The current draft is dated March 30, 2016. Come Monday and help update it further!
The next workshop for the Joint 2016 Lowndes County and Cities of Dasher, Hahira, Lake Park, Remerton, and Valdosta Comprehensive Plan Update will be on:
Monday, April 4, 2016
5:00 p.m. — 7:00 p.m.
Southern Georgia Regional Commission
327 W. Savannah Avenue
Valdosta, GeorgiaWe will continue reviewing the Issues and Opportunities.
The current draft of the plan is available at: Continue reading
We all won twice against invading pipelines this week in the Georgia legislature.
A smashing 34-128
defeat of Spectra Energy’s invading Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail natural gas pipeline,
by WWALS, Flint Riverkeeper, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Georgia Sierra Club, Georgia Water Coalition, SpectraBusters, and many others,
wasn’t the only win for landowners, environmentalists, and the people
in the Georgia legislature this week.
Push Back the Pipeline‘s petroleum products moratorium passed the final legislative hurdle in the House and is on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal to sign.
You know, if Deal had stood up for the people against Sabal Trail, too,
its easements to drill under Georgia rivers including our Withlacoochee River
and Okapilco Creek, would have been defeated in the State Land Commission
of which he is chair before they ever got to the legislature.
But we all won, and won again!
Spectra, Kinder Morgan, and even ALEC lost this time.
Walter C. Jones, jacksonville.com, 23 March 2016, Bill to stall pipeline from Belton, S.C., to Jacksonville awaits Georgia governor’s signature: Georgia House adopted moratorium that would impose moratorium on licensing and permitting until July 2017, Continue reading
This Reminder came in today, refreshingly explicitly mentioning agriculture. Note the different location, this time at the Health Dept. office after the Planning Commission meeting.
The next workshop for the 2016 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan Update will be:
Monday, March 21, 2016
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 W. Savannah Avenue
Valdosta, GeorgiaAt this workshop we will Continue reading
As promised, there is
an updated Work Book online, dated February 29, 2016.
As Ariel Godwin also promised, the SGRC website says:
The next workshop will be Monday, March 7, 2016, 5:00-7:00 p.m. at the SGRC office, 327 W. Savannah Ave., Valdosta, GA.
It will be interesting to see if this version of the Work Book for the 2016 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan Update contains any changes about the issues Greg Odom raised last month (22 February 2016) about road paving, trees, and reducing expense to the county. And LAKE will be at the meeting with the video camera.
-jsq
A moratorium on eminent domain for petroleum pipelines until June 30, 2017
pending study of land use rights,
a change throughout of right to power of eminent domain,
and “natural resources, environment, and vital areas of the state” now mentioned first, in HB 1036,
passed yesterday, the last day for either half of the Georgia legislature
to adopt a bill before sending it to the other half.
A small change from the Georgia Senate could also affect natural gas pipelines.
See also Walter C. Jones, jacksonville.com, 24 February 2016, Senate subcommittee approves moratorium on eminent domain for petroleum pipelines in Georgia, Continue reading
An organic food company is the first thing it finally lands, after trying for years to lure traditional “industrial” businesses to Miller Business Park, and after the Industrial Authority renamed itself the Development Authority. Well, go real food! And congratulations Development Authority! For more local agriculture, come to South Georgia Growing Local Saturday 26 February 2016 at Pine Grove Middle School.
Valdosta, Georgia — December 15, 2015—The Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority (VLCDA) and Nature Nate’s announce the expansion of Nature Nate’s honey processing operations to Valdosta, GA. The project represents a $1.75 million investment, will create 10 jobs immediately and at least 15 jobs after 36 months.
“We welcome Nature Nate’s as our first tenant within Miller Business Park and Continue reading
I’m thankful we’re already on the way to a clean energy future,
with more jobs, less expense than doing nothing, no new nukes, no coal at all,
much less natural gas, no need for any new pipelines,
better health, clean air and water, and profit.
The COP meeting in Paris can do what it will, and we can still make a better world and profit by it.
We’re already doing it, with solar and wind power, energy efficiency and conservation,
The Clean Energy Future: Protecting the Climate, Creating Jobs, Saving Money, by Frank Ackerman of Synapse for LNS and 350.org:
[M]eeting the IPCC targets will… create more jobs and save money.
This report, Continue reading
Sinkholes, explosions, and other risks to our rivers, lands, and wildlife for no benefit from the Sinkhole Trail, plus FERC and its environmental contractor are paid by the pipeline companies, but still we can win, said local landowners and others to FERC in Valdosta last night, as you can see in these LAKE videos.
And you can come to the
Kayaktivism Day this Saturday
several Valdosta State clubs are holding on the Withlacoochee River.
Meanwhile, the FERC circus moves to Columbia High School in Live Oak, FL tonight. Continue reading
“You tell us you’re sorry and it happens again”, said Alton Burns of Coolidge about pipeline leaks, fires, and explosions, setting the tone for the whole evening, which ended with local landowners calling the whole process a farce and a hoax. As attorney Jonathan Waters said, South Georgia is a home, not a pipeline easement.
The FERC meetings started the previous evening in Albany and continue at 5:30 PM each night at:
There are many more things you can do to stop Sabal Trail. Remember, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Here are links to the LAKE videos from last night in Moultrie, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
Thanks to Julie Bowland for the picture of my VDT op-ed today. -jsq
The same day the Sabal Trail was quoted in the VDT August 5th as saying it had done enough subsurface analysis on our fragile karst limestone topography, a sinkhole opened up next to Shiloh Road. Sabal Trail already had to move its Albany compressor station because arrowheads had been found there. The pipeline itself is a much bigger mistake: let’s stop it before it damages our property values, forests, rivers, or our people.
Spectra Energy’s paid staff are continue to assert that Sabal Trail’s proposed gouge through our fields, farms, and under our rivers will proceed according their plan to profit executives and investors in Houston, Texas.
Actually, Continue reading