Tag Archives: Environment

Tybee beach to be resanded

The Army Corps of Engineers has released a Draft Environmental Assessment and a Draft Finding of No Significant Impact for putting more sand on Tybee Island beach, also known as “renourishment”.

Mary Landers wrote for ajc.com yesterday, Tybee beach renourishment plans move forward,

The renourishment process involves using a cutterhead dredge to move about 1.7 million cubic yards of high quality sand from an area located 1.5 miles from the southern tip of Tybee Island. The deposited sand would be enough to compensate for the erosion expected to occur over the subsequent nine years. The project will include placing sand up to the north terminal groin. This northern area was included in previous renourishment cycles, but not the 2008 renourishment.

“It is good news,” said Tybee council member Paul Wolff. “Obviously we depend on the beach for our economy. Everything that gets done to move the process forward helps. We’re optimistic we’ll get the federal cost share again.”

Hm, I wonder if this contact information would work for other projects: Continue reading

Susan Waller refusing to answer a question @ Sabal 2013-12-17

Here’s Susan Waller of Spectra refusing to even listen to a question that she had just asked for:


FERC-required Open House about the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline
by Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy,
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

Blake Clark remarked on this video he took:

This short clip speaks for it’s self. Notice Susan Waller’s condescending tone through out the clips entirety. It is assumed, and I have witnessed her speaking to most landowners inquiring more information in the same tone here. Are the people at Sabal (Spectra) or “what ever they may be calling themselves this week” really concerned for you, your questions, or your property? You decide!

Visit Spectrabusters.org for more information on the Sabal Trail Pipeline, Thank you!

Earlier she complained that someone who presented her with evidence was “disruptive”.

What I wanted to ask her about was Continue reading

Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL @ Sabal 2013-12-17

When someone took Susan Waller up on her offer to answer questions about the Sabal Trail pipeline, she seemed to find the truth as reported by her own company to a federal pipeline oversight agency to be “disruptive”.

Disable Sabal – Sabal Trail (Spectra Energy) Open House Madison, FL,

We are a very genuine, safe, law-abiding company.
So said Spectra VP or Shareholder Outreach Susan Waller. She then complained that “your group” was “disruptive” and “you don’t want to hear the truth”.

So Ben Vieth showed Waller lists of incidents of corrosion reported by Spectra to PHMSA. To which another Sabal Trail rep. said, “We have a safe operation”.

Here’s the video:


Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline,
FERC-required Open House, Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy (Sabal),
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

It’s interesting that even after Continue reading

Sabal Trail meeting leaves questions unanswered –VDT

Looks like we have a theme here, of Spectra and Sabal Trail not answering questions, often accompanied by mentions of threatening letters, on WALB (Spectra reps not familiar with fines against their own company), from Shale Property Rights (“your statement is incorrect and misleading”), on WCTV (“tonight’s meeting didn’t ease everyone’s fears”), in the Moultrie Observer (“Sabal began sending letters to landowners”), on Chris Beckham’s radio show (“veiled threats” and no response to a landowner attorney’s letter of denial of access), and spelled out in the headline of yesterday’s VDT article.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT yesterday, Sabal Trail meeting leaves questions unanswered,

The formats for both the Wiregrass and Clyattville meetings were perceived by area residents as unfriendly and intimidating.

“It’s the same set up as the meeting at Wiregrass,” said affected landowner Carol Singletary. “I am disappointed.”

Brooks County landowner, Tracy Ryder, said the hardest part about the layout of the meeting was that residents had to come with the right questions to ask because Sabal Trail did not easily provide the information.

“Overall, the meeting has good presentations, but not good information. It seems to be designed to win admiration without providing value. Some of the representatives have been courteous, but they aren’t straightforward with residents,” said James Ryder. “After this meeting, I feel kind of let down. I didn’t get the information that I wanted.”

Many residents expressed concern about safety issues, property values, paying property taxes on land that cannot be developed, reselling their property, and proper compensation for the use of their land.

Here’s a report by the Ryders about the 16 October 2013 meeting by Spectra:

We attended an open house meeting conducted by Sabal Trail in Valdosta, GA, last October at which time people were able to view charts and map and ask questions regarding the proposed pipeline and corridors. Sabal Trail representatives were not releasing information about the corridors and specific properties that were to be impacted because they said they were still in the planning and research stages. They did state they wanted to lay their pipeline next to the SONAT line, and that they were no longer considering utilizing the corridor affecting Tifton, Georgia because “there were too many people involved”. My reply to that was that property owners in Brooks County are people, too, and that we are already negatively impacted by the pre-existing SONAT pipe line.

Most importantly, we did note that there was no representation of Brooks County people at that meeting, or at any of the following meetings in Lowndes County. Lowndes County citizens are quite organized in their resistance to this new pipe line. We are contacting you with a questionnaire to learn what your concerns are. If Brooks County property owners organize and form a united front, we should be able to have our concerns addressed. By organizing we will have greater leverage to if not to change the course of the new gas line, to demand and negotiate better compensation for our losses. As I fear they will be significant.

And according to the VDT, the Ryders remain disappointed in the pipeline company for not supplying information. They’re not the only ones.

