A leaking gas line in the Cook Inlet does pose safety and environmental risks according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

A March 3rd Notice of Proposed Safety Order says the underwater pipeline near Nikiski must be repaired or shut down by May 1st.

“PHMSA finds that the continued operation of the Affected Pipeline Facility, without corrective measures, poses a pipeline integrity risk to public safety, property, and the environment,” said the notice.

Hilcorp reported the methane leak to the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation on February 7th. The federal agency’s notice says the leak may have started in late December.

“If they didn’t know about it they should have known about it. If you’re going to be out there in the Cook Inlet you should understand how much gas is going into a pipeline and how much gas is coming out of a pipeline,” said Bob Shavelson with Cook Inlet Keeper.

Seven conservation groups called for the gas line to be shut down Tuesday, including: Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands, Greenpeace and the Eyak Preservation Council.

“I’m just afraid that more leaks are going to continue if they don’t figure out how to deal with them now,” said Dune Lankard with Center for Biological Diversity.

The federal notice says winter conditions make a repair too dangerous and states Hilcorp is concerned stopping oil production may allow a pipeline carrying crude oil to freeze and leak.

“They really haven’t shown that they have the engineering and technical wherewithal to stop an active leak which is what they should be able to do if they want to do business in Cook Inlet,” said Shavelson.

A Hilcorp spokesperson declined an interview but offered a statement which read:

“Hilcorp, together with state and federal agencies, is actively working to address a natural gas pipeline leak in the Middle Ground Shoal area of Cook Inlet. Based upon observations to date, the release does not pose a threat to the public nor the environment, however ensuring the safety of our response personnel is our top priority as we proceed. We are pleased that PHMSA’s Proposed Safety Order acknowledges this, recognizing that immediate repair is not a viable option due to current conditions and concerns for the safety of personnel. Hilcorp will continue to work with PHMSA and other state and federal agencies to ensure a thorough and timely response. Hilcorp’s focus right now is addressing the natural gas pipeline leak and ensuring the safety of our responders in the field. An investigation into the timing and cause of the leak is currently underway.”

Hilcorp has until March 8th to provide the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation a plan for sampling the air and water and monitoring for wildlife impacts.

</s>ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A pipeline spewing natural gas into Alaska's Cook Inlet may have started leaking in December, two months before the leak was spotted from the air, according to a federal pipeline safety office.

The estimate of when gas started leaking into winter habitat for the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales was issued in a proposed safety order last week by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that the agency confirmed on Tuesday.

Processed natural gas continues to leak from a Hilcorp Alaska LLC pipeline that supplies four oil platforms in the inlet south of Anchorage — at a rate estimated by the company of 210,000 to 310,000 cubic feet of gas daily.

However, the company in late January reported that it had detected increased gas flow through the pipeline in January and started looking for a leak, according pipeline safety office's report.

Hilcorp has 30 days to respond. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, company spokeswoman Lori Nelson said the safety of response personnel is the company's top priority. She said Hilcorp is pleased that the proposed safety order recognizes that immediate repair is not viable.

The pipeline is in 80 feet of water. Repairs by divers cannot be made in current winter conditions that include sea ice, severe weather and extreme tides, according to Hilcorp.

Shutting the gas pipeline down is not an option, Hilcorp said. Before the pipeline carried natural gas, it moved crude oil. Without pressure in the line, seawater could enter and allow residual crude oil to leak, the company said.

Hilcorp purchased the pipeline and other oil and gas facilities from XTO Energy, Inc., in September 2015. The 8-inch line also leaked in June and August 2014. The leaks were 42 yards apart about two-thirds of a mile from the current leak. They were repaired with clamps.

XTO Energy concluded that previous leaks were caused by rocks contacting the pipe in locations where the line was not continuously supported by seabed.

Annual side-scan sonar or multi-beam echo-sounder surveys conducted by the company do not detect external loads on the pipe, eroded pipe, rock impingements, metal loss, dings or gouges, the federal pipeline office said. The agency called for creating modifications to the pipe to allow in-line inspections or alternative technologies.

Besides endangered beluga whales, Cook Inlet is home to salmon and other fish. Hilcorp last week said its modeling consultants conclude that only tiny amounts of natural gas likely are dissolving into the water.

The company said Tuesday that based on observations so far, the natural gas release does not pose a threat to the public or the environment.

In a letter Tuesday to the Trump administration, however, seven environmental groups strongly disagreed. They called for the federal pipeline safety office to issue an emergency order shutting down the line. The leak is creating a low-oxygen dead zone that threatens belugas and other wildlife, the groups said.

"This dangerous leak could stop immediately if regulators did their job and shut down this rickety old pipeline," said Miyoko Sakashita of the Center for Biological Diversity. Her group is one of two that have given formal notice that they intend to sue Hilcorp Alaska over the leak.</s>A Hilcorp helicopter crew Feb. 7 spotted gas bubbling to the surface about four miles off shore.

However, the company in late January reported that it had detected increased gas flow through the pipeline in January and started looking for a leak, according pipeline safety office's report.

A subsequent analysis of gas flow indicated the pipeline likely began leaking in December, the agency said.

The agency late Friday issued the proposed safety order requiring the line to be repaired by May 1 or shut down.

Hilcorp has 30 days to respond. In a statement Tuesday afternoon, company spokeswoman Lori Nelson said the safety of response personnel is the company's top priority. She said Hilcorp is pleased that the proposed safety order recognizes that immediate repair is not viable.

