Filed with FERC 18 April 2014. Avoid karst limestone, unconfined aquifer, caves, springs, wetlands, drilling under rivers, blasting, or using groundwater for testing pipes or disposing of it afterwards, and where can a pipeline go?
SUWANNEE
RIVER
WATER
MANAGEMENT
DISTRICTApril 18.2014 Continue reading Avoid highly sensitive water resource features –SRWMD to FERC
Filed with FERC 11 April 2014. -jsq
When this project process first began, Florida newspapers, such as the ones in Martin County, Gainesville, Ocala, and others, ran the story with a map of the proposed pipeline, from FPL, plainly showing the route running from Alabama straight to Florida completely bypassing Georgia. The now “preferred” route runs approximately 156 miles, or more through Georgia. Sabal has not been forthcoming, even in their Resource Report 10, as to the reason for the change. Has there been any encouragement from any
governmental entity, State or Federal, for Sabal to reroute this pipeline through the state of Georgia? If yes, which entity and why? If no, why did FERC allow Sabal to change routes? Cost would be an invalid answer.
In August and September of 2013, landowners who previously had not agreed to allow Sabal personnel onto their property began receiving letters first from Sabal and then from the law firm of Hunton & Williams of Atlanta, Ga., on behalf of Sabal, using intimidating and Continue reading Does FERC ever question the honesty and integrity of companies such as Sabal? –Sandra Slack
Why didn’t FERC or Sabal Trail or FPL or Williams tell us about
LNG export to FTA countries authorized by FE in 2011,
before Sabal Trail and the others even submitted their pre-filing applications to FERC?
The Carib Energy that has requested authorization for LNG export to non-FTA countries: we’ve heard of them before. Carib’s parent company Crowley Maritime is based in Jacksonville, FL, and Jaxport is also eyeing LNG export, plus a closer connection.
Remember, Crowley already has
authorization from U.S. DoE’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) to
export to Free Trade Agreement countries: Continue reading JAX-based Crowley authorized to export LNG from Martin County, Florida
Another LNG export authorization
at the end of the Southeast Market Pipelines Project
(Transco -> Sabal Trail -> Florida Southeast Connection) in Martin County, Florida,
in addition to the
one already approved.
Will FPL, Spectra, Williams, and FERC claim to know nothing about this one, too?
They sure didn’t tell us anything about it during the Open Houses or Scoping Meetings.
Joe Fisher wrote for NGI 25 October 2013, Continue reading Carib-Crowley LNG export from Martin County, FL
On 14 November 2013 the U.S. DoE’s Office of Fossil Energy
approved LNG export authority for a company located
next to the end of the Transco-Sabal Trail-FSC pipeline
in Martin County, Florida,
right where FPL is already building another pipeline to the sea.
All the time since then Spectra and FERC have been saying the Sabal Trail
pipeline is not for export.
FERC’s whole rationale
for federal eminent domain
for this pipeline is that Florida needs the power.
If the methane is really for export,
what excuse is there for federal eminent domain?
The order’s cover page says:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
OFFICE OF FOSSIL ENERGY
ADVANCED ENERGY SOLUTIONS. LLC ) FE DOCKET NO. I3~104-LNG
ORDER GRANTING LONG-TERM MULTI-CONTRACT
AUTHORIZATION TO EXPORT LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS
IN ISO CONTAINERS LOADED AT THE
FLORIDIAN FACILITY IN MARTIN COUNTY, FLORIDA,
AND EXPORTED VIA OCEAN-GOING VESSEL
TO FREE TRADE AGREEMENT NATIONS
IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
DOE/FE ORDER NO. 3360
NOVEMBER 14, 2013
Friday 15 November 2013, the next day after that LNG authorization, Continue reading Floridian LNG Export approved last November, before Sabal Trail Open Houses or FERC Scoping Meetings
Florida newspaper reporters are not buying the pipeline company’s spin. Instead they write about the fragile limestone that holds our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer, damage to which can easily turn a spring into a sinkhole. Wednesday, the Orlando Sentinel about Spectra’s safety record, and today Morgan Watkins wrote for the Gainesville Sun, Expert: Pipeline would cross Santa Fe at the worst spot,
Standing along the bank of the Santa Fe River near the riverside house in southern Suwannee County his family has owned since 1967, Kevin Brown pointed to the spot where a natural gas pipeline is expected to cross underneath the ground.
