Category Archives: Health Care

Why “jobs, jobs, jobs” isn’t good enough for the public good and the general welfare –John S. Quarterman

Sure, everyone wants jobs for the people right now and jobs so the children don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those children need to drink?

This is the problem:

“What I believe the three most important things are, not only for our community, and our state, and our country, but for our country, thats jobs number 1, jobs number 2, and jobs.”


Brad Lofton, Executive Director, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

I shook Brad Lofton’s hand after that speech and told him I liked it, because I did: in general it was a positive speech about real accomplishments. I’ve also pointed out I had a few nits with that speech. This one is more than a nit. This one is basic philosophy and policy.

Now one would expect an executive director of an industrial authority to be all about jobs. And that would be OK, if Continue reading →

Inhaling a heart attack

You thought maybe Dr. Sammons was making this stuff up? In physorg.com from 2009, Inhaling a heart attack: How air pollution can cause heart disease:
Accumulating evidence indicates that an increase in particulate air pollution is associated with an increase in heart attacks and deaths. Research has begun in the relatively new field of environmental cardiology — a field that examines the relationship between air pollution and heart disease.
This link owed to Laura Wiggins Norris and NO COAL PLANT IN BEN HILL COUNTY!

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“a foot in the door to bring in more toxic waste streams” –Robert D. Bullard

Robert D. Bullard writes in Dismantling Energy Apartheid in the United States,
Many “clean wood chips” burning biomass plants can easily turn to burning more contaminated fuels (which may be cheaper or even free), or get paid to take really dirty wastes like trash or tires. Public opposition to biomass facilities has driven siting that follows the “path of least resistance,” which often translates to states where environmental regulations are lax and companies are given huge tax incentives to build these kinds of incinerators, and investors count on the local residents being uninformed and apathetic. Environmental justice siting concerns often get buried in the excitement and notion of “green energy.”