Tag Archives: Sabal Trail Transmission

Keep the pipeline fox out of your henhouse! –Don Brotherton

LTE in the VDT yesterday,

scan by Michael Noll. And you can also rescind. -jsq

Say no to Sabal



I have been contacted by Sabal Trail Transmission for the permission
to survey our property for the proposed natural gas pipeline in
Lowndes County Afier receiving several letters from Sabal and now
having received the “scary” certified letter, my answer is
still the same. No. We already have one gas pipeline on our property
and having two will not be twice the fun.

Sabal is in the very early stages of gathering information to get a
permit from FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission). They can
only gather this information from surveys. If property owners allow
them to survey It is the same as letting the fox in the hen house.
They will have the information they need to obtain the permit.

Keep the fox out of your hen house! If you haven’t already said yes,
just say no!


Don Brotherton

Valdosta




Here’s a sample letter

to deny permission to Sabal Trail Transmission.

And even if you already signed, you can resind permission.
Here’s a sample letter

to deny permission to Sabal Trail Transmission.

More on

SpectraBusters.

-jsq

From fracking to pipelines –Michael G. Noll



LTE in the VDT today. I added the images and the links. -jsq

Albert Einstein once said that “the world will not be destroyed by
those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing
anything.” This philosophy can be applied to countless social and
political issues and speaks of the dangers of apathy. Add to this
situation a lack of information and our society is truly in danger,
as companies like SPECTRA Energy not only count on our apathy, but
will also try to hoodwink us.


The Sabal Trail Pipeline currently discussed in our community is

really part of a larger story, a process known as hydraulic
fracturing, or fracking. Fracking allows companies like Halliburton
to free oil and gas trapped in geologic formations, but in a fashion
that is extremely dangerous to our environment (especially



groundwater aquifers) and human health. Exempt from the Clean Air
Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, fracking
has created countless problems for communities from Pennsylvania to
Texas, and

may soon be coming to north Georgia.

The gas pipeline under discussion is literally a tentacle Continue reading →

Third Sabal Trail pipeline route misses Georgia entirely



Andrea Grover of Sabal Trail Transmission has been telling Florida
landowners about another proposed pipeline route that completely
bypasses Georgia.
Received yesterday on

Request pipeline town hall –Tim Bland to LCC:

For those that are against having the pipeline run through their
property, go to Ocala Star Banner on the web
where there is a map with the proposed route for the pipeline from

Alabama to Florida. This route barely touches the southwest corner

of Georgia (if at all). Why did Sabal change the route? I don’t
either. The newspaper is dated October 24, 2013.

-Ronald Kicklighter


Contracts for natural gas pipeline through Florida get initial OK,
by Morgan Watkins for Ocala StarBanner
picked up a story first run in

the Gainesville Sun,

A $3.5 billion, 600-mile natural-gas pipeline system that will
stretch from Alabama into Florida is still in the planning stages,
but homeowners near the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe rivers are
concerned because the routes being proposed might run through their
neighborhoods.


 

Landowners in Georgia don’t want it crossing their land or the
Flint or Withlacoochee Rivers, either.

Florida Power & Light selected Continue reading →

Spectra to answer questions about pipeline @ LCC 2013-12-09

Received yesterday.
Good first step. Will the Commission also have Spectra speak at the Regular
Session, like they did ADS back in February?
Will it make that a public hearing?

Update 11:30 AM:
Pipeline meeting set:
Commissioner gathers opposing views by Matthew Woody, front page of the VDT this morning. -jsq



From: Demarcus Marshall <marshall at lowndescounty.com>

Date: Friday, October 25, 2013 7:51 AM

To: Tim Bland

Cc: Matthew Woody

Subject: Sabal Trail Pipeline

Tim and Residents along the Proposed Sabal Trail Pipeline,

Brian Fahrenthold of Sabal Trail Pipeline contacted me yesterday and
requested an audience with the Lowndes County Commissioners. I have
submitted to the chairman a slot for him to address the
commissioners at our December 09, 2013 work session.


I am writing
you to ask Continue reading →

Schedule of Open Houses required by FERC for Sabal Trail

After the series of divide-and-conquer landowner meetings
Spectra just held, another series of Open Houses starts in December:


here’s the schedule.
Later, FERC may hold and sponsor Scoping Meetings.
Local counties can hold public hearings in addition to all these,
and Andrea Grover said in front of multiple witnesses that Spectra
would speak and answer questions at such a county public hearing.

Update 3 Dec 2013:
Brooks County, Georgia already had a citizen speak.
Lowndes County, Georgia is having Sabal Trail speak.
See the calendar.
See also
Sabal Trail’s own list of open houses.

There’s also a meeting of the

corporate cast of characters
with FERC on November 5, 2013.
I wonder if intervenors could attend that meeting, at least by telephone?

The Open House roadshow gets to Albany Dec 11, Moultrie Dec 12,
and Clyattville Dec 16,
interleaved with meetings in Alabama and Florida.

Here’s
FERC’s definition of Open Houses: Continue reading →

Florida opposition to Spectra pipeline

The Sabal Trail roadshow rolled on to Florida, but hasn’t
bowled over at least one landowner.

