Tag Archives: Spectra Energy

Sacred Water Camp 2016-11-20

Tents full of thirty people in the morning sun, and happy campers starting to have breakfast, was what Gretchen and I saw when we stopped to visit Sacred Water Camp Sunway morning. They’re watching Sabal Trail, as it drills under the Suwannee River.

Gregory Payne and many tents
Gregory Payne and many campers

You don’t have to camp out to protect all our waters, land, and air. Georgians can sign a petition to Georgia state legislators. Anyone can demand their members of Congress rein in FERC, the rogue, captive agency that permitted Sabal Trail and gave it eminent domain to take local lands. If you see a possible environmental or legal violation, report it your self or contact WWALS. Lots more here.

Sacred Water Camp is not a project of WWALS. However, it is in WWALS’ watersheds and WWALS watches Continue reading →

GWC Dirty Dozen and Sabal Trail pipeline drilling mud leak on WALB 2016-11-16

People and news media turned out from Florida and Georgia at the Withlacoochee River US 84 bridge in cross-state-line solidarity about the Sabal Trail pipeline and its recent drilling mud leak. They heard the Georgia Water Coalition announce that Sabal Trail is, for the third year running, on the Dirty Dozen 2016.

Ashlyn Becton, WALB, 16 November 2016, Environmentalist raise awareness about Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Folks from North Florida and South Georgia held a protest at the Withlacoochee River Wednesday and listened to a news conference announcing the Georgia Water Coalition’s Dirty Dozen.

The report highlights the worst offenses and greatest threats to Georgia’s bodies of water.

And the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is on the GWC Dirty Dozen 2016, as Chattahoochee, Flint, Withlacoochee Rivers and Floridan Aquifer: Gas pipeline company, federal agency run roughshod over state, local residents property rights, with this What Must Be Done: 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 →

GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Withlacoochee River Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD #NoDAPL #NoSabalTrail #WaterIsLife 2016-11-16

Update 2016-11-22:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Turbidity curtains Hahira GA, November 14th 2016 (updated with directions and detail Nov 15th) — WWALS is holding an in-person press conference at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge to hear and participate in the announcement Wednesday morning of the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) Dirty Dozen 2016: a dozen of the worst threats to Georgia’s waters. WWALS will then offer a hike up the riverside to the Sabal Trail pipeline crossing location, where Sabal Trail leaked drilling mud leak up into the river.

Please arrive by 9:30 to be ready for the GWC teleconference at 10AM. On the phone call, details of the Dirty Dozen will be announced, with WWALS members assisting for one of them, and another also directly relevant to WWALS watersheds.

After the phone call, people from Florida and Georgia will have an opportunity to speak, because the Withlacoochee flows downstream into Florida, where Sabal Trail also plans to drill under the Suwannee River, as well as the Santa Fe, where 14 people got arrested recently protecting, and the other Withlacoochee (south) River. Let’s see a little cross-state-line solidarity against this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous fracked methane pipeline boondoggle. Call your local press before you come, and bring signs.

When: 9:30 AM Wednesday November 16th 2016

Where: US 84 bridge, east side, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA, 30.793747, -83.450167
It’s in the median of a busy highway, so be careful.

Screenshot 2016-11-14 15-14-56 What: Press Conference for Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen, with hike up the river.
It’s a rough hike, so come prepared with sturdy shoes and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
Or just participate at the bridge. Bring signs if you’ve got them, or make them on the spot.
This is a completely peaceful nonviolent first-amendment press conference.

Event: facebook

Directions: from Live Oak or Gainesville, FL or farther south, or from Albany, Tifton, or Macon, GA or farther north, take I-75 Continue reading →

Sabal Trail still leaking drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River at US 84 in GA 2016-11-12

Update 2016-11-22:

Update 2016-11-14: GWC Dirty Dozen Press Conference at US 84 Bridge with tour of Sabal Trail HDD 2016-11-16

Steve Patterson, Jacksonville.com, 14 November 2016, Gas pipeline project headed to Suwannee River leaks into Georgia waterway; sparks environmental worries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Turbidity curtains with human for scale (Chris Mericle) Hahira, GA, November 13th 2016 — Apparently Sabal Trail continues to leak drilling mud into the Withlacoochee River, three weeks after it admitted to GA-EPD that its pilot hole under the river had leaked up into the riverbed.

