Category Archives: Georgia

Williston fire and police station relocated due to sinkhole: Sabal Trail wants pipeline through there

In a county already famous for sinkholes, the fire and police department just had to move off of a sinkhole. Sabal Trail wants to poke a yard-wide pipeline on a hundred-foot right of way right through that area, and under rivers, some of which already leak underground. How about solar power for the Sunshine State instead?

GTN News, 11 July 2014, Williston Has A New Sinkhole – UNDER the Police Dept. and Fire Station,

A new sinkhole in Williston, but it’s not forming just anywhere. It’s underneath the police station and fire department. GTN’s Hailey Holloway has more on the problem and what the city is trying to do to prevent a disaster.

Heavy rain getting into the Florida soil is causing the building to shift and crack and buckle.

“Unless by the grace of God it rains everywhere but Williston, we’re going to have issues.”

The problems started Continue reading Williston fire and police station relocated due to sinkhole: Sabal Trail wants pipeline through there

Sinkholes and compressor hazardous waste: motion to intervene against Sabal Trail –GCCC

Sinkholes opening under the Flint or Chattahoochee Rivers, more hazardous waste from the proposed Albany, Georgia compressor station, these are a few of the things the Georgia Climate Change Coalition moved to intervene to prevent Sabal Trail Transmission from doing wiht its proposed pipeline.

It is highly likely that this pipeline would suffer from malfunction and damage, as the region it would cross is typically prone to the spontaneous opening of sink holes, such that would cause an infrastructure project of this type to fail….

The construction and operation of the compressor facility in Albany Georgia would contribute to the hazardous waste produced by Georgia’s existing electricity infrastructure.

Here’s how to file a motion to intervene with FERC.

GCCC filed with FERC 26 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141226-5005, “(doc-less) Motion to Intervene of Georgia Climate Change Coalition under CP15-17, et. al..”

Submission Description: (doc-less) Motion to Intervene of Georgia Climate Change Coalition under CP15-17-000, et. al..

Submission Date: 12/24/2014 10:56:07 PM

Filed Date: 12/26/2014 8:30:00 AM

Dockets
CP15-17-000 Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC submits its Abbreviated Application for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity and Related Authorizations for the Sabal Trail Project – Volumes I, III, and IV. CP15-16-000 Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC submits an application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for its Hillabee Expansion Project CP14-554-000 Application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity and for Related Authorizations of Florida Southeast Connection, LLC under CP14-

Filing Party/Contacts: Filing Party, Signer (Representative), Other Contact (Principal)
Georgia Climate Change Coalition athenscompost@gmail.com

Basis for Intervening:

The Georgia Climate Change Coalition seeks to intervene in the permitting process of the Sabal Trail Transmissions natural gas pipeline because of many obvious threats the construction poses to our natural environment in Georgia, and in other states as well. In Georgia the Sabal Trail pipeline would cross both the Flint and the Chattahoochee Rivers, and their watersheds. The Flint river is the most endangered river in Georgia. Construction of the pipeline would greatly disturb these water systems. Both these river systems provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people as well as providing wildlife habitat.

It is highly likely that this pipeline would suffer from malfunction and damage, as the region it would cross is typically prone to the spontaneous opening of sink holes, such that would cause an infrastructure project of this type to fail. The region is known as the Karst limestone aquatic system, and the aquifer would be polluted by a natural gas spill from this pipeline.

Another pressing concern of the Georgia Climate Change Coalition regards the proposed compressor station in Albany Georgia. As a statewide coalition we are concerned with the effects of climate change and pollution on Georgia as a whole. We are most concerned by the fact that the facility would operate on electricity generated by Georgia’s coal-fired power grid. Georgia is home to the dirtiest coal fired power plants in our nation, and is among the ten dirtiest places in the world due to the particulate ash and water pollution generated by our coal fired power plants. The construction and operation of the compressor facility in Albany Georgia would contribute to the hazardous waste produced by Georgia’s existing electricity infrastructure.

-jsq

SpectraBusters moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

No domestic need for the fracked methane, which Spectra Energy’s CEO has said it wants to export; no insurance despite Spectra’s track record of safety violations; environmental destruction of water and soil: for these and other reasons SpectraBusters, Inc. has filed a motion to intervene with all three parts of the fracked methane pipeline project including Sabal Trail, using a form of filing that other groups could copy.

300x222 All three dockets selected, in How to intervene, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 17 December 2014 How can eminent domain be conferred on Sabal Trail, where there is no benefit to the public, there is zero provision for disaster accountability, and no real attempt at a real environmental impact study? Along with the EPA, a taxpayer funded agency, we’d like answers to these questions that we have posed to FERC for the past year.

Here’s how you or your organization can file a motion to intervene.

Filed with FERC 24 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141224-5069, “Motion to Intervene of SpectraBusters, Inc. under CP15-17, et. al..” Continue reading SpectraBusters moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

Albany, MGAG, and Brooks County, GA moved to intervene with Sabal Trail

Yesterday’s crop of intervenors included Brooks County, Georgia, Albany Audubon Society, and Albany, Georgia, the county seat of Dougherty County, which filed the previous day, Today’s the deadline! Here’s how to file a motion to intervene.

