The path of the pipeline through Lowndes County
(and part of Brooks and Hamilton) is shown in these
maps that were on easels at the
Spectra presentation at Wiregrass Tech last night.
Brooks @ US 84 and Withlacoochee River:
Lowndes @ Spain Ferry Road:
Continue reading
Spectra Energy subsidiary Sabal Trail Transmission held
a landowner one-on-one at Wiregrass Tech last night.
Matthew Woody of the VDT was there, as was one Valdosta City Council
member, one Lowndes County Commissioner, and at least two county staff,
plus some landowners (“might as well get something out of this”,
several said at the food bar), one of whom was a match for Andrea Grover.
Matthew Woody, VDT:
Continue readingMonday in Albany, Tuesday in Moultrie, and tonight in Valdosta, the pipeline roadshow is rolling through Georgia towards Florida. These are not public hearings or town halls: the pipeline company seems to be trying to get landowners in the path to show up, but anybody can attend.
Brad McEwen wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, Residents attend pipeline forum,
Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, which is a joint venture between energy giants Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy Inc., hosted the event to give citizens an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the proposed project.
Set up like an open house, the forum had 15 Sabal Trail subject matter experts on hand to greet residents and Continue reading
Spectra Energy will tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be,
as it
cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida
through south Georgia,
using eminent domain to make you sell your land,
to deliver gas
from fracking in Pennsylvania
for the benefit of
Florida Power and Light.
Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps
Brian Fahrenthold
or
Andrea Grover a few questions,
like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers,
and what about those
fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?
Added: facebook event.
Tonight (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called yesterday. Tech’s web server still seems to be down, but Google has cached her as: Continue reading
Sabal Trail had an interactive GIS map of the entire pipeline route in Moultrie last night, with zoom and pan detail as good as the tax assessor maps for Brooks and Lowndes Counties. The Sabal Trail reps declined to provide a copy of the whole GIS, but they obligingly panned down the pipeline and waited while I took pictures with my smartphone.
Here’s GIS of the pipeline route through Brooks and Lowndes Counties:
This is zoomed in where the route crosses US 84 and then the Withlacoochee River, which is the county line:
Continue reading
The most obvious risk of
that proposed natural gas pipeline
was seen in another one Monday through today in Oklahoma (and Texas and Kansas):
explosion and fire.
The pipeline proposed for here would be 44% bigger; maybe
we could have an explosion seen from Florida and Alabama!
CBS News reported today, Okla. pipeline blast sparks huge blaze, spurs evacuations,
Deputy Cliff Brinson, of the Harper County Sheriff’s Department, says the fire sounded like four roaring jet engines and had flames reaching two football fields high.
He says no injuries were reported, and residents within two miles of the blast were evacuated.
A family of three living in a home about 200 yards away escaped unharmed, authorities say.
By the time the pipeline company, Northern Natural Gas, released a statement they called it “a flicker”.
Video by Spencer Albracht: Continue reading
So “the pipe will be monitored 24/7”? That’s not Spectra’s actual practice, according to an employee and according to a federal fine.
By fjgallagher for Natural Gas Watch 19 June 2013, Spectra Energy Employee: We Never Bothered to Check Natural Gas Pipeline for Corrosion,
A Spectra Energy employee acknowledged to federal inspectors that the company never conducted key tests for corrosion on a natural gas pipeline that was already operating at excess capacity, according to documents recently obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org.
There’s much more in the article, including this:
Additionally, according to another May 2, 2013 letter sent under separate cover from (PHMSA) to Holeman, Spectra failed to install equipment to monitor whether or not the natural gas pipeline in question was being affected by corrosion and could not produce any records indicating that the pipeline had, in fact, ever been tested for corrosion or that the pipeline was even structurally sound.
So that’s what “the pipe will be monitored 24/7” means. Good to know.
See Item 2 in that Final Order with fines from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to Spectra Energy CEO Gregory L. Ebel: Continue reading
Spectra flip-flops on major safety events as well as on whose houses are beautiful and whether Georgia cities can use gas from its pipeline from PCB-polluted Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida. And Spectra was fined recently for violating both federal safety requirements and its own operating procedures, including for pipeline monitoring. Oh, and its natural gas comes from fracking.
Remember Spectra rep Andrea Grover,
quoted by the VDT?
Well, she’s been quoted elsewhere, too.
Mike Benard wrote for
CSRHUB 5 April 2013,
Spectra Energy ‘Backtracks’ on Methane Incident:
First: “Nothing Released …. No Smoke …. No Incident”;
Then Admits: Methane & Hydrocarbons Released,
Spectra Energy Corporation (SE, NYSE) was forced to backtrack on dismissive assertions it made about a nighttime incident at its huge natural gas compressor station in Bedford County, PA, after persistent neighbors and a reporter kept pressing the company and state regulators for facts.
A natural gas compressor station, like the ones Spectra says will be along its proposed AL-GA-FL pipeline, maybe in Dougherty County, maybe in Lowndes County; we don’t know.
Now Spectra could say this was a different kind of compressor because it’s a different kind of operation in Pennsylvania. What kind? Fracking: Continue reading
Spectra used
Dougherty County Commissioner Ewell Lyle’s question
in answer the Valdosta Daily Times about that natural gas pipeline
from Alabama to Florida.
And notice how they’re saying Tallapoosa County, Alabama now, and not
mentioning
PCB-polluted Anniston, Alabama as the source of the pipeline?
The VDT map conveniently clips Alabama completely out of the picture.
How about we clip Georgia out of the pipeline and install solar power instead?
Matthew Woody wrote on the front page of the VDT today, Pipeline intersects area: Sabal Trail project runs from Alabama to Florida,
Dougherty County Commissioner Ewell Lyle suggested letting locals tap it less than a week ago.
Note that weasel word: “potentially”. I could “potentially” tap into the two (2) pipelines that cross my property, but decades they’ve been there and that’s never happened.
When asked about the benefits of the pipe, Grover stated, Continue reading
Maps and video about
that pipeline public hearing in Dougherty County.
Spectra does have per-county maps and has finally doled them out.
What did Lee County do to make the pipeline avoid it entirely?
And what about Georgians even getting to use that natural gas?
Devin Knight wrote for WALB Sep 16, 2013 6:14 PM EDT Updated: Sep 21, 2013 6:14 PM EDT, Dougherty County residents ask for pipeline to be re-routed,
“Why not go ahead and put a tap in, or whatever you call it so we could utilize that gas instead of just being a transit through our area,” Lyle said.
WALB didn’t record an answer, but stay tuned, Spectra heard him.
Unfortunately, Commissioner Lyle is also now singing Spectra’s tune: Continue reading