkeeper, and John S. Quarterman of WWALS all against Sabal Trail in an Atlanta publication. Come on down to the Suwannee River Tuesday near Jasper, FL or to the Withlacoochee River between Quitman and Valdosta, GA 9AM Saturday Sep. 17th to see for yourself what we’re protecting and to say your piece on video.

Gloria Tatum, Atlanta Progressive News, 12 September 2016, Proposed SabaL Gas Pipeline runs through aquifer, wetlands, sinkhole territory, Continue reading →