Tag Archives: WWALS

Cancelled! Paddle Against the Pipeline on the Withlacoochee River

Update 9PM 16 April 2014: Cancelled due to flood-stage water levels in the Withlacoochee River, with more rain expected Friday. To be rescheduled.

7:30 AM Saturday 19 April 2014 on the Withlacoochee River between Valdosta and Quitman, put in at Old Quitman Road on the Brooks County side (just south of US 84): Paddle past where the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline would cross the Withlacoochee River, digging into our fragile karst limesone, above our drinking-water Floridan Aquifer. This is a joint event of Continue reading Cancelled! Paddle Against the Pipeline on the Withlacoochee River

Georgia pipeline safety record worse than in Florida

Should we add to Georgia’s string of serious pipeline accidents (worse than Florida’s) by letting a pipeline company with fines for corrosion and leaks from PHMSA and a record fine for PCB spills from EPA gash an even bigger pipeline through our farms and past our towns, churches, and schools?

The data on Florida pipeline accidents in Ichetucknee Alliance’s position paper against the pipeline (the position that got Spectra’s Andrea Grover to say the “preferred” route had moved and “currently” there was no threat to the Ichetucknee River or Columbia County, Florida); that pipeline accident data came from Pipeline Safety Tracker, which finds an even worse pipeline safety record for Georgia: 89 incidents, 7 fatalities, 36 injuries, and $56.3 million in property damage.

Among those Georgia incidents was one near Albany, Georgia, 29 May 2004, caused by “Environmental Cracking Related” which caused $209,447 in property damage. That could be a concern about a proposed pipeline put in by a company whose employees told federal inspectors it never conducted key test for corrosion.

Even worse was this one, Continue reading Georgia pipeline safety record worse than in Florida