President Donald Trump is pushing to get the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines permitted and built. Meanwhile, a controversial pipeline in Georgia is already moving forward.
The Sabal Trail Pipeline will carry natural gas from Alabama, through the southwest corner of Georgia, down to central Florida.
Environmental groups oppose it, saying it could threaten people’s health and access to clean water.
“They’re cutting through these environmental justice communities, these African-American communities, and endangering the water particularly in south Georgia and northern Florida,” said Eric Huber, an attorney at the Sierra Club.
He’s working on a case in an appeals court to stop the project.
In Florida, people are setting up camps to protest the pipeline, echoing the tactic that the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe is leading against the Dakota Access Pipeline. Six camps are set up along the pipeline’s route.
Andrea Grover, director of stakeholder outreach with Spectra Energy, the company that’s building the Sabal Trail pipeline, said they’ve held open houses, done studies and have all the necessary environmental permits.
“There’s a lot of other large infrastructure projects and assets – including other pipelines – that are already constructed through the same areas,” she said.
Spectra started work on the pipeline last year and expects to finish building it this June. That means it could be nearly complete by the time the Sierra Club argues its case.
“Can we stop it? I don’t know, chances are slim, they always have been,” said Suwanee Riverkeeper John Quarterman. “What are we supposed to do, sit here and do nothing while they plow through our land, our water?”
Another pipeline that would have traveled through Georgia, carrying gasoline, got shelved last year after the state wouldn’t give it permission to use eminent domain.
Georgia lawmakers opposed this pipeline too, but did not have the legal standing to block it.
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