The pipeline is in 80 feet of water. Repairs by divers cannot be made in current winter conditions that include sea ice, severe weather and extreme tides, according to Hilcorp.

The company told the federal pipeline office safe diving operations cannot start until late March at the earliest.

Shutting the gas pipeline down is not an option, Hilcorp said. Before the pipeline carried natural gas, it moved crude oil. Without pressure in the line, seawater could enter and allow residual crude oil to leak, the company said.

Hilcorp purchased the pipeline and other oil and gas facilities from XTO Energy, Inc., in September 2015. The 8-inch line also leaked in June and August 2014. The leaks were 42 yards apart about two-thirds of a mile from the current leak. They were repaired with clamps.

XTO Energy concluded that previous leaks were caused by rocks contacting the pipe in locations where the line was not continuously supported by seabed.

Annual side-scan sonar or multi-beam echo-sounder surveys conducted by the company do not detect external loads on the pipe, eroded pipe, rock impingements, metal loss, dings or gouges, the federal pipeline office said. The agency called for creating modifications to the pipe to allow in-line inspections or alternative technologies.

Besides endangered beluga whales, Cook Inlet is home to salmon and other fish. Hilcorp last week said its modeling consultants conclude that only tiny amounts of natural gas likely are dissolving into the water.

The company said Tuesday that based on observations so far, the natural gas release does not pose a threat to the public or the environment.

In a letter Tuesday to the Trump administration, however, seven environmental groups strongly disagreed. They called for the federal pipeline safety office to issue an emergency order shutting down the line. The leak is creating a low-oxygen dead zone that threatens belugas and other wildlife, the groups said.

"This dangerous leak could stop immediately if regulators did their job and shut down this rickety old pipeline," said Miyoko Sakashita of the Center for Biological Diversity. Her group is one of two that have given formal notice that they intend to sue Hilcorp Alaska over the leak.</s>ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A pipeline spewing natural gas into Alaska’s Cook Inlet may have started leaking in December, two months before the leak was spotted from the air, according to a federal pipeline safety office.

The estimate of when gas started leaking into winter habitat for the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales was issued in a proposed safety order last week by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration that the agency confirmed on Tuesday.

Processed natural gas continues to leak from a Hilcorp Alaska LLC pipeline that supplies four oil platforms in the inlet south of Anchorage — at a rate estimated by the company of 210,000 to 310,000 cubic feet of gas daily.

A Hilcorp helicopter crew Feb. 7 spotted gas bubbling to the surface about four miles off shore.

However, the company in late January reported that it had detected increased gas flow through the pipeline in January and started looking for a leak, according pipeline safety office’s report.

A subsequent analysis of gas flow indicated the pipeline likely began leaking in December, the agency said.

The agency late Friday issued the proposed safety order requiring the line to be repaired by May 1 or shut down.

Hilcorp has 30 days to respond. Company spokeswoman Lori Nelson in an email said Hilcorp had no immediate comment.

The pipeline is in 80 feet of water. Repairs by divers cannot be made in current winter conditions that include sea ice, severe weather and extreme tides, according to Hilcorp.

The company told the federal pipeline office safe diving operations cannot start until late March at the earliest.

Shutting the gas pipeline down is not an option, Hilcorp said. Before the pipeline carried natural gas, it moved crude oil. Without pressure in the line, seawater could enter and allow residual crude oil to leak, the company said.

Hilcorp purchased the pipeline and other oil and gas facilities from XTO Energy, Inc., in September 2015. The 8-inch line also leaked in June and August 2014. The leaks were 42 yards apart about two-thirds of a mile from the current leak. They were repaired with clamps.

XTO Energy concluded that previous leaks were caused by rocks contacting the pipe in locations where the line was not continuously supported by seabed.

Annual side-scan sonar or multi-beam echo-sounder surveys conducted by the company do not detect external loads on the pipe, eroded pipe, rock impingements, metal loss, dings or gouges, the federal pipeline office said. The agency called for creating modifications to the pipe to allow in-line inspections or alternative technologies.

Besides endangered beluga whales, Cook Inlet is home to salmon and other fish. Hilcorp last week said its modeling consultants conclude that only tiny amounts of natural gas likely are dissolving into the water.

Environmental groups contend the leaking gas is a threat to belugas and their prey. Two environmental groups have given formal notice that they intend to sue Hilcorp Alaska over the leak.

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which oversees oil and gas drilling and production on state and private lands, last week fined Hilcorp $200,000 for unsafe practices in September 2015 at the Milne Point oil field northwest of Prudhoe Bay.

The commission said the company without authorization used nitrogen to clean a well. The gas entered an enclosed “mud trailer” with three workers inside and “nothing but luck” prevented their deaths, according to the commission.

Hilcorp in a statement said it has taken steps to make sure similar incidents don’t happen in the future.</s>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal pipeline safety office says natural gas leaking from an underwater pipeline in Alaska’s Cook Inlet may have started flowing in December.

Gas from the pipeline was spotted bubbling to the surface Feb. 7.

But the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration says a flow analysis indicates it started leaking in late December.

The agency has issued a proposed safety order requiring the line to be repaired by May 1 or shut down.

Hazardous winter conditions including sea ice and strong tides have prevented divers from repairing the leak.

The company estimates 210,000 to 310,000 cubic feet of gas daily is leaking into winter habitat of endangered beluga whales.

