Update 2016-09-25: Added google map.
Sabal Trail must really like Raccoon Creek, the number of times they cross it
(at least eight times).
Or they really don’t like that creek, considering
the destruction bulldozing for that pipeline is causing.
See the google map and the individual alignment maps shown here (click on any one of them for a larger image), pulled from Sabal Trail’s alignment sheets of 7 April 2016, filed with FERC as Continue reading
See for yourself what Jeb Bell was talking about to GPB, in these videos he sent
of the destruction Sabal Trail is doing on his property.
His father, James Bell, says it started immediately after a small protest Monday,
and is plowing through gopher tortoise burrows, rare pitcher plants, large pine trees bulldozed and burned, and today within 300 yards of his house.
James Bell the elder will be at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge 9AM this
Saturday, September 17th 2016, to join the
WWALS Watershed Coalition protest against Sabal Trail and the Dakota Access Pipeline,
which are now
owned by the same companies.
That’s between Quitman and Valdosta, GA; see you there.
Sam Whitehead, GPB News, 15 September 2016, Sabal Trail Pipeline Plows Through Southwest Georgia, Local Opposition, Continue reading
You can help prevent this happening to you or your neighbors.
Sabal Trail will use this to intimidate anyone who opposes them,
just like they’ve been using previous court cases to scare people all along.
Fortunately, the Bells have already provided a way everyone can help
and thereby demonstrate we the people do not want Sabal Trail.
The Bell brothers have set up a
gofundme campaign.
If you can’t contribute, you can help publicize it.
In the same case that people travelled to Leesburg, GA to attend twice, from Dougherty County and Lowndes County, GA and from places in Florida as far south as the Everglades, the Bell Brothers lost Continue reading
Sabal Trail can’t just assert public use for its pipeline: it has to prove it, according to the Georgia Constitution.
The
Constitutional Amendment
referred to by the landowners Attorney Jonathan P. Waters
at yesterday’s eminent domain hearing in Leesburg, GA
passed
7 November 2006 by 1,622,403 to 338,876, or 82.7% to 17.3%.
Here’s then-Governor Sonny Perdue’s press release when he signed the law to put it on the ballot, which includes this sentence:
Public benefit from economic development shall not constitute a public use.
So it would appear vague claims of tax revenue or illusory jobs are not enough, Sabal Trail.
Here’s the “neutral summary and explanation” required by Georgia state law: 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
Sabal Trail is already sending “final request” eminent domain threatening
letters to Lowndes County landowners saying it is “imperative” for that
invading company from Houston, Texas to survey local land for its fracked methane 36-inch pipeline in a hundred-foot right of way.
Tomorrow morning at 11:30 AM in Leesburg, Georgia, Sabal Trail demands
a judge provide a summary judgment for eminent domain surveying against
some Mitchell County landowners.
If they get that judgment, they will very likely claim it applies to
Lowndes County landowners.
There’s still time
to write a letter to the Clerk of Superior Court in Leesburg
against such a judgment.
And you can come to Leesburg yourself to protest.
An eminent domain survey “final request” Sabal Trail sent a Lowndes County landowner this month cited Continue reading
Sue the state? You’ll lose, because of sovereign immunity,
unless HB 59 passes.
Then you might be able to sue GA-DNR for circumventing permiting
in allowing construction on the Georgia Coast, or if it
should approve a compressor station in Albany, or if it
should issue any other permits for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline.
State agencies such as the Department of Natural Resources (GA-DNR),
can use “letters of permission” to do things like make alterations to
Georgia’s coast, and anyone suing to stop it runs up against sovereign immunity
unless the issuing agency has expressly waived it.
Now that may change with
HB 59,
“State tort claims; waiver of sovereign immunity for declatory judgment or injunctive relief; provide”.
It has six co-sponsors, including
Jay Powell, District 171, Camilla, Mitchell County, GA.
Here’s the key part: Continue reading
Watch out Dougherty, Mitchell, and Thomas Counties Georgia, and Jefferson, Taylor, Lafayette, Suwannee, and Columbia Counties, Florida, and the Flint, Ochlockonee, Aucilla, Ecofina, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers: Alternative 3 is for you! County Commissions and city councils in the county seats of Camilla, Thomasville, Monticello, Perry, Mayo, Live Oak, and Lake City may want to take action like Jefferson County already did to stop water bottling, as may Alachua, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood, The Villages, and Ferndale in Alachua, Marion, Sumter, and Lake Counties, Florida.
Alternative 3 in
FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” begins
like
Alternative 2 near Armena, GA and goes through Albany,
then veers due south.
Alternative 3 beginning at approximately MP 141 (near Albany, Georgia) and following Highway 82 to Highway 19 (Slappy Boulevard) in Albany, Georgia; then following Highway 19 through Albany, Camilla, and Thomasville, Georgia to the FGT pipeline corridor south of Capps, Florida; then following the FGT pipeline corridor to I-75 and the Alternate 1 and 2 routes to the proposed endpoint.
Here’s a very rough map of the whole route of Alternative 3, including the FGT pipeline part: Continue reading
A ribbon cutting for 30+ MW of solar power in Social Circle, Georgia,
with no media coverage,
other than a Georgia Power docket update buried at GA PSC.
Claudia Musleve Collier says she made this first quote from email to her,
and wants it shared.
Bryan Casey, with Greenavations Power sent me these photos of the recent [13 May 2014] ribbon cutting of their 38 MW solar project in middle Georgia[, Simon Solar in Social Circle]. PSC “Bubba” McDonald was present to flip the switch!
Continue reading
In case you had any doubt we’re in serious drought conditions, here’s a PR from GA EPD of 30 July 2012 suspending new agricultural water permits in numerous southwest Georgia counties, as close as Colquitt County, which adjoins Lowndes County.
-jsq
The Director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has announced that consideration of new applications for agricultural water withdrawal permits in a 24Âcounty area ofsouthwest Georgia will be suspended. The suspension takes effect immediately, but does not apply to applications EPD has already received as of this date.
Map of SW GA suspended water permit regions
Continue reading