But Brown’s brother David, a geologist, and other concerned folks hope to persuade the company leading the project to select what they consider a safer crossing point….
The river and the surrounding area is pockmarked with springs and sinkholes. Exposed limestone — a crumbly, fractured rock — Continue reading Sabal Trail at worst spot –expert in Gainesville Sun
A reporter for a major newspaper is calling Spectra on its safety record, and calling Spectra’s responses “not good enough”! After thirty years of Spectra safety promises, that’s putting it mildly. A Maine resident put it this way after the Spectra’s Searsmont compressor blowout: “we were clearly lied to”.
Lauren Ritchie wrote for the Orlando Sentinel today, Safety record of natural-gas pipeline partner raises concerns,
Spectra Energy Corp. along with FPL’s parent, NextEra Energy, would bury the 473-mile Sabal Trail pipeline expected to carry 1 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to just south of Orlando in Osceola County, where it would connect to another line for eventual delivery to FPL in Martin County.
Spectra’s safety record, however, leaves something to be desired.
Take, for example, the company’s Texas Eastern pipeline, a 9,200-mile Spectra project connecting Texas with the markets in the Northeast.
Between 2006 and 2013, the company had 21 “incidents” along the line, causing Continue reading Methane pipeline safety record questioned –Lauren Ritchie
“But this isn’t an issue just for tree-huggers.
It’s one that every person who uses water ought to latch on to,”
she wrote.
I added the links and the images below to what Lauren Ritchie wrote in the Orlando Sentinel yesterday, Move path for natural-gas pipeline to protect water supply,
Only a relatively small piece of a proposed natural-gas pipeline that is to cross three states would come through a corner of south Lake County, but the route is directly through one of the most environmentally sensitive areas in Florida.
And, unfortunately, the pipeline is to be built by a company whose safety record is hardly sterling and whose tendency is to stare silently when asked questions about accidents.
I’d recognize the pipeline company from that description. Continue reading Water supply more important than methane pipeline –Lauren Ritchie
Five years ago a natural gas pipeline blew up between the Florida Turnpike
and I-95, flying a 104-foot piece of 18-inch pipe through the air,
shutting down both roads, and fortunately missing a high school.
NTSB determined it was the fault of the pipeline operator,
Florida Gas Transmission Company, LLC (FGT).
FGT was
written up by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
in
NTSB/PAB-13/01 of 13 August 2013
for “Damage/Clean-up Cost: $606,360” in this 4 May 2009 incident
near Palm City, Florida:
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was environmentally assisted cracking under a disbonded polyethylene coating that remained undetected by the integrity management program. Contributing to the accident was Florida Gas Transmission Company’s failure to include the pipe section that ruptured in the integrity management program. Contributing to the prolonged gas release was the pipeline controller’s inability to detect the rupture because of SCADA system limitations and the configuration of the pipeline.
So NTSB said it was FGT’s fault.
And Florida and Martin County taxpayers had to pay for Continue reading Methane pipeline blew up onto Florida Turnpike next to high school
FPL and Spectra could lose, because many organizations and individuals don’t want dirty methane pipelines when we can go straight to conservation, efficiency, and solar and wind power.
Kevin Spear wrote for the Orlando Sentinel
19 January 2014
Pipeline to bring natural gas to state,
Florida Power & Light Co. is on the cusp of getting the pipeline it has long wanted to carry natural gas from elsewhere in the nation to Central and South Florida to run the utility’s power plants.
But the proposed $3.6 billion project, which FPL hopes to start using in 2017, has drawn mixed responses from even groups that are usually allies.
Among them, Audubon Florida lauds natural gas as cleaner than coal when burned by power plants, while Sierra Club Florida opposes the line as likely to ensure that the state becomes further addicted to the fuel at the expense of developing solar power.
Other negative reactions include:
- Contention by many environmentalists that the use of natural gas on the whole — from drilling to consuming — is as damaging to the environment as the use of coal.
Concerns that the route of the proposed pipeline is potentially harmful to Florida wetlands and aquifers.
- Criticism from some environmental groups that Continue reading Even many FPL allies oppose new methane pipelines