Environmental groups contend the gas is a threat to belugas.</s>ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Latest on an underwater natural gas pipeline leak in Alaska's Cook Inlet (all times local):

The company that owns a natural gas pipeline leaking in Alaska's Cook Inlet says it's pleased that a federal pipeline safety office has not called for an immediate repair.

Hilcorp Alaska LLC estimates that up to 310,000 cubic feet of processed natural gas is spewing daily from its underwater pipe into the inlet that's home to an endangered beluga whale population.

The company says sea ice, strong tides and haphazard weather make it too dangerous for divers to repair the leak immediately.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration has issued a proposed safety order calling for repairs by May 1.

Hilcorp says its top priority is the safety of response personnel.

The company says that based on observations to date, the company believes the leak does not pose a threat to the public or the environment.

A federal pipeline safety office says natural gas leaking from an underwater pipeline in Alaska's Cook Inlet may have started flowing in December.

Gas from the pipeline was spotted bubbling to the surface Feb. 7.

But the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration says a flow analysis indicates it started leaking in late December.

The agency has issued a proposed safety order requiring the line to be repaired by May 1 or shut down.

Hazardous winter conditions including sea ice and strong tides have prevented divers from repairing the leak.

The company estimates 210,000 to 310,000 cubic feet of gas daily is leaking into winter habitat of endangered beluga whales.

Environmental groups contend the gas is a threat to belugas.</s>Into the quiet, a voice rang out amid the trees.

"Everyone remain in prayer!" a man in a brown jacket instructed. "Keep your prayers focused! Keep your intentions pure!"

Beneath the blue Suwannee County sky, someone tapped out a beat on a tribal drum. Two young women sat cross-legged behind the wheels of a construction truck, their arms locked to the bottom of the vehicle. Dozens of deputies in shades of green and khaki stood in formation watching over the hundreds of protesters who had descended upon the North Florida construction site, where a massive natural gas pipeline was being fitted into the ground.

Someone began strumming a guitar, and together, a collective voice sang out: People gonna rise like the water. We're gonna face this crisis now. One of the deputies began tapping a roll of zip ties against his hand as if playing a tambourine. He gave the protesters a thumbsup. The song continued: I hear the voice of my great-granddaughter. We're gonna shut this pipeline down!

But as someone led the group in prayer, another officer interrupted.

"All right, time's up!" he yelled. "Vacate the roadway!

Creating a human wall, the cops stood shoulder-to-shoulder and marched slowly toward the crowd, backing the protesters off the dirt road and into their cars. "Y'all go ahead and leave. Leave!"

By the time the sun set on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, police had arrested eight of the protesters, including the women chained to the truck. Twenty-five-year-old Alexa Oropesa, a Miami native, and 21-year-old Kaithleen Hernandez, a Florida International University graduate, were charged with trespassing and resisting arrest and held overnight at the Suwannee County Jail.

The arrests were largely symbolic, but to those in handcuffs, they amplified a vital message. "We know this fight is bigger than us," Hernandez said in a video after her release. "It's bigger than this one pipeline. It's all of them."

Halfway across the country, protests rocking the Dakota Access Pipeline in Standing Rock have energized environmentalists, sparked daily headlines, and forced federal action. But in Florida, the state has its own massive project rife with controversy: the $3.2 billion Sabal Trail Transmission Pipeline, which runs 515 miles from Alabama to Central Florida. In recent months, protests of Sabal Trail have led to at least 26 arrests and the death of a 66-year-old man who was shot by police after he fired a gun at the pipeline in late February.

The corporations behind the pipeline, including the parent company of Florida Power & Light, say the project will safely meet a growing demand for natural gas while bringing jobs and tax revenue to the three states through which it passes. They've promised to operate the pipeline in accordance with all regulations and say they are committed to being a good neighbor.

But activists paint a far darker picture of the project. Environmentalists warn that spilled equipment contaminants could leach into the soil or water and fear that construction above the Floridan Aquifer — which millions of residents depend on for drinking water — could damage fragile limestone protecting the vital water source. Others worry about residents along the project's route, more than 80 percent of whom live in poor and minority communities that will be disproportionately affected by the threat of explosions and dangerous emissions. The pipelines' builders, meanwhile, have showered millions of dollars on pliant politicians from both sides of the aisle — including Gov. Rick Scott, who once owned a stake in one of the companies backing Sabal Trail.

The pipeline's critics have a tough fight ahead. Up against not only billion-dollar energy companies, the small but growing resistance group also finds itself at odds with President Donald Trump, who recently signed an executive order expediting other pipelines. Sabal Trail reps say about 90 percent of the pipe is already in the ground. If all goes according to plan, gas should be flowing through the pipeline by late June.

But opponents say they still have hope. A court battle is ongoing over a Sierra Club lawsuit that argues the feds never should have approved a project that will pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Concerned citizens continue to photograph construction sites in the hopes of finding violations that could nick the companies building the pipeline. And protests have popped up across Florida, drawing awareness to the cause and starting a conversation about the role of corporate politics in modern society.

"We've started to cater to the private interest over the public interest, and this is a perfect example of it," says progressive activist Tim Canova, a professor at Florida Atlantic University. "It's a needless, self-inflicted wound being dictated by corporate greed."

