Gulf Restoration Network Requests Supplemental Study

The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) has sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers requesting that the FERC submit a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement to the Corps before the latter issues a permit for the Sabal Trail project.  Groups signing on to this letter include Kioke-Flint Group, Sierra Club, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper,  WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc., Clean Water Network, Environment Florida, Our Santa Fe River Inc., and Earth Ethics.

The letter contains 52 pages and is thoroughly documented and fact filled indices.  To see the entire document, go to this SEIS request from GRN  Following are some excerpts from this letter:

We  submit  this  letter  on  behalf  of  Gulf  Restoration  Network  (“GRN”),  a  diverse  coalition  of   individual  citizens  and  local,  regional,  and  national  organizations  committed  to  uniting  and         empowering  people  to  protect  and  restore  the  resources  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  GRN  has     members  across  the  Gulf  who  will  be  impacted  by  the  Southeast  Market  Pipelines  Project  referenced  above.  We  believe  this  proposal  cannot  be  permitted  in  its  present  form.

Transcontinental  Gas  Pipe  Line  Company  LLC,  Sabal  Trail  Transmission  LLC,  and  Florida   Southeast  Connection,  LLC  (collectively,  “Applicants”)  have  sought  permitting  under  Section   404  of  the  Clean  Water  Act ​  and  Sections  10  and  14  of  the  Rivers  and  Harbors  Act  of  1899, ​  for   1 2 the  construction  of  the  proposed  Southeast  Market  Pipelines  Project  (“Project”).  GRN  most   recently  filed  public  comments  related  to  the  Project  on  December  11th,  2015  (Appendix  A).   This  letter  was  submitted  for  the  record  to  the  U.S.  Army  Corps  of  Engineers  (“Corps”),  the      Alabama  Department  of  Environmental  Management,  the  Georgia  Department  of  Environmental   Protection,  and  the  Florida  Department  of  Environmental  Protection.

The  need  exists  for  a  Supplemental  Environmental  Impact   Statement  (“SEIS”)  that  contains  more  robust  water  and  wetland  information,  in  order  to  gain   fuller  insight  into  the  costs  of  this  potential  project.

To  briefly  summarize,  GRN  remains  deeply  concerned  about  the  Project  and  its  potential  impacts   to  waterbodies  and  wetlands.  FERC’s  FEIS  still  hasn’t  addressed  components  of  the  Project           related  to  freshwater  withdrawals  and  discharges,  karst  and  sinkhole  risks,  and  mitigation  plans    for  impacted  wetlands.  We  see  a  SEIS  as  a  necessary  tool  to  gain  fuller  insight  into  the  costs  of   this  proposal  prior  to  any  permit  decisions  by  the  Corps.  Therefore,  given  the  significant  new      information  provided  to  the  Corps  that  was  unaddressed  by  the  FEIS,  we  request  a  SEIS  from     the   Corps  on  this  project  before  the  Southeast  Market  Pipeline  proceeds  in  the  permitting    process.