Tag Archives: USACE

Protest Sabal Trail at Suwannee River Crossing 2016-09-13

Update 2016-09-24: Video from the river and pictures from the bluff.

You are invited to protest Sabal Trail and the Dakota Access Pipeline this Tuesday 5:30 PM! News media are invited. Walk with signs along the bluff to the proposed Sabal Trail Suwannee River HDD crossing, or paddle downstream and back.

Gathering at Sabal Trail proposed pipeline crossing 30.4071464, -83.1569366 We aim to get pictures and video of people on the bluff, beach, and river at the same time demanding the Army Corps re-evaluate its permit for Sabal Trail just like its permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). Both pipelines should be canceled: keep it in the ground!

This WWALS Outing is part of the #NoDAPL Day of Action — Tuesday Sep. 13, tying the Dakota Access oil Pipeline to the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline through their ownership by the same companies. This outing is also a followup to Continue reading →

No new Florida electricity needed, says FPL, so why Sabal Trail?

FPL admits Florida needs no new electricity, so why should Sabal Trail get eminent domain?

PDF FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

Hahira, GA, September 6th 2016 — Two Georgia brothers are stuck with paying almost ten times as much in Sabal Trail’s legal fees as they spent defending their property against that invading fracked methane pipeline, even though FPL apparently admitted this year that all three of its 2013 excuses for that pipeline are no longer valid. Two federal agencies and numerous state agencies issued permits based on those excuses. Sabal Trail used those permits to get eminent domain, including to drill under rivers in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama and through the fragile limestone containing our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer. It is time for this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous boondoggle to be shut down and its $3 billion in FPL ratepayer money to be used for solar power in the Sunshine State.

James Bell, one of the brothers stuck with having to pay Sabal Trail attorney fees, says:

"First and foremost, this is a multi-billion dollar company that is for profit. In my personal opinion I don’t see how a private for-profit company should be allowed eminent domain. I don’t understand that. That makes no sense to me. I might could understand it if it was for the greater good of the country but this is not. And it is certainly not the federal government or the state government building some road or highway."

Florida Power & Light claimed Continue reading →

Sierra Club protest at Lake City today 2016-08-18

Sierra Club Campaign Organizer Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson has taken the Lake City pipe yard ball and run with it. Monday she got TV coverage at that illicit Sabal Trail storage yard for 36-inch fracked gas pipe, and today she’s called a press conference and protest there. Plus Sierra Club has filed two legal actions. Here’s how you can help.

Haley Wade, WCJB-TV, Gainesville, Florida, 15 August 2016, New pipeline has protestors,

There is something you can do: you can say no.

The sun is shining.

Continue reading →

Federal permits inflame opposition to Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle WWALS PR 2016-08-16

PDF FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hahira, Georgia, August 16th 2016 — There is no excuse for $3 billion down this rathole of a 20th century dying fossil fuel industry now that there are more solar power jobs than in all of oil and gas extraction. One federal permit Friday and another federal go-ahead impending for the Sabal Trail invasion of private property and wetlands in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama stiffens the resolve of the rapidly expanding opposition. WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) has revealed apparent wetlands violations and federal rule violations by Spectra Energy, the Houston, Texas pipeline company that wants to gouge under our Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers, risking our water supply for its profit. Sierra Club has vowed to use “all legal means necessary to stop this fracked gas pipeline.” Opposition across Georgia continues as dozens of new groups joined the fight a week ago in Gainesville, Florida. News Friday of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) wetlands permit has inflamed opposition across the country to this latest fossil fuel land and water grab.

Last month WWALS reported to USACE and to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that Sabal Trail already has Continue reading →

Videos: Many speakers against Sabal Trail @ SRWMD 2016-08-09

The Chair said they would send a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and everyone applauded, in the middle of a record number of people speaking Tuesday morning to the board of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), most against Sabal Trail, among other topics.

Please send names of the unidentified speakers to contact@wwals.com.

And you can still send your message to the SRWMD board via Robin Lamm, Coordinator, rrl@srwmd.org; in the Subject say SRWMD Board Members; and remember to copy Noah Valenstein, Executive Director, NVD@srwmd.org NDV@srwmd.org. (Thanks to Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson for the updated Coordinator name and address.)

Below are links to each of the videos, followed by a video playlist. These are the complete videos of everything before the lunch break, except for a camera failure at the beginning of one talk. See also the Agenda and board packet.

Continue reading →

Two new reasons for a SEIS: WWALS to USACE, GA-EPD, and FERC 2016-07-08

LiDar Filed Friday as FERC accession number 20160708-5096, http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?document_id=14476452, “Two new reasons for a USACE Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and a halt to Sabal Trail permits; see also accession numbers 20160708-5089 and 20160708-5088, by WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. under CP15-17.” (PDF) Continue reading →

Unlisted Sabal Trail pipe yard n. of Lake City? WWALS to USACE 2016-07-05

Who other than Sabal Trail needs a yard full of 36-inch pipe? Pipe Yard Wetlands A pipe yard apparently built on top of jurisdictional wetlands, so WWALS has informed the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Here is PDF and below is text and images of the letter WWALS sent to the Corps today.

July 5, 2016

Continue reading →

New hydrology report exposes Sabal Trail pipeline risk to Floridan Aquifer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jasper, Florida, July 1st 2016 — Another independent professional geologist reveals more omissions and discrepancies in pipeline company reports and faults in federal oversight of the Sabal Trail pipeline: Figure 7: Locations of the caves and springs mentioned in this study groundflow actually goes the other way, drilling under a river will change water flow in the Floridan Aquifer, and there is very high risk of sinkhole collapse. An indigenous Floridian commissioned this scientific report to protect his mother, the living earth. This geological report provides compelling additional reasons for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to open a new process to evaluate this and other new information.

Bobby C. Billie, one of the Clan Leaders and Spiritual Leader, Council of the Original Miccosukee Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples, asked professional geologist and hydrologist Peter Schreuder, P.G. to conduct investigations at the proposed Sabal Trail crossing under the Suwannee River from Hamilton County and under U.S. 90 in close proximity to the Falmouth Cave System in Suwannee County.

This Schreuder report concludes about the Floridan Aquifer System (FAS): Continue reading →

Hydrogeologic Issues of Concern, HDD under Suwannee River –Peter J. Schreuder 2016-06-23

See press release, New hydrology report exposes Sabal Trail pipeline risk to Floridan Aquifer, and this report is also available in PDF.

Hydrogeologic Issues of Concern

Schreuder, Inc. Water-Resources & Environmental Consultants

Directional Horizontal Drilling (HDD) under the
Suwannee River
At Suwannee River State Park

Hydrogeologic Issues of Concern

In any review of potential environmental consequences related to the use of Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD), both the geotechnical and scientific communities can be expected to raise serious concerns when such drilling is done around karst areas, and in regions which over lie the Floridan Aquifer System (FAS), which includes the Upper Floridan Aquifer, and the karstic geologic subsurface features at the location proposed in Continue reading →