In the middle of the woods outside Live Oak, a city of 7,000 people about 40 minutes south of the Florida-Georgia line, a campfire crackles from the previous night and a fog envelopes the tree canopy. Other than the distant roar of cars on Interstate 10, all is still. By 8:15 a.m., the sun has risen, but the campers have not.

For months, the Sacred Water Camp has drawn protesters from Standing Rock; Washington, D.C.; and elsewhere. Those who stay identify themselves as water protectors, a name that transcends their opposition to the pipeline and encapsulates what they hope to achieve: the preservation of our greatest natural resource.

"Water is everything, but fresh water is at threat," says Jordan Mossing, an excitable 27-year-old who quit his job at UPS, cashed out his 401(k), and headed on a cross-country bicycle trip from Toledo, Ohio.

Those congregated this February morning are crunchy but genteel, almost to a fault. Mossing wears a Bob Marley T-shirt and rambles excitedly about the life-changing power of love. An Indiana man who introduces himself as Roaming Wolf believes the camp should incorporate as a religious organization, a church of naturalism for folks eager to live off the land as their ancestors did. Many of them walk around barefoot, including Fallan Fontenot, a 23-year-old South Dakotan who wears her blue and purple hair in braided pigtails and jokes that her preferred mode of transportation is her "Lamborfeeties."

"You may think we're all just a bunch of hillbillies," she says, "but we really just care about our nature."

Though the ragtag crew is definitely an earthy bunch, portrayals of the protesters as out-of-touch tree-huggers does the disservice of obscuring the very real dangers of oil and gas pipelines. Although relatively rare, in the past 30 years pipeline accidents have killed 548 people, injured 2,576, and caused $8.5 billion in damage.

"The people dismissing those concerns don't think it could ever happen here, but I imagine the people who live in Flint, Michigan, never thought it could happen there either," Canova says. "The folks raising the alarm should be applauded for drawing attention to this."

Pipelines have crisscrossed the United States for about 150 years. Before then, companies moved oil by horse-drawn wagons, the cost of which far outweighed that of the oil itself. But in 1865, oil tycoon Samuel Van Syckel found a better way. In the foothills of the Appalachians, he dug the country's first oil pipeline in western Pennsylvania, extending a two-inch iron pipe five miles from a drilling site to a railroad station. The idea caught on, and companies soon began building increasingly longer lines.

By 1900, 6,800 miles of crude oil pipelines stretched across the nation. Pipelines carrying oil and natural gas now snake around 2.6 million miles of our country — enough to circle Earth 104 times.

Proponents say pipelines are ultimately far safer than trucking fuel across the country. They argue that natural gas is a cleaner alternative to oil or coal and has the potential to save consumers on their monthly utility bills.

But transporting fuel via pipeline has sometimes come at a huge cost to the public. In August 2000, 12 people at a campground near Carlsbad, New Mexico, were decimated in a gas pipeline explosion. The fireball was so large that it could be seen from 20 miles away and so hot that it melted sand into glass and turned concrete into powder. Investigators later found the operator hadn't properly inspected the corroding infrastructure.

In 2011, another natural gas pipeline exploded in Allentown, Pennsylvania, destroying eight homes and killing five people, including a 4-month-old. A state investigation discovered the pipeline company, UGI Utilities, had failed to complete a 30-year-old work order recommending the cast-iron pipe be replaced.

Florida pipelines have also ruptured. In 2013, a 30-inch Florida Gas Transmission Co. pipe delivering natural gas from South Texas to South Florida exploded, causing homes in Enon, Louisiana, to shake so violently that one resident told the local paper: "I thought it was Al-Qaeda blowing up a gas station."

One of the most destructive accidents happened in September 2010, when a 30-inch steel natural gas pipeline blew up, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes in San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco. During a criminal trial, current and former Pacific Gas and Electric Company employees testified that the company had intentionally chosen the cheapest inspection method, which it knew wasn't fully sufficient to find flaws. This past January, the company was fined the maximum criminal penalty of $3 million for violating safety laws.

The most damaging incidents tend to be caused by older pipes, which can be difficult to inspect for deterioration since they're buried underground. And aging pipelines are a real cause for concern in the United States: As was the case in San Bruno, more than half of the country's pipelines are at least 50 years old.

But newer pipelines have also posed problems. Only three years after it was installed, a 42-inch natural gas pipeline beneath Cuero, Texas, ruptured in June 2015, exploding into a 100-foot fireball and releasing 165,000 pounds of volatile organic compounds, which can cause cancer. Stunningly, state regulators declined to fine the company that operated the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners, the same corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Critics say there's another reason behind so many deadly accidents: Even as pipeline technology has evolved, regulation has lagged. A 2012 ProPublica investigation found that only 7 percent of natural gas pipelines are required to undergo regular inspections by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the agency responsible for regulating the industry, which itself has been around since only 2004. Many of the agency's safety standards were written by the oil and gas companies themselves, and at least two top officials who've landed at PHMSA this decade are former industry employees.

The agency has also been criticized as chronically understaffed and strapped for cash. On the few occasions when PHMSA does crack down on negligent pipeline operators, the fines it levies are negligible compared to the profits oil and gas companies rake in through the lines.

"Do I think I can hurt a major international corporation with a $2 million civil penalty? No," PHMSA's top official, Jeffrey Wiese, said bluntly at a 2013 industry conference in New Orleans.