-jsq

Take a stand against the the pipeline –Karen Noll

Received today on Spectra reps unfamiliar with Spectra fines @ LCC 2013-12-09. -jsq

Take a stand against the the pipeline by sending in your comment to FERC.gov. At the website you eRegister and they send you an email. Once registered you can submit a comment on docket # PF14-1. Find below an example of a comment, feel free to copy any or all as you please:

Sabal Trail pipeline proposal poses a significant safety threat to our community through accidents. Leaks from such pipelines in the US have caused explosions and have destroyed homes and killed people 29 times this year alone. Since the proposed pipeline is much larger than any of these recent explosions, a pipeline of 36 inch radius could do extreme damage if such an accident should occur in the Lowndes county area where it is proposed. Not only those living near the pipeline but Continue reading

Sabal Trail answers: Commissioners did forward questions @ LCC 2013-12-09

Nobody said last Monday that Commissioners had asked for a written response from Sabal Trail. All we knew was the four questions Commissioners asked. Maybe the county should hire a public information officer; I see they no longer have one listed on their website front page, and the last website public notice is from April. Fortunately, Commissioner Demarcus Marshall forwarded Spectra’s answers yesterday. He also copied the Valdosta Daily Times, with attached PDF. -jsq

From: Demarcus Marshall
Date: December 13, 2013, 3:01:32 PM CST
Subject: FW: Sabal Trail/Lowndes County Commissioner response FINAL 12122013.pdf

Concerned Citizens,

These are the responses from Sabal Trail regarding the questions forwarded to me. Please forward to those in opposition of the surveys and those that have agreed to them.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall, M.P.A.

From: Fahrenthold, Brian C
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2013 9:46 PM
To: Demarcus Marshall
Cc: Bill Slaughter; Joyce Evans; Richard Raines; Crawford Powell; John Page; County Manager; Belinda Lovern
Subject: Sabal Trail/Lowndes County Commissioner response FINAL 12122013.pdf

Commissioner Marshall, Mr. Chairman, Commissioners and County Manager Pritchard:

Attached is a more detailed summation to the questions posed to the Commission by Ms. Singletary.

Should you need Continue reading

ADS included household trash in their recyclded items –Tim Carroll

Personal recollection from Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll received today on ADS fails to recycle, appeals DSS ruling anyway, adding detail that wasn’t in the VDT article.

The main problem the City was having with ADS was they included household trash in their recycled items. Used diapers and other household products mixed in with recycle materials is not allowed. The City advised ADS back to this past October of the issue and no improvements were made. Eventually the city had no choice but to cut them off. The City is a regional hub for recycle material and proud to offer the service.

OK, so is that a violation of the county’s “exclusive franchise” with ADS?

-jsq

ADS fails to recycle, appeals DSS ruling anyway

Why is Lowndes County leaving the City of Valdosta to subsidize the county’s failed “exclusive franchise”? And is ADS’ failure to recycle recyling a breach of its contract with the county?

Adam Floyd wrote on the front page of the VDT today, Advanced Disposal appeals Deep South decision,

Requests made to Advanced Disposal Service’s corporate office and Robert Norman, the lawyer who filed the appeal, to learn the company’s reasoning behind the appeal were not returned by press time.

Meanwhile, the City of Valdosta’s recycling center has denied Advanced Disposal further access to its facilities, citing concerns about volume.

John Whitehead III, deputy city manager for operations, said that the center could not process the company’s deliveries fast enough, and material was beginning to pile up. The suspension is temporary, Whitehead said, and was done to ensure that the city could process its recycling which increases during the holidays.

“We had been taking our recycling to the City of Valdosta, and Monday they cut us off without any notice,” said Greg Walk, local general manager for Advanced Disposal. “We’ve constructed a bunker at the landfill, and the material that is being collected in that bunker will be taken to a processing plant in Milledgeville.”

The company had to dispose of recycled materials collected Monday and Tuesday but continued recycling service Wednesday.

“It was the last thing we wanted to do to our recyclables, but we responded as quickly as possible,” said Walk.

Does that mean the city of Valdosta sent the recycling to the landfill? And is that a violation of the county’s contract with ADS?

-jsq

90 percent approval? Larry Rodgers doubts that @ LCC 2013-12-09

WCTV isn’t just publishing Spectra press releases or sales pitches, unlike the Lowndes County Commission.

Winnie Anne Wright for WCTV today, Sabal Trail Addresses Lowndes County Commission,

“Gas needed to come from one point and end up at another. We looked for those existing corridors that are already in place, to be able to run adjacent and parallel to those so we are lessening the impact on stake holders and the environment and this path that we are currently on, is over 80% adjacent or parallel to those types of things”, says Andrea Grover, Director of Stakeholder Outreach for Sabal Trail.

Well, no it doesn’t need to. Some fat cats in Houston and Juno Beach, Florida want to pump methane through here for their profit and our hazard, but that’s not the same as “needed to”.

But not everyone believes Sabal Trail has Lowndes County’s best interest at heart.

The proposed pipeline would run through Larry Rodgers’ property. He says he gave Sabal Trail access Continue reading

Frack Off Spectra, We Want Solar @ LCC 2013-12-09

Some citizens spoke up before the Lowndes County Commission meeting, even if the Commission didn’t want to hear from them during.

Continue reading