WWALS members Deanna and Chris Mericle went to the US 84 bridge between Quitman and Valdosta, Georgia, and walked up the river to the site, about 2000 feet upstream. You can clearly see the water inside Sabal Trail’s turbidity curtains is not the same color as the river water.

“I am so angry because this is what we said would happen and we were assured the rivers wouldn’t be affected because they were drilling under them. The head woman at FDEP said exactly that! We told them it was likely because of our karst geology and we got patronized and patted on the head. You can guarantee they will downplay it and just drill another hole. I am pissed,” said WWALS member Deanna Mericle, who drafted the WWALS petition for last year’s four-month legal case and three-day hearing in WWALS v Sabal Trail & FDEP. Continue reading →

Water Is Life Camp protecting Santa Fe River against Sabal Trail

It’s come to this: Protesters Arrested at Sabal Trail Construction Site, by Jim Tatum for Our Santa Fe River 13 November 2016, from Cindy Swirko, Gainesville Sun, 12 November 2016,

Protesters of the Sabal Trail pipeline were arrested at the Gilchrist County construction site Saturday, and opponents of the gas transmission line said protests will continue.

The Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office arrested 14 people, including one who had locked himself to a tanker truck that was delivering water needed for the construction, said Cara Jennings, a pipeline opponent.

The others who were arrested were on the roadside holding signs, she added.

Gilchrist County Sheriff car guarding Sabal Trail HDD site Jennings said the 14 remained Continue reading →

Sabal Trail Contractor Yard in Brooks County, GA 2016-11-10

Did Sabal Trail’s contractor have a permit to scrape off that topsoil in this contractor yard in Brooks County, GA? Are those bags of stuff the drilling mud Sabal Trail is leaking up into the Withlacoochee River only a few miles from there? Are those temporary buildings setting up for supplying Sabal Trail across all of Spread Three from Mitchell County, Georgia across the Suwannee River to Suwannee County, Florida?

Backhoe and materials

Troy Access Thanks to a WWALS ally for taking these pictures late Friday afternoon. The evening gloom seems appropriate.

The “Troy Access” sign presumably indicates Troy Construction, as in Pipeline News, March 2016, Sabal Trail Pipeline lands contractors,

“Troy Construction has been awarded a contract for spread three;”

Spread Three starts in Mitchell County and runs Continue reading →

Sacred Water Camp protecting the Suwannee River from Sabal Trail 2016-11-06

Gregory and Debra: Water is Life! Water is Life, at Sacred Water Camp, and everywhere else.

New logo and new location, now on the Suwannee River east of US 129 in Suwannee County, Florida. Last Sunday afternoon when we visited was a slow time for the camp.

Felipe, seated in the blue shirt, brought the bus and the cooking gear. 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 →

Waterkeeper Alliance asks Obama to halt DAPL

WWALS has been tying #NoDAPL to #NoSabalTrail for some time, because water protectors here continue to fight Sabal Trail for many of the same reasons as the Standing Rock Sioux fight the Dakota Access Pipeline, plus one of the DAPL pipeline companies, Enbridge, is buying Spectra Energy, the Sabal Trail pipeline company, and many of the same banks finance both.

Plus even FPL admits there’s no need for new electricity for Florida until 2024 at the earliest, which means there’s no need for Sabal Trail.

Waterkeeper Alliance, 3 November 2016, Waterkeeper Alliance Calls on President Obama to Halt the Dakota Access Pipeline and Uphold the Rights of Water Protectors, Continue reading →