The agency's most damning critic has been U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who once called PHMSA "a toothless tiger that has overdosed on quaaludes and is passed out on the job." Standing in front of a bar graph showing the disparity between tiny fines and towering damages, Speier said PHMSA's position that regulations are overly burdensome on pipeline companies "is the reasoning of movie villains, not well-intentioned safety professionals."

"Life has risks, but one of them shouldn't be coming home to find your husband and son and mother-in-law dead and your house obliterated, as happened to one of the families in my district," she said of the San Bruno incident.

Aside from safety concerns, environmentalists say pipeline projects pose another serious problem by undermining the market for renewable energy alternatives such as solar power. In 2014, the heads of 16 climate advocacy groups including the Sierra Club and Earthjustice asked President Barack Obama to take a stand against a growing U.S. trend of exporting fracked gas to other countries.

"We believe that the implementation of a massive [liquefied natural gas] export plan would lock in place infrastructure and economic dynamics that will make it almost impossible for the world to avoid catastrophic climate change," they wrote.

Translation: Once energy corporations make an investment in pipelines and get used to profiting off natural gas exports, it'll be really hard to stop them — and Planet Earth will pay the consequences.

Leaving his opulent Mar-a-Lago estate on a recent Sunday afternoon to head back to the White House, President Trump slipped into a limousine and off to the Palm Beach International Airport. But roughly two miles into the 15-minute drive, the commander in chief was confronted by swarms of protesters lining Southern Boulevard. Waving signs that read "You can't drink $" and "There is no Planet B," an angry mob shouted at the motorcade.

"Planet over profit! Health over wealth!" they chanted.

Some booed Trump; at least one guy flicked him off. "Water is life!" they yelled as he whizzed by. "Stop Sabal Trail!"

Though the battle over the Sabal Trail Pipeline has intensified in recent months, the opposition movement now getting headlines started long ago. From the very beginning, residents along the proposed path have organized community meetings, railed against Sabal Trail representatives, and begged local lawmakers to oppose the project. It's only because their objections were voiced in small rural communities, away from TV cameras, that they haven't garnered national attention until now.

"This is a fight that's been going on since late 2013," says Michael Noll, a professor of geopolitics at Georgia's Valdosta State University and president of Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy, an activism group. "In the last couple of months, the Standing Rock protests have given us a new energy. A lot of people are waking up."

The idea for Sabal Trail has been around since at least 2009, when Florida Power & Light initially proposed building a pipeline from Martin County on the Treasure Coast to Bradford County, just north of Gainesville. But the Florida Public Service Commission rejected the proposal over concerns it wasn't cost-effective.

Going back to the drawing board, FPL opened bidding in December 2012 for an ambitious new pipeline that would hook up to a natural gas hub in Alabama and run down to FPL's natural gas power plant in Martin County. This time, the state agency approved, signing off on the project in October 2013.

The protest movement mobilized soon afterward, and residents began packing city council chambers to voice their objections. This time, it wasn't just regular folks who were worried. In October 2015, the EPA wrote a widely disseminated letter arguing that the pipeline would negatively affect nearly 700 acres of Florida wetlands and 145 acres of the state's conservation areas. The agency also expressed concerns over the pipeline's proposed route across the aquifer and the potential impact on drinking water.

Before the end of the year, though, another division of the EPA reversed course, saying the agency had changed its mind after meeting with Sabal Trail reps. In February 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the project. In August, the Army Corps of Engineers issued the final permits needed to begin construction on Sabal Trail, a joint venture of Spectra Energy, Duke Energy, and NextEra, FPL's parent company.

The next month, the Sierra Club filed its federal suit against FERC, saying the agency hadn't given enough weight to concerns about climate change or the low-income communities along the pipeline's route. "Based on these numerous failures, FERC's decision to issue the certificates... is contrary to the public interest," the lawsuit says.

While Alabama and Georgia have their own concerns, many in Florida worry about the impact on the state's vulnerable natural environment. Maps show the pipeline will cut across the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers and through the Green Swamp, a 560,000-acre water source classified as an area of critical state concern. The route also travels over the Floridan Aquifer, which provides drinking water for 60 percent of Floridians.

The companies building Sabal Trail have admitted in documents that construction "will include temporary and permanent impacts on vegetation, wildlife habitat, and waterbodies," though they argue their purchase of $12 million in "mitigation credits" will offset that impact. Not everyone agrees.

"It's not really con-struction," says Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, a Sierra Club organizer. "It's de-struction of wetlands and virgin forests, where wildlife will always be impacted."

Environmentalists also question whether the state's Swiss-cheese-like karst terrain, which is filled with random holes and gaps, can support such a massive infrastructure project. Some argue the pipeline could collapse in that kind of terrain.

"Sinkholes are cavities that open up in the ground, often unpredictably, and are caused by water erosion," Canova the activist warned in a widely shared post on Medium. "All that has to happen is for one sinkhole to open up unexpectedly underneath the pipeline and a billion gallons of fracked gas will spill into the aquifer — and the entire state of Florida will look like Flint, Michigan."

Allegations of corruption have also haunted the pipeline. Critics point out that Gov. Rick Scott once had a $108,000 investment in Spectra and its affiliate, DCP Midstream Partners. As first reported by Florida Bulldog, Scott hadn't yet disclosed his stake in the companies when he signed a law expediting the permitting process for pipeline operators in 2013. (Scott's spokeswoman, Jeri Bustamante, says the governor's assets have been in a blind trust since he took office in 2011, meaning he has no knowledge of any of the transactions, including those involving the pipeline affiliates.)

