Friday Night Musik

Have a Great Weekend!

Link from YouTube 😎

Wow, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble.

❤️ 🌻R.i.p. SRV 🎸🎤

Rerun: Travelogue for the Universe: More on near death experience

Today's notes:
I posted this awhile ago,
While still working,
Before that MonSter persistently attacked my neurological system,
Dragging me home.
I don't ponder 🤔 much on near death experiences,
I wrote this awhile ago and it goes well with a dark, cold, dreary 😔 Vermont Summer.
Meg


Travelogue for the Universe: More on near death experience: More from my life on near death experiences... I've been a Registered Nurse from 1980 to present. Spent almost 20 years in hospital ...

Breaking #Fracking in land of imaginary rules and regulations

Gubmint?

If you're following our local battle against a pipeline being literally crammed through idyllic, peaceful, gentle rolling hills, farmland,our homeland 🏡 

You'll know.

Yup,

More Gubmint in action...

Or Inaction.

From the Digger,

To which we are Grateful,

Free Press in Action.

Raising awareness about Inaction.

Meg

https://vtdigger.org/2017/06/27/state-pipeline-closer-to-surface-than-ordered-but-still-safe/

C

We call him "C"

Because he has a white splotch on his forehead 

In the shape of a C.

He's a Y2K cat 🐱 

Tommy's cousin or brother 

By

Another Mother 

He's Feral,

We caught him too late to tame him.

We trapped all the felines that year,

About 20. 

Green Mountain Animal Defenders 🌹

Helped us with technical advice,

Loaner traps,

Adopting out some.

C and Orangina, aka Buddy are the last two feral cats outside .

You can get close,

But not too close.

Breaking #fracking Gaz update part 2

Hi all - we just sent this out to a slew of press contacts - but please share with any personal contacts you may have, and with anyone interested in knowing whats going on with the pipeline! I am not including the attachments since they may not come through and are large, and they were posted to these lists in the past few days.  If you NEED them, please let me know and I can provide. 

Thanks

June 26, 2017, for immediate release

Contact: Rachel Smolker, phone: office: (802) 482-2848, mobile: (802)735-7794. Email: rsmolker@gmail.com

 

Vermont Gas violates their permit failing to bury the pipeline deep enough in New Haven, and failing to notify the Public Service Board of the problem for over a year. But the shallow burial problems may be widespread. Citizens, via attorney James Dumont, have filed a reply, demanding an evidentiary hearing, an investigation into VGS neglect and misconduct, and potential sanctions of up to $10,000 per day for 13 months.

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

On June 2, 2017, Vermont Gas filed a request with the Public Service Board, asking that the Board consider the fact that they violated their permit when they failed to bury the pipeline to proper depth in an area in New Haven over a year ago, to be a “nonsubstantial change” to the permit. [attachments A and B]

On Friday, attorney James Dumont filed a response [attachment c] on behalf of several Vermonters.  Dumont argues that insufficient burial depth may be chronic, not limited to the one area in New Haven, where vigilant Vermonters happened to take photographs. He also points out that VGS knew about the problem in New Haven over a year ago but failed to notify the state until now, even though they are required by permit to notify the state immediately of any deviations from their plans as permitted. Finally, Dumont’s response raises serious questions about whether VGS and the Department of Public Service had any process in place to ensure contractors were aware of and complied with the conditions of the state certificate of public good (CPG) permit. Dumont’s clients are requesting an evidentiary hearing, and also an investigation of VGS’ neglect and misconduct, including an independent survey of depth for the entire pipeline route, as well as sanctions.

Background: The state “certificate of public good” (CPG) permit required, (among many other conditions), that the pipeline be buried at least 4 feet deep where it runs inside the VELCO right of way, under high voltage transmission wires.  This depth was a condition of the permit, and of the agreement between VGS and VELCO. Other depth requirements are associated with agricultural lands, stream and road crossings and individual easement agreements. The compressed gas pipeline runs more than 27 miles in the VELCO right of way and more than 23 miles in prime agricultural soils.

The area where VGS admitted they failed to bury the pipe deep enough is a wetland area, designated as a “state significant area” in New Haven. In September 2016, as construction in the area was underway, an excavator sank deep into the mud. A curious citizen, Lawrence Shelton, visited the site and noted that the pipeline was laid out in an open trench at very shallow depth. He took photographs.

Those photos were later delivered by a coalition of Vermont organizations and residents to the Department of Public Service, as well as to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) first in October of 2016 and then again in April 2017, along with a compilation of other observations and concerns about unsafe construction.

