Radium Springs against Sabal Trail pipeline in Dougherty County

Another neighborhood in Dougherty County discovers it doesn’t like the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline, including because it would further endanger the already threatened Flint River.

Sharon Wiggins wrote for WALB 19 August 2014, Dougherty County residents speak out against proposed pipeline,

Members of the Radium Springs community met Tuesday night to express their concerns about the proposed route of the Sabal pipeline project. The nearly 500 mile pipeline begins in Alabama, stretches through Georgia and ends in Florida. Those against it are concerned about the human, economic and environmental impacts it could have.

“We know that the Flint River is one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the United States,” said Gloria Gaines, Former Dougherty County Commissioner.”They’re concerned about the impacts that it could have on the ability to farm, to hunt, to fish, to recreate.”

American Rivers, America’s Most Endangered Rivers For 2013: Flint River,

In the lower Flint basin, the over-permitting and over-pumping of the Floridan Aquifer— and the drying-up of major streams in the Flint watershed as a consequence— presents a difficult water management balancing act that rivals challenges on the Great Plains and in California. The upper Flint presents challenges that more and more communities will face wherever urbanization, drought, and water demand strain limited surface water resources. Throughout the Flint basin, proactive and collaborative work to address these water quantity challenges is critical to ensuring the sustainability of communities and the river ecosystem.

Using massive amounts of water for pressure testing and dumping it back into the watershed contaminated wouldn’t help with that, nor would drilling under the river through the fragile karst limestone of the Floridan Aquifer.

Here’s the WALB video, ironically preceded by a re-election ad for Florida Governor Rick Scott, who notoriously owned shares in Spectra Energy before his appointees approved Spectra’s Sabal Trail pipeline, and who also owns stock in all the other pipeline companies that already have pipelines to Florida.

WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Courtney Highfield wrote for WFXL 19 August 2014, Radium Springs residents concerned about pipeline,

The Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline was proposed to the Dougherty County Commission about a year ago. Since then, meetings have been held by various local leaders to educate residents on what this means for them.

One of those people, Beatrice Snead, has been to two meetings now and says she’s more concerned than ever. Snead told FOX 31, “We’ll be affected by the noise level, contamination, health problems.. So I’m very concerned and also lowering the value of our property.”

The story says Dougherty County Commissioners are asking locals to contact state and federal officials. Not a bad idea.

-jsq

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