But Scott is far from the only Florida lawmaker who's given the project a thumbs-up. The state's second most prominent Republican leader, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, has also backed pipeline infrastructure, at one point describing Sabal Trail as a victim of "government-created obstacles." Campaign finance records show he was a top recipient of Spectra dollars last year, when his campaign pocketed $10,000 from the energy corporation.

It's not just GOP politicians who have made pipeline operators feel welcome in Florida, though. Rubio's Democratic counterpart, Sen. Bill Nelson, has so far been silent on Sabal Trail, and Florida's controversial new billionaire Democratic Party chairman, Stephen Bittel, who owns a petroleum investment firm, hinted at his approval for pipeline infrastructure in an interview earlier this year.

Considering how much cash the companies tied to Sabal have thrown at Florida politicians, it's maybe not a surprise that elected leaders on both sides of the aisle have been complicit. In 2016, Spectra spent $1.4 million lobbying Congress against pipeline regulations, giving $395,000 to 84 Republicans and 29 Democrats in the last election cycle. NextEra Energy Resources was also a top donor to Nelson's and Rubio's Senate campaigns last year.

"It's very disheartening to see the political establishment of both parties absolutely silent on this," Canova says. "A lot of people believe this is the result of the campaign contributions they've been taking from the fossil fuel industry."

The political maneuvering has also made it easy for those companies to railroad residents, says Noll, the geopolitics professor. "Basically, when you have organizations like Spectra Energy that have far-reaching political influence, they can easily misuse eminent domain and the Natural Gas Act to push for projects like this that are supposedly in the public interest."

It's apparent that's already happening. To date, Sabal Trail has filed 25 eminent-domain lawsuits against homeowners in Florida and about 145 suits against homeowners in Alabama and Georgia for easements on their properties. All told, more than 1,500 property owners will be directly affected by the pipeline's construction, a number that doesn't capture those who live on neighboring properties. The Sierra Club's Malwitz-Jipson says there are instances where the pipeline runs very close to an adjacent property, although there's no legal requirement for the gas companies to notify the neighbor.

"You can literally have a bedroom five feet away from the corridor, but it's not on your land, so that's not part of the equation," she says. "The only people they have to tell are the property owners."

The same holds true for renters, she says. "What we're finding is, especially in apartment-dwelling areas, the landlord might know about this but the tenants don't."

Residents of Marion County, home to Ocala, are especially fired up about Sabal Trail, and for good reason: The pipeline is less than a mile from two of its public schools in the town of Dunnellon. Because of public records laws, parents of students at those two schools aren't even allowed to read a copy of the school district's emergency plan to see what would be done in the case of a fire or explosion. Marion County Public Schools has not taken a public stance on the pipeline.

"It is not a school district issue. It's a federal project going in on private lands," district spokesman Kevin Christian says.

Sabal Trail also plans to use a site in Dunnellon (population: 1,700) for one of its compressor stations. Set intermittently along the route to pressurize the gas, compressor stations have historically been prone to fires and explosions and are sometimes viewed as possible terrorism targets because of their volatility.

Other populations also stand to lose. Because the route travels through several pine forests and watermelon farms in North Florida, the pipeline could adversely affect agricultural workers, says Jeannie Economos, a coordinator with the Farmworker Association of Florida.

"There's not only a risk to the farmworkers themselves, but also to the crops and the agricultural industry," Economos says. "Any kind of damage to the pipeline where the crops are affected, and farmworkers will also lose their jobs."

In fact, more than 80 percent of the pipeline goes through so-called environmental justice populations, says Elly Benson, an attorney for the Sierra Club. "That generally translates to minority and low-income communities," she says. "The gist of it is that the pipeline is cutting through these communities that are already overburdened by pollution."

Any one of those concerns — whether the environmental impact, the physical hazards, the shady approval process, or the disruption of people along the route — should give residents of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida serious pause about the multibillion-dollar project, Noll says.

"If everyone would just be honest and sit down and look at the pros and cons, I don't think anyone who has even a little bit of a brain left would say this is a good idea, because it's not," he says. "It's an idea that belongs in the last century or the last millennium."

Back at Sacred Water Camp on a cool February morning, six men and two women join hands in prayer, forming a circle around the campfire and passing around a bundle of burning sage to clear the air. Roaming Wolf leads them in the invocation.

"Great Spirit, we stand here together on this Mother Earth," he prays. "Let's spread the message that we can all have peace and we can all be united again in this world."

Wolf, a 45-year-old with a graying goatee and blue-gray eyes, wears camo pants and a black baseball cap emblazoned with a Bocephus lyric: "I'll keep my guns, money, and freedom. You keep the change."

Like most of the campers, he isn't from Florida. Born in Indiana, he says he lived for a time on an Indian reservation with his grandmother, who was Cherokee. Twice divorced and a father of 14 children, Wolf says he has more or less been a nomad his entire adult life. Disturbed by what was happening in Standing Rock, he traveled to Florida in December to challenge the construction of the pipeline and establish a southernmost opposition camp.

"It's in our instincts," he says. "If someone attacks our Mother, we're gonna defend her."

By now, the pipe has already been laid beneath Suwannee County, and construction has moved south toward Central Florida as crews work to build out the last 10 percent of the 515-mile pipeline. Water protectors like Roaming Wolf say their best hope for stopping the pipeline lies not at their protest camps, but in a courtroom in D.C. On April 18, the court will hear arguments from both the Sierra Club and the federal agency that approved the Sabal Trail Pipeline.