The photos were also presented to VGS and the DPS at a public forum on the pipeline, in February 2017. Mr GC Morris, the DPS gas engineer, agreed to participate in a site visit with Mr Shelton, which occurred in March.

PHMSA indicated in early May 2017 that they had sent staff to Vermont, and taken some steps towards investigating the complaints they had received.

Mr Shelton stated: “VGS had to admit their error in New Haven, because WE forced the issue to the regulators.  But now the question is: how are we to be confident that the pipe was properly buried in places where nobody was watching? The vast majority of the pipeline route was laid down where it was not visible and most people have no knowledge of what the depth or construction requirements are anyway.”

VGS knew about the shallow depth problem well over a year ago but failed to inform the state that they were violating their permit.  Vermont Gas’ request for nonsubstantial change designation is accompanied by a letter from VELCO which states: “VGS confirmed in writing to VELCO, with a May 25, 2016 Mott McDonald engineering analysis, that the HS20+15% loading requirement for the pipe, referenced in the joint VELCO/VGS Ops and Maintenance agreement could be obtained and maintained at all locations with less than 4 foot installed burial depth”.  The May 2016 engineering analysis of the problem makes clear it was known back at that time.

Also in May of 2016, ARK Engineering published an “AC Interference Analysis and Mitigation System Design” for the project. The report refers to the required burial depth in VELCO ROW incorrectly, as 3 feet. ARK took  direction on the depth requirement from VGS.

VGS appears to have already decided to violate its permit conditions back in May of 2016 prior to constructing most of the pipeline. The CPG permit stipulates that any substantial or material deviation from the plans for the pipeline as permitted, must first be approved by the Board ahead of time. Not a year later when gas under pressure is flowing through the pipe!

Finally, the depth of cover issue raises serious questions about whether VGS, or the DPS, had any real process for ensuring that any of the conditions of the CPG – not just pipeline depth - were ever implemented.  In a separate case (referred to in the Dumont reply, item D., par 78-82 ) involving blasting damages to a property, VGS employee and Right Of Way Manager, Karen Kotecki, testified that she was “unaware of how VGS ensured compliance with details of the CPG.”  A project supervisor for a VGS contractor stated he “may have been provided a copy of the CPG but had no recollection.”

Rachel Smolker stated in summary: “This pipeline has been rushed into operation with slipshod construction, and gross mismanagement on many fronts right from the start and in spite of persistent strong public opposition. Currently there are still two pending Supreme Court appeals, yet Vermont Gas is allowed to operate the pipeline in the meantime. The more we learn, the more we are appalled and concerned for the safety of our communities and the environment. It is increasingly obvious that VGS paid little if any attention whatsoever to the state CPG permit requirements. DPS allowed that to happen.  That is why we took our concerns to the federal authorities last October, in hopes that someone would force some oversight. At least that seems to have aided in forcing VGS to admit to what happened in New Haven, but there is no reason to assume that is the only place with a problem. VGS is now crowing that their pipeline is “done”.  But we certainly are not! 

attachments  

 

NOTES: What are the consequences and implications of too-shallow pipeline burial?

VGS, not surprisingly, claims the shallow burial is a minor issue. But burial depth is no minor issue. The CPG required Vermont Gas to build the system to higher than minimum standards with knowledge that there would likely be an expansion of the VELCO transmission system alongside the pipeline. The 4-foot depth was required as a means for protecting the pipe against damage from “load” - i.e. trucks and equipment driving over it. VGS is now claiming (and VELCO accepting) that the load bearing requirement will be met anyway irrespective of the too-shallow burial because thicker pipe was used. 

Depth of cover also impacts cathodic protection, which protects against corrosion and potential pipeline failure that can occur due to electrical interference under high voltage transmission wires. When corrosion occurs, it can happen quickly. In one case, for example, a pipeline installed 2 years earlier, had lost 95% of pipe wall thickness.

VGS is required to bury the pipe at least 4 feet deep in agricultural lands.  This is to protect farmers who are using equipment to dig/till/harvest on their land.  Equipment striking the pipeline could damage the pipe, and ultimately could lead to a leak or an explosion.  For farmers working their fields, and for people living along the pipeline route, especially those within what is referred to as the “incineration zone”, questions about the depth of burial raise serious concerns for safety. 

 

 

 

 

   

   

 

Breaking 🦅#Fracking Trans Vermont Pipeline Update

Hopeful...

Updates from the Stop the Trans Vermont Pipeline group...

First, summary by Rachel...

summer is fun time, but this truly cannot be missed….

