Second day in a row, the Albany Herald covered the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline making the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen list. The Flint River would be affected just like the Withlacoochee River, and in Florida the Suwannee River and the Santa Fe River are in the same karst limestone that contains our drinking water in south Georgia and Florida in the Floridan Aquifer. These newspaper articles follow two previous Albany ones, a couple of Valdosta ones, and local, state, and national TV and newspaper coverage of protests and opposition to Spectra’s hazardous boondoggle. Sabal Trail’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad PR week continues….

Jennifer Parks, Albany Herald, 22 October 2014, Proposed gas pipeline, Flint make Dirty Dozen list: Textile manufacturer pollution, state water policy issues cited as problems for Flint River,

Considered to be an invader on the Floridan Aquifer territory is a 500-mile-long, three-foot-diameter natural gas pipeline known as the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline running from Alabama to central Florida that will cut a 159-mile-long, 100-foot-wide path through at least nine Georgia counties. Coalition officials say it will bring with it the risk of contaminating the region’s well water, rivers and streams through leaks as well as noise and air pollution from a compressor station located near Albany. It would require boring underground pipelines beneath the Withlacoochee, Flint and Chattahoochee rivers as well as numerous smaller streams, and will course underground above the aquifer.

The coalition is hoping impacted residents will organize and voice their opposition to the project by urging local governments to adopt land use and other ordinances preventing pipeline construction in vulnerable lands and neighborhoods, the EPD to deny air quality permits for the project and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to deny any certifications of need for the project, as well as all possible routes.

Jennifer Parks, Albany Herald, 23 October 2014, Flint Riverkeeper encouraging public to make their voice heard to protect Flint River: Concerned citizens should get involved to help save Georgia waterways, advocates say,

The opinion of area water advocates is the public needs to make their voices heard to protect what is left of the waterways in Georgia.

On this year’s Dirty Dozen listing, three items directly impact the Flint River, said Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers. They are the Sabal Trail pipeline, the drop of protections banning “storage and recovery” on the Floridan Aquifer and Georgia Environmental Protection Division policy allowing for treated sewage water with to be placed anywhere but in the Flint.

The proposed pipeline, which could cut a 159-mile path through Southwest Georgia, has the potential, waterway advocates say, to bring more than just water, air and noise pollution.

“We are very concerned because of the effect on wetlands and the river itself, but also the risk of accidents,” Gordon said. “The land has become more unstable over time as we have increased the use of water, and the area is prone to sinkholes. And there is the risk of explosion.”(What needs to be done is for) there to be no pipeline at all, or get it out of Georgia … Georgia is not a beneficiary based on need.”

Here’s that Dirty Dozen item Number Nine, Sabal Trail pipeline threatens Withlacoochee River and Floridan Aquifer on the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen 2014.

And this is after widespread coverage of the Dirty Dozen, including in the Valdosta Daily Times, Coalition: Sabal one of Dirty Dozen, the VDT coverage of the protest at the Valdosta Sabal Trail office, the WCTV retrospective on Sabal Trail pipeline activism, and the protests at the Jasper, FL and Albany, Georgia Sabal Trail Open Houses. Oh, and Dougherty County Commission considers anti-Sabal Trail resolution. All this week, plus more not even blogged yet, and more events to come.

-jsq

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