"We can protest all we want, but we know our public interest is not held in any high regard at any state agency, or federal agency for that matter," says the Sierra Club's Malwitz-Jipson. "It takes a legal basis to stop something this big. It's not going to happen with simply a protest sign in your hand."

Benson, the group's attorney, says the Sierra Club originally asked for a stay to stop Sabal Trail's construction while the case made its way through the legal system. But the court denied the group's request, meaning that while the legal battle has dragged on, crews have continued laying the pipe.

Even as money and the media have flowed into Standing Rock — where North Dakota authorities have evacuated the main protest camp — Florida's activists are frustrated that it's taken so long to get people interested in stopping the pipeline here.

"From my point of view, it's both disappointing as well as inspiring to see people now coming into the fold," says Noll, the Georgia professor.

While the pipeline lawsuit is pending, the fate of Sacred Water Camp also hangs in the balance. Although nearly 200 people stayed overnight for the protests on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the camp attracted far fewer activists in February. Many were frustrated by the lack of organization and definitive plan of attack.

"We were looking for direct action, which doesn't seem to be what's going on at this camp," says Tom Freed, a 28-year-old Pennsylvanian who rode down from an Occupy Inauguration protest with a friend in late January. "It seems like a place mostly to come down for a few days and move on."

Lately, though, protests have taken a more extreme turn. On February 22, two protesters crawled 250 feet into a pipe in Marion County and locked themselves together. After hazmat teams were called in to forcibly extract them, both were arrested on felony charges.

Four days later, an incident turned deadly at another stretch of the pipeline in Marion County when a man with a high-powered rifle began shooting at construction equipment. Deputies chased 66-year-old James Leroy Marker south to Citrus County after he fled in a white Chevy pickup. The officers say they were forced to shoot Marker when he waved his gun at them. Though his motives remain unclear, most protesters have disavowed his actions.

With the clock ticking until gas runs through the line, Sabal Trail's opponents say giving up is not an option. Noll says he's reminded of the time his activist group stood up against a biomass incinerator they were told was a done deal. But after two years of fighting, the plans were scrapped and the company ultimately caved.

"If we get together, nobody can stop us," he says. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

While Canova cops to being an optimist, he says he's heartened by the way Floridians continue to come together against the pipeline.

"Even if the whole thing is built, there's still time before they hit the switch and let the gas start running through it," he says. "I don't think it's ever too late. What if six months or a year or ten years from now, there's a terrible accident or several accidents, several leaks, several spills? When that happens, there'll be an outcry: 'To hell with this investment. Let's shut this pipeline down.'"</s>The Pegasus pipeline, which ruptured in a housing development near the town of Mayflower on Friday, spewing oil across lawns and down residential streets, remained shut and a company spokesman declined to speculate about when it would be fixed and restarted.

Exxon, which was fined in 2010 for not inspecting another portion of the Pegasus line with sufficient frequency, had yet to excavate the area around the Pegasus pipeline breach on Monday, a critical step in assessing damage and determining how and why it leaked.

Police set up a check point keeping residents away from the affected area, while helicopters mapping the spill continuously circled the neighbourhood on Monday. A strong smell of oil, which resembled asphalt, permeated the town well beyond the affected area, according to a Reuters witness.

Two front lawns less than fifty feet from where the rupture occurred were blackened by oil. Crews in yellow hazmat suits bagged up oil-covered leaves from the yards.

Exxon said in a statement that 10 "oiled ducks" were being treated at a local animal welfare centre. Two more ducks had been found dead, the oil major said.

The spill in this small commuter town has stoked a discussion about the environmental dangers of using aging pipelines to transport heavy crude from Canada, including tar sands, as a boom in oil and gas production in North America increases volumes moving across the continent.

The Pegasus line, which can transport more than 90,000 barrels per day of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak, a bitumen oil from the massive Pelican Lake field in northern Alberta. It needs to be blended with lighter oils or natural gas liquids to flow through pipelines.

Traders said a prolonged disruption of Canadian crude supplies on the Pegasus line could bolster prices for physical crude in the Gulf Coast. Heavy Mars crude, produced in the Gulf of Mexico, saw its premium to benchmark West Texas Intermediate rise on Monday.

"An influx of tar sands on the U.S. pipeline network poses greater risks to pipeline integrity, challenges for leak detection systems and significantly increased impacts to sensitive water resources," environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council said in an emailed note on Monday.

Some environmentalists argue that oil sands crudes are more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil, although a report this year for the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association by consultancy Penspen argued diluted bitumen is no more corrosive than other heavy crude.

Exxon did not have a specific figure of how much oil was released when the 20-inch line ruptured on Friday. The company repeated on Monday a statement it made on Sunday that 12,000 barrels of oil and water had been recovered.

Exxon Mobil's Pegasus pipeline crosses 13 miles of the Lake Maumelle watershed. Many are concerned this poses a risk to Central Arkansas's water supply, which includes the drinking water for Little Rock, the capital and the largest city of the state of Arkansas

The Pegasus line was last "pigged" in July 2010, Exxon said, with a device that runs through the pipe to detect corrosion, thinning of the pipe wall, dents and other potential problems that could need repair. Such devices, called "smart pigs," are standard in maintaining pipeline integrity.

Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, is no stranger to incidents on its lines and has in the past been fined for not inspecting Pegasus frequently enough.

In November 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation slapped ExxonMobil Pipeline Co with a fine of $26,200 (17,206.28 pounds) for allegedly allowing more than 5 years to lapse between inspections of a stretch of Pegasus that underlies the Mississippi River, between Missouri and Illinois, last decade.

The Exxon subsidiary did not contest the fine levied by the Office of Pipeline Safety, according to documents on the PHMSA website.

Since 2006, according to PHMSA, "incidents" on pipelines controlled by ExxonMobil Pipeline Co or Mobil Pipeline Co caused more than $147 million (96.5 million pounds) in property damage and spilled 6,830 "gross barrels" of hazardous liquids.

Another pipeline company operated by an oil major, Shell Pipeline Co LP, inflicted around $50 million in property damage over the same period, according to PHMSA data, spilling 11,019 gross barrels.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said in a recent report that more than half of the nation's pipelines were built in the 1950s and 1960s in response to higher energy demand after World War II.

Some, like Pegasus, were built earlier. Exxon spokesman Charles Engelmann said the ruptured section of the pipeline was installed in the late 1940s.

Nearly two years ago Exxon grappled with another crude oil pipeline rupture that sent 1,500 barrels into the Yellowstone River in Montana.

The 40,000 barrel-per-day Silvertip pipeline ruptured underneath the river in July 2011 after heavy flooding and did not fully restart until September that year after Exxon had dug deeper under the riverbed to install the new section.

A week ago, PHMSA proposed that Exxon pay a $1.7 million fine over pipeline safety violations stemming from the Silvertip spill.</s>The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it approved the deal between the three TAPS owners - BP, Conoco and Exxon Mobil Corp - on how to share costs for shipping oil down the 800-mile pipeline from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez.

Under the plan, first proposed in September, Conoco owes the $264 million to BP, which has the biggest share of TAPS, for pipeline costs dating back to Aug. 1, 2012, according to the settlement. Conoco agreed to pay Exxon $8.89 million for costs over the same period, while BP will pay Exxon $1.8 million.

BP owns nearly half of TAPS, while Conoco has 29 percent and Exxon the rest, according to operator Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. But Conoco, with a 36 percent share in the Greater Prudhoe Bay unit and large stakes in other fields, produces over 35 percent of the oil coming from Alaska's North Slope, according to state and company figures from 2012.

"This agreement seeks to better align how costs are distributed among the TAPS owners," Dawn Patience, a spokeswoman for BP in Alaska, said in an email.

The settlement covers a period that started when the three major North Slope producers became sole owners of TAPS. Two companies with minor shares, Koch Industries' Koch Alaska Pipeline Co and Chevron-owned Unocal Pipeline Company, relinquished their combined 4.4 percent ownership last summer, allowing their shares to be allocated between the other three.

There are lingering questions about how the shares of the what FERC calls the "Exiting Carriers" will be managed and how costs prior to Aug. 1, 2012, are allocated, but they fall outside of the settlement approved on Tuesday.

Neither Koch, Chevron nor the state of Alaska objects to the new deal between the remaining three, the approval order said.

Over the years, there have been many disputes about pipeline costs and how they should be shared. In 1985, the FERC approved a settlement between the state of Alaska and the then-numerous pipeline owners that allowed specific transportation tariffs for each company. That settlement deal expired at the end of 2008.

Since the mid-1980s, the number of TAPS owners has dwindled, largely because of company mergers. North Slope output averaged 515,646 barrels per day for the first half of July, according to state figures. It peaked in 1988 above 2 million barrels a day.</s>Privately owned Hilcorp spent $2.6 million of the total $4.46 million in high bids offered for 28 tracts sold at the state's Division of Oil and Gas lease sale, according to the preliminary results.

The company started its Alaska operations last year, when it acquired Chevron Corp's Cook Inlet properties and much of those owned by Marathon Oil Corp.

The Cook Inlet basin is Alaska's oldest oil and gas basin, dating back to the 1950s. Production peaked in the early 1970s at 230,000 barrels per day, but is now at about 12,500 bpd.

"We believe there's a lot of life left in Cook Inlet," said Lori Nelson, spokeswoman for Hilcorp's Alaska operations.

Houston-based Hilcorp will invest $300 million to $350 million in Cook Inlet this year to increase output at the fields once owned by Chevron and Marathon, said Bill Barron, director of the Division of Oil and Gas. He said Hilcorp specializes in "brownfield oil development", or reviving old assets.

Also acquiring new leases in the inlet were Aurora Gas, Nordaq Energy Inc, Cook Inlet Energy and Woodstone Resources.

The state also sold a geothermal lease at Augustine Volcano, which makes up its own island in southern Cook Inlet and last erupted in 2006, to a private investor. It was the first such sale for the volcano, located 175 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The state has held three geothermal lease sales for tracts on Mount Spurr, an 11,070-foot volcano about 75 miles west of Anchorage. Nevada-based Ormat Technologies Inc, which acquired Spurr leases in 2008, has been doing exploration there.
An investigation by the United States Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration finds that the natural gas leak occurring in Alaska's Cook Inlet began earlier than first reported, and represents significant safety and environmental risks. The agency gives pipeline operator Hilcorp Energy until May 1, 2017 to fix the leak, or shut the pipeline down.