On June 2, VGS filed a "request for nonsubstantial change" over their failure to bury the pipe properly in New Haven, along with a letter from VELCO saying it was OK with them. (i have those if you want and cannot access). This shallow burial was an admission of what we already knew to be the case - Cisco had taken photos, we had delivered those and other related concerns to PHMSA…and to GC MOrris at the public forum with June Tierney etc etc. SO they could not hide it. 

But a bunch more research has been done in the meantime, and some public record requests. Pieces began to fall into place... The story becomes quite a bit more damming indeed, with implications re whether there was ANY implementation of conditions of the CPG...

The filing submitted by Jim Dumont (on behalf of some of Protect Geprags, Kristen Lyons) is attached and a real page turner. 


PS: Note that the PSB took public comments on the nonsubstantial request until last Friday. DPS comment on the matter even at this stage states that they consider the depth of cover failure in New Haven to be a <<>> deviation from the CPG.  

not given up yet

***notes from Mary: I was unable to post the filing. It is a page turner...meg

Rerun🌻Travelogue for the Universe: For the Cowboys

Travelogue for the Universe: For the Cowboys: For the Cowboys When about 10, A friend and her Mom and I went to a rodeo. I was fascinated. Then when grown up we saw a big rodeo...

Re run ➡️Travelogue for the Universe: The Color of Pain

Travelogue for the Universe: The Color of Pain: Today before I even read the Psalm of the day on Psalm Challenge http://tagein-tagaus-athen.blogspot.com/ I wanted to post some Sunday th...

David's Starry Night

Courtesy of a friend, David Punia

A perfect capture of Fireflies or Lightning Bugs as I call them

Friday Night Musik

Friday Night Musik 

The ever amazing Beth Hart

Link from YouTube 

❤️😎🌻

Travelogue for the Universe: Themes of Pain

Thought I'd repost some of my Pain writings.
This as the Vermont legislature ponders with deep thought
Incremental legalization of #cannabis
Or Legalization Lite.
Painful Progress 
Meg


Travelogue for the Universe: Themes of Pain: themes of pain there is the pain corporeal, our aches, our pains significant. some block the pain, ignore the theme, the pattern of pains,...

Vultures

They're back
And
Happy 

Music Link

Wow, another great one...

Swallows

From the archives 

August Swallows 

Link to Amaze

YouTube surfing 🏄🏾
Yielded this gem....

Wow!

Edgar Cayce article link

Very interesting!

http://www.astrodreamadvisor.com/Edgar_Cayce_Astrology_Soul.html

Friday Night Musik Late Edition

Tgiff!

Friday Night Musik ...Early Edition Richard Barone

Today the Travelogue received a fine vinyl album 

By 

Richard Barone.

The postal lady liked the looks of it.

I was thrilled.

Here are a few favorite YouTube links...

Buy his album  RichardBarone.com

And be teleported 

To 1960's Greenwich Village 

Crank it up 😎

Light

Light

Locust Moments

Add caption

Morning Star ⭐️

The Morning Star ⭐️ 

After posting last night for today,

I sent a message to the Twitterverse 

 Venus or Mercury?

I inquired.

Mercury it is,

Messenger of the Morn.

Summer Memories

Locust Morning

From the archives...
Locusts are in bloom,
Summer has commenced.
Meg

Gaz Update #fracking

From our loyal citizen reporter, Henry 

Front page, albeit below the fold, valley news and nice picture on back
Hi Pipefighters - 

Here's our press release about the court proceedings in Chelsea yesterday, from the "PDEJ, the ad hoc group that organized the original action at Recchia's house. Hope you are all well and looking forward to spending more time with you soon.

Henry
~

People's Department of Environmental Justice
June 5, 2017 -- Chelsea, VT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Court Blockade Ends in Climate Case Mistrial

In a legal plot twist in Orange County Court today, protesters from Bread and Puppet Theater and the People’s Department of Environmental Justice turned the tables on the State Department of Public Service and the State Attorney's office in an alleged trespassing case. In May of 2016, protesters visited former State Dept. of Public Service Commissioner Christopher Recchia at his home. About a dozen protesters, dressed in hardhats and high res vests, came to reenact landowner accounts of Vermont Gas contractors violating written no-trespass orders at their homes. Today, protesters at the courthouse actually halted the resulting trespassing trial of Plainfield resident Henry Harris. Wearing prison stripes in the courtroom, they held up banners that read, “The State of Fossil Fuels vs. The People” and “Sentenced to Climate Change”. Judge Timothy Tomasi quickly stopped the proceedings and left the courtroom after the protest, returning minutes later to approve the State’s motion to declare a mistrial. Tomasi said part of the reason for the mistrial was that he failed to instruct the jurors to leave the courtroom when he left, exposing them to the influence of the assembled protesters. It is not clear whether the court will assume responsibility for this, but Tomasi also mentioned the possibility that Harris would serve jail time for contempt of court.