Plus yesterday the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia (MGAG) filed. MGAG is the customer Sabal Trail claimed in Georgia so it could try to exercise Georgia eminent domain. Sabal Trail said Dougherty and Colquitt were the counties despite both Dougherty County and Albany having already passed resolutions wanting no Sabal Trail in their city, county, or state, Colquitt County having passed a resolution against the pipeline, and the Mayor of Moultrie saying on WCTV that Moultrie had never been asked if they needed or wanted any gas.

Maybe today we’ll see motions to intervene by Lowndes County and Valdosta, both of which have passed resolutions against the pipeline.

That Brooks County motion is hard to find, being filed as Continue reading Albany, MGAG, and Brooks County, GA moved to intervene with Sabal Trail

A flood of motions to intervene filed: still two days to go to Sabal Trail deadline

The trickle turns to a flood of motions to intervene being filed for the FERC dockets of Sabal Trail, Transco’s Hillabee Expansion Project, and Florida Southeast Connection. Two elected county governments have filed, one of them in all three dockets. Other counties and cities and even states can dod the same.

Be sure to file in all three dockets: CP15-17, CP15-16, and CP14-554. It’s not enough to list them in your filing documents or description: you must file them on each docket. If you don’t find your filing in FERC’s docket search for each of the three dockets, you need to go back and file again in the other dockets. Here’s how to file for multiple dockets in a single Continue reading A flood of motions to intervene filed: still two days to go to Sabal Trail deadline

Nonami Oglethorpe moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

Ted Turner’s Nonami plantation near Albany, Georgia has filed a motion to intervene with all three parts of the fracked methane pipeline project including Sabal Trail, using a form of filing that other groups could copy.

Intervenor is a landowner with land laying both within the proposed right-of-way corridor for the Sabal pipeline and within very close proximity to one of Sabal’s proposed compressor stations, thus exposing its property to condemnation and deleterious effects associated with the construction and operation of a natural gas transmission pipeline and deleterious effects of a compressor station.

Filed with FERC 22 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141222-5003, “Motion to Intervene of Nonami Oglethorpe, LLC under CP15-17.” Continue reading Nonami Oglethorpe moves to intervene on Sabal Trail et al.

FERC filing deadline 24 December 2014 –VDT

The newspaper of record in the county seat of the most populous county along the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline path between Auburn and Gainesville reminds everyone of the Christmas Eve filing deadline.

Joe Adgie, Valdosta Daily Times, 19 December 2014, Deadline nears for pipeline comments,

Residents wanting to file comments with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about the Sabal Trail pipeline have until Dec. 24 to do so….

Continue reading FERC filing deadline 24 December 2014 –VDT

Southern Company Services intervenes in Sabal Trail at FERC

A subsidiary of Southern Company, parent of Alabama Power, Georgia Power, and Gulf Power (Florida) has filed a motion to intervene in FERC docket CP15-17 for Sabal Trail Transmission’s pipeline:

Southern Company “SCS is a current customer of Transco, and the operations of Sabal Trail will traverse the Alabama, Florida and Georgia service territories of SCS’s operating affiliates.”

Filed with FERC 17 December 2014 as Accession Number: 20141217-5122, Continue reading Southern Company Services intervenes in Sabal Trail at FERC

Valdosta resolution against Sabal Trail filed with FERC

The mayor of Valdosta has filed with FERC a resolution against Sabal Trail, in support of the resolution by Lowndes County, the most populous county on any of the proposed pipeline paths in Georgia. 300x400 Whereas, in Valdosta Draft Resolution Against Sabal Trail Pipeline, by Valdosta City Council, 10 December 2014 In addition to echoing Lowndes County’s concerns about property rights, safety of school children, lack of benefit to the state of Georgia, the availability of a path to completely bypass Georgia, and public opposition, Valdosta also added a WHEREAS about the Floridan Aquifer, the source of almost all of our drinking water in south Georgia and Florida. See also LAKE videos of Valdosta and Lowndes County passing those resolutions.

Filed with FERC today 17 December 2014, Accession Number: 20141217-5076, “Comment of John Gayle in Docket(s)/Project(s) CP15-17-000 Submission Date: 12/17/2014”, Continue reading Valdosta resolution against Sabal Trail filed with FERC

Thomas County on alternate pipeline route –Thomasville Times

Sabal Trail’s Andrea Grover tries to put Thomas County back to sleep, but local resident Alton Burns has waked it up.

Patti Dozier, Thomasville Times, 15 December 2014, Thomas County on alternate pipeline route,

Thomas County is not on a proposed natural gas pipeline traversing expanses of Florida, Georgia and Alabama, but it is on two alternate routes.

Thomas County is not on the proposed route submitted by Sabal Trail Transmission to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in late November for consideration of approval.

Thomas County commissioners were not aware of the pipeline until lifelong Thomas County resident Alton Paul Burns addressed the board recently with concerns.

The earth does not belong to us, Burns told commissioners, adding Continue reading Thomas County on alternate pipeline route –Thomasville Times