Gulfstream Natural Gas Pipeline

Gulfstream Natural Gas Systems, LLC was selected to provide fuel to the WCEC. They currently have a pipeline that runs for Louisiana & Mississippi down to Martin County, and will be constructing 35 additional miles of pipeline to connect to the WCEC. This will carry 345,000 dekatherms a year straight to the functional headwaters of the Everglades. This Phase III Pipeline Extension runs adjacent to the Dupuis and the JW Corbett Wildlife Management Areas, and underneath the sensitive Couse Midden archaelogical site.The pipeline path follows the major L-8 canal and cross it several times, as well as crossing 223 other waterways.

Potential impacts of the pipeline include:

• Damaging archeological and historical areas in the Couse Midden and along the L-8 canal
• Impacting habitat of over 100 endangered gopher tortoises and the commensal species in the project's vicinity, such as federally protected indigo snakes. Gopher tortoises are at high risk of roadkill or burrow collapse from heavy equipment
• Causing sediment runoff into the canals and drainage ways of regional waters and ´frac-outs´ from Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) for underground pipeline, causing spills of drilling fluid into animal habitat
• Impeding hydrological needs of restoration for the Loxahatchee watershed, as part of the Comprenesive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP)
• Spreading exotic species and construction site debris into the adjacent DuPuis and Corbett Wildlife Areas