Last May protesters pantomimed surveying Mr. Recchia’s land, pretended to cut down lilac bushes with chain-less chainsaws, marked and staked out the property, and raised a 26-foot tall mock-oil derrick. The protest dramatized serving an Eminent Domain Foreclosure notice against Recchia, who had been authorizing the seizure of Addison county landowner's property through eminent domain processes for the controversial VT Fracked Gas Pipeline. These seizures of private land and new studies about the extreme impacts of methane “natural gas” on the warming climate have caused public outcry against the Addison-Rutland fracked gas pipeline and the Department of Public Service. Needless to say, Shumlin’s Commissioner Recchia didn’t like the eminent domain theater at his own home last May. To top off the irony, Mr. Recchia offered conciliatory remarks to Mary Martin, an Addison county resident in attendance, who has stood against the Department of Public Service’s eminent domain activities for the past half-decade.

Instead of focusing on his charges, Defendant Henry Harris claimed that “We are all sentenced to climate change”, stating that the government is the one on trial for pushing through the Addison/Rutland Fracked Gas pipeline and stealing people’s homes to do it. “We’re not here to talk about whether anyone stood in this guy’s yard or not” said Harris “We’re here, again, to exercise our first amendment rights and demand effective action to address the social and economic threats of climate change before it’s too late.” As far as the trespassing charge, the State’s witnesses were unable to produce any hard evidence that Mr. Harris remained on Recchia’s land once he was asked to leave, a key element of a trespassing convition. Harris said in court that he assumes this lack of any solid evidence is why the State’s attorney was so eager to move for a mistrial.

Protesters say that their exercise of free speech in the courthouse was a success, and are working on a new campaign to stop the next phase of the pipeline construction between Middlebury and Rutland.

For more info, contact Henry Harris
917 922 5430

vermont@nlg.org

​​

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Friday Night Musik

From YouTube...
Tgiff!


Bad Kat Karma

Steve Raybine

Cat Tales

Another Gaz update

Gaz update...

From wcax website...

http://www.wcax.com/story/35592872/judge-declares-mistrial-in-pipeline-protestor-case

Route 66

About 💯 years ago,
Route 66 changed,
Well, everything.

Website:
Route 66

Route 66 went through the town I grew up in.
When we were there for a visit,
We found this car Barn.
And I had to make a movie of it.

Watch Us Live! | WABC-AM | Cumulus

Watch Us Live! | WABC-AM | Cumulus

Menagerie of Imagination

Gaz Trans Vermont Pipeline Update #fracking

fracking

Trying to insert letters here....bear with me 😎

Update... I couldn't post letters here. I give up 😕Meg

Public Voice silenced....Rachel comments ignored by Vermont psb 

If Rachel was in Charge,
The world 🌎 would be a better place...

Rachel's comments:

Attached is a VGS filing just received, requesting "non substantial change" determination for failure to bury the pipe deep as required by CPG and by agreement with VELCO (last May!). Also attached is a letter from VELCO saying it is all OK with them (Gaz Metro owns both).  

Some of you will recall that Cisco had taken photos of a section of pipe in New Haven wetland area that was buried very shallow (and in standing water). Those photos were delivered to the federal regulatory agency (PHMSA) along with our complaints last October, and again in April. The issue was raised and photo was also presented to GC Morris, the DPS inspector, at the forum held with DPS/ June Tierney. Cisco thereafter visited the site with GC Morris. That is the area referred to here in VGS request.  

The depth requirement was part of the CPG - and part of VGS agreement with VELCO - to bury the pipe 4 feet when inside the VELCO right of way. They are also to have buried the pipe 5 feet in agricultural lands - so farm tools do not contact the pipe - And some landowners also had various stipulations re depth associated w easements.  

No doubt, everywhere else along the route - where nobody happened to be watching and taking pics - is buried just right…?

Summer

Summer Images

Friday Night Musik

Can't find my way home....

Link from  YouTube 

Tgiff!

Summer? What Summer?

I'm not complaining...

Weather cool and dry, then rainy.
Warm, then cold, or cool 😎 
Today is June First 

Summer is missing 

Friday Night Musik ...a little early 😎

Like a Bird

On a Wire,

I am Free.

Theme for June 2017 a.d.

Thanks Darrell the City Farmer,

For caring for the little bird...