Thanks to George Boston Rhynes for tracking the Valdosta City Council to the wilds of Lenox River Ranch where they meet every year in Colquitt County. Here are his videos.
The city did publish an agenda on their website.
Here’s a LAKE video playlist of George’s videos:
Continue reading
![[CY2-7, Aerial, Stewart County, GA]](http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/ferc/2016-10-17--stt-variance/small/20161017-5157-31740520-0050.jpg)
Here are
small, big, huge, and PDF maps from Sabal Trail’s variance request yesterday
to FERC asking for more contractor yards, to
drill under a dam in Terrell County, GA,
and to change its easement on a tributary of Hog Creek (tributary of Okapilco Crek)
in Colquitt County, GA, in
FERC
Accession Number: 20161017-5157,
“Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC Request for Notice to Proceed and Variance Request under CP15-17.”
It includes a notice of Administrative Appeal Process by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and it looks like the deadline has not expired. Continue reading
“You tell us you’re sorry and it happens again”, said Alton Burns of Coolidge about pipeline leaks, fires, and explosions, setting the tone for the whole evening, which ended with local landowners calling the whole process a farce and a hoax. As attorney Jonathan Waters said, South Georgia is a home, not a pipeline easement.
The FERC meetings started the previous evening in Albany and continue at 5:30 PM each night at:
There are many more things you can do to stop Sabal Trail. Remember, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Here are links to the LAKE videos from last night in Moultrie, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
Now that Atlanta has finally taken notice there’s even more reason
to repel these pipeline invaders.
There’s still time to submit an amicus brief for the
court case in Leesburg, Georgia.
And time to file an ecomment or an out-of-time motion to intervene against Sabal Trail.
Or against
Elba Island LNG
or against
Transco and Atlanta Gas Light’s Dalton Expansion Project.
Or to oppose
Kinder Morgan’s southeast Georgia Palmetto oil pipeline
at the Georgia Department of Transportation or GA-EDP.
Both those state agencies have to provide permits for Sabal Trail
to get the Georgia emininent domain it demands in Leesburg,
so they are relevant to Sabal Trail, as well, as is your opinion
and those of all local elected governments in Georgia.
Dan Chapman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3 April 2015, Pipeline project fuels fight on state’s future,
Regardless of route, Sabal Trail opponents fear pipeline construction could create sinkholes Continue reading
Sabal Trail asked the judge to throw out my letter to the court yesterday, but the judge said the contents were public record anyway.
Six minutes before yesterday’s eminent domain hearing in Leesburg, GA was scheduled to start
I submitted the letter you see below, noting that Sabal Trail was claiming
customers in counties and cities that had passed resolutions and otherwise
said they didn’t want Spectra’s fracked methane pipeline.
Naturally Sabal Trail’s attorneys didn’t like that, and asked the judge to
disregard and strike from the record “the Quarterman letter” because
they said I didn’t have standing, and you can’t just submit materials a few
minutes before a hearing.
The judge said he would entertain that motion, but he proceeded to leaf
through the attachments, noting resoutions by Lowndes County, by Valdosta,
a letter from Spencer Lee (Dougherty County attorney), a resolution by Terrell County, one by Albany, and one by Colquitt County.
The judge remarked that all this was public record anyway, so striking
the letter wouldn’t have much effect.
And it was pretty clear, at least to me (and remember I am not an attorney), that attorneys for both sides and the judge did Continue reading
Alton Paul Burns
commented yesterday on
Fracking south Georgia and north Florida?
Mr Emmet Carlisle wrote a song about fracking Florida “Don’t Frack Florida”. So in support of that movement I wrote another verse:
The battle is on in Bama & Georgia too
Spectra wants to run a pipeline through,
They could care less ’bout me or you,
And they lie to FERC more than they have too,More Solar energy, Yeah that’s the thing
To everyone this message we bring,
We don’t need Spectra’s pipeline, That’s a fact!
And we don’t have to Frack!-apb
So this would be the chorus for that verse: Continue reading
Potential fracking in north Georgia was too close, but what about right here in south Georgia? Florida has a snowballing anti-fracking movement. Looks like Georgia needs one, too.
Dan Chapman, AJC Online Athens, 10 March 2013,
Gas drillers turn to Georgia,
Jim Kennedy, the state’s geologist, says another company is considering the shale gas fields of the Mesozoic Basin that covers 60 percent of the Coastal Plain in South Georgia.
Most of the story is about proposed fracking in north Georgia that we noted back in 2013, plus fossil fuel industry propaganda about how great they say that would be for the local economy, with very little about the immense destruction, environmental hazards, and invasions of private property that would ensue. The AJC version of that Dan Chapman story didn’t seem to have Continue reading
Citizens can attend this open meeting to hear about that flooding study, traffic cameras, compensation, and other issues, even though it’s
inconveniently located in another county, almost as if the
Valdosta City Council didn’t want you to see what they’re doing.
If City Hall wouldn’t do, why not the Convention Center?
It has its own chef. Like the VDT editorialized,
there was no need to go to a out-of-town fancy resort.
Joe Adgie wrote for the VDT 8 January 2014, Valdosta City Council retreating in Moultrie,
The two-day event will feature discussion of issues that Mayor John Gayle and the City Council want to focus on in the coming year, as well as priorities for the legislative delegation and the Georgia Department of Transportation.
In addition, the results of a city employee compensation study will be released and discussed at the retreat.
The number one issue listed by the council for the current year involves funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for a levee and pump proposal.
According to the city, Continue reading
Yet another reason Atlanta doesn’t understand south Georgia:
military enlistment is 1 in 100 people in south Georgia from
Columbus to Valdosta, and less than a third of that in the Atlanta Metro area.
Enlistment is probably related to two other major features
of south Georgia that Atlanta doesn’t understand:
it’s agricultural (traditionally a bastion of military supporters),
and it’s poor (and enlisting is one way to a career).
A certain pipeline company may not have taken this factor
into account, either. Continue reading
Spectra starts trying to walk back its previous eminent domain statements, as WCTV reveals MGAG didn’t ask Moultrie before saying Colquitt County needed gas from Sabal Trail, and even MGAG says that deal wouldn’t (yet) affect eminent domain.
Picking up where
the VDT left the MGAG Sabal Trail gas eminent domain story,
Winnie Wright waved the bloody letter on WCTV yesterday 2 December 2014,
New Sabal Trail Project Has Many South Georgia Residents Worried About Eminent Domain,
and after quoting the eminent domain threat from that Sabal Trail attorney letter, said: Continue reading