Only 50 feet? Sabal Trail in Alexander City, AL

How is that “additional 50 feet of construction lane” temporary after you’ve torn down all the trees, Sabal Trail? And the route you’re showing Alexander City goes through Valdosta, while around here you’re telling us a different route. You told a Lowndes County resident you could also build feeder pipelines, yet the Alexander City story doesn’t mention anything about that. Which of your stories should we believe, Sabal Trail?

Robert Hudson wrote for alexcityOutlook.co 13 November 2013, Citizens hear about proposed gas pipeline,

The proposed corridor is 600 feet wide, but once surveys are done, that area will be decreased to some 50 feet.

“At the end of the day, should our project be approved, that comes down to only being 50 feet,” Grover said. “Then there will also be an additional 50 feet of construction lane that will be temporary so that they can build the pipeline in that easement.”

Let’s go back a month and a few hundred miles south to what Brad McEwen wrote in the Albany Herald 20 October 2013, Pipeline becoming reality for residents,

Layer continued by saying once the route is finally determined, Sabal with have a 100 foot easement in which to construct and place the pipe. Once completed, that easement will shrink to 50 feet and the owner will have some limited use of the property.

In clearing the easement, the company will have to cut down nearly 40 acres of timber, something that will potentially disrupt the deer, quail and geese populations that call Matthew’s property home.

“I’m pretty sure they’ll buy the timber,” said Layer. “But it’ll still be a disruption. At the end of the day, she just doesn’t really want it here.”

Sabal Trail Transmission is owned and controled by the same Spectra Energy that has 21 cases against it involving $8,564,246 in property damage, by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Do you want to trust them digging on your property?

Let’s go back a couple more months to what Jason Schaefer wrote in the Valdosta Daily Times 30 June 2013, Massive pipeline project may cross Lowndes: Landowners share concerns

The proposed pipeline will extend 465 miles from Anniston, Ala., traveling across Georgia (including Lowndes County) and terminating in Orlando, Fla. The project was proposed by Florida Power and Light Company (FPL) to provide dedicated natural gas services by May 2017.

See that? Back then the pipeline was supposed to start in PCB-polluted Anniston, Alabama, yet now Spectra is telling Alexander City, Alabama that they’re the starting point. Could that have anything to do with Spectra itself being fined $15 million for PCB spills at 89 pipeline sites?

Sabal Trail plans to survey a corridor up to 600 feet wide during the design stages of the project, and will narrow the corridor to about 100 feet when the plans are complete, according to the web site.

And that 100 feet Spectra is now pretending to be only 50 feet, but that’s after they cut down all your trees on a 100 foot right of way.

Not only that, but back in June Spectra was saying:

To multiply his concern, the caller explained to Cameron that when the project is complete, Sabal Trail may elect to build branch pipelines from the main artery that would cross his property as well.

Why should we believe they wouldn’t still do that?

Do you want to be “pretty sure” they’ll buy your timber when you can’t ever grow it back? Do you want to “compromise” to get them to move the pipeline off your front lawn into your woods instead? Do you want to have only “limited use” of your own property?

Or do you just not really want it here at all? Are you like Lowndes County resident Lamar Cameron, 84, back in June:

“I don’t need some young squirt coming through and onto my land,” Cameron said. “I think I’ve had enough of giving people land and giving them an easement.”

File a comment with FERC, and come help us defeat this taking of local land for the profit of executives in Houston and Juno Beach, Florida.

-jsq

3 thoughts on “Only 50 feet? Sabal Trail in Alexander City, AL

  1. I don’t know where Sabal is coming up with all these figures of 100 feet, 50 feet and so on, but on the two properties either side of me it is 70 feet. The flagged stakes are supposed to be the centerline of the proposed pipeline and if anyone (like me) has the existing pipeline marked with the yellow plastic post (usually on property lines), that is the centerline of that pipeline. It is 60 feet from centerline to centerline and if the existing pipeline has a 50 foot easement then from the centerline of the existing pipeline to the edge of that easement is 25 feet. From the edge of that easement , it is 35 feet to the centerline of the Sabal proposed pipeline. I don’t believe they know what it’s going to be but I do believe it will be more than 70 feet. That may be what it is after construction but during construction it will be impossible for the construction crew to remain within a 70 foot “box” so to speak. They will use as much of someone’s property as it takes and then compensate them probably about 2 cents on the dollar; eventhough, they are supposed to return the land to it’s original state. Yeah, right!

    1. They told me that the 100 feet was because the pipe itself was bigger than previous pipelines. As for “return the land to its original state”, that’s without all its trees, with perpetual access for the pipeline company, and they don’t build fences to keep poachers and other trespassers out of that wide highway they build through your property. -jsq

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