Citizens Called to Public Hearing on Proposed Palmetto Pipeline Threat on Thursday, May 7 in Waynesboro
(WAYNESBORO, GA) Citizens of the 12 counties affected by the proposed Palmetto Pipeline route are being asked by the coalition, Push Back the Pipeline, to take a final stand against builder Kinder Morgan and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) permitting process.
The Push Back the Pipeline Coalition is inviting members of the public to attend the final GDOT hearing at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 7 at the Augusta Technical College – Burke County Campus located at 216 GA-24, Waynesboro, GA 30830.
At the only other public hearing on Tuesday, April 21 at the Richmond Hill City Center, a crowd of 600 landowners, business owners, environmentalists and concerned citizens attended in an effort to raise questions and concerns to GDOT.
Kinder Morgan, a Houston-based energy infrastructure company, is seeking needed approvals to construct a 210-mile pipeline across Georgia for delivery of petroleum products from the Gulf Coast to the South East. Because 202 miles of the proposed route are on private property, Kinder Morgan requires GDOT to issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity, which if approved, authorizes them to condemn the private property of 398 landowners and cannot be appealed. Time is running out on the 90-day period to fight the application and the GDOT public hearing on Thursday, May 7, is the last chance for the public to confront Kinder Morgan and GDOT representatives with unanswered questions.
Top Reasons Why Citizens Against the Palmetto Pipeline:
• Eminent Domain for a Private Company is WRONG.
• Big Oil Monopoly = Higher prices at the pump.
• 250 Georgia jobs lost.
• Private Property will be TAKEN.
• Georgia deserves answers from Kinder Morgan not Empty Promises.
• Pipeline would endanger rivers, marshes and wetlands.
• Palmetto pipeline is not earthquake proof; Savannah and Coastal Georgia run along a fault line and are exposed to seismic risk.
DIRECTIONS TO MEETING:
• FROM GA-121 S/US-25 S:
– Follow GA-121 S/US-25 S
– Continue onto US-25 BYP S/Burke Veterans Parkway
– Turn right onto GA-24 N
– Destination will be on the left
• FROM GA-56 S:
– Take US-25 BYP S/Burke Veterans Parkway/Burke Veterans Pkwy
– Turn right onto GA-24 N
– Destination will be on the left
• GA-80 S/Waynesboro Rd:
– Continue to follow GA-80 S
– Slight left onto GA-24 S/GA-80 S
– Turn right onto GA-24 S/S Liberty St
– Continue to follow GA-24 S
– Destination will be on the right
• GA-24 S:
– Continue to follow GA-24 S
– Turn right onto GA-24 S/S Liberty St
– Destination will be on the right
INFORMATION ON EMINENT DOMAIN
The Fifth Amendment states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. In the past ten years, massive restructuring of the eminent domain rules to protect owners has occurred with 47 states. Nine years ago, Executive Order 13406 was issued by President George W. Bush, stating: “It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.” However, it is the right of the states to make their own decisions about what qualifies as public use.
PROPOSED PIPELINE ROUTE THROUGH GEORGIA:
Richmond, 2 miles
Burke, 25 miles
Screven, 34 miles
Effingham, 39 miles
Chatham, 12 miles
Bryan, 7 miles
Liberty, 18 miles
Long, 2 miles
McIntosh, 17 miles
Glynn 24 miles
Camden, 18 miles
Charlton, 12 miles
CONTACT:
KC Allan
Push Back the Pipeline
pushbackpalmetto@gmail.com
www.palmettopipeline.com