Dave D’Marko wrote for mynews13.com yesterday,

Pipeline bringing gas, concerns to Floridians,



A new gas pipeline is coming to Florida that will pump up to a
billion cubic feet a day to Florida Power and Light customers.

But some property owners aren’t happy. The company plans to take
the pipeline right through their land. Sabal Trail Transmission met
with landowners in Kissimmee Tuesday night. Another meeting is
planned at South Lake High School in Groveland Wednesday.

Gertrude Dickinson, 82, got her first letter in June, warning her a
company was bidding to bring a gas pipeline to Florida and her
property was being considered. She didn’t wait for the project to
gain approval, which it did later in the summer, and started
fighting it immediately.

“I said I want a map of exactly where you are putting that pipe on
my land and how much you are going to use,” Dickinson said.


Sabal Trail Route Map

She said what she got in return was this map showing all three
states the 465 mile pipeline would go through, and a dot showing the
general area she lived in Sumter County. What it didn’t explain is
why they wanted to go through her land, and not the state-owned
prairie across the street.

Well, that all sounds familiar.
And look who’s down there speaking for Spectra:

Andrea Grover, a spokesperson for Sabal Trail Transmission, is part
of the “Right of Way” team meeting with 3,000 landowners along the
corridor. She said so far 80 percent have given permission for land
surveying.

But Dickinson posted no trespassing signs, refusing to let surveyors
on her land. Signs on her property point out she suffers from a
condition known as auditory recruitment, which means noise from
construction would be greatly amplified in her ears. She says
previous episodes have led to heart attacks.

The company said it will reimburse owners fair value for their
property, but Dickinson doubts that would be much in this economy.

“I can buy a few bags of groceries with the money and that’s it,
and for what? They’ve taken my property, and my entrance, and my
life possibly who knows,” she said.

-jsq

Pipeline complaints heard at Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2013-10-22

You don’t see this every day.
After several citizens spoke in the Commission meeting against the proposed
Sabal Trail pipeline and asked for the Lowndes County Commission to help them,
four Commissioners stayed afterwards to listen to citizens:


Four Commissioners listening to citizens

L-R:

Tim Bland,
a citizen who spoke in the meeting,
Joyce Evans (District 1), Matthew Woody (VDT), John Page (District 4),
Bill Slaughter (Chairman),
Carol Singletary,

Demarcus Marshall (District 5), and other citizens.

Pictures by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 October 2013.

Richard Raines (District 2) left quickly, saying he didn’t feel well.

Crawford Powell (District 3) spent the same time talking to
County Engineer Mike Fletcher (who

was at the Spectra meeting a week ago)
about what could be done.
There are things the county can ask for, and maybe get,
that individual citizens cannot so easily accomplish.

Video of the Commission meeting will follow, including
the citizens speaking.

-jsq

Spectra Energy fined $15 million for PCB spills at 89 pipeline sites –EPA



Those

PHMSA fines weren’t the half of Spectra Energy’s leaks and environmental
violations.
Do we want a record-EPA-fined pipeline company running PCBs through our counties?
Don’t we have enough
PCBs in the ADS landfill in Lowndes County
that’s

in a recharge zone for the aquifer we all drink out of?
Haven’t we already

imported enough hazardous wastes from the Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross?
Maybe the Lowndes County Commission should hear about these things tonight.

L.A. Times, 21 October 1989,

Pipeline Firm to Pay Record EPA Fine, Continue reading →

Spectra pipeline property damage and safety record



Sabal Trail Transmission reps promise us

their pipeline will be safe,
but their parent company Spectra Energy has had
twenty one incidents since 2006 for $8,564,246 in property damage,
according to PHMSA, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

That Final Order of 21 December 2012
to Spectra CEO Gregory L. Ebel for $134,500


for violating both federal
regulations and Spectra’s own internal company policies was only a
in the flaming bucket.
Another,
marked in red as

MAT’L/WELD/EQUIP FAILURE,
PUMP/COMPRESSOR-RELATED EQUIPMENT
for

$251,170 in property damage on 13 March 2012 in Marietta, York County, Pennsylvania,
could be related to that

compressor incident Spectra first said was nothing.


Most of the others are about
“internal corrosion” such as

a Spectra employee says they never bothered to check for.

Here’s the current list of incidents from PHMSA, no doubt each with its
own sordid story:

Serious Incidents are denoted in red.

Continue reading →

Request pipeline town hall –Tim Bland to LCC

Received yesterday. Tim Bland wrote
“This is what I emailed to all of the commissioners on Friday.”
I added a few links and pictures.
-jsq

Commissioners,



I would like to start by thanking Demarcus Marshall for attending
the meeting held by Sabal Trail at Wiregrass Tech on Wednesday. It
is nice to know that some of our elected officials are concerned
about this project.

After talking with many of the affected landowners at this meeting,
it appears that there is a general misconception about the
certainty of this proposed pipeline. The officials from Sabal
Trail, both in writing and in person, are telling landowners that
this pipeline is coming and there is little any of us can do to
prevent it. This appears to be the main reason for the high
approval rating for the initial surveys. We were told that if we
did not willingly participate in the survey, there would be little
consideration given to our input and opinions when the pipeline is
built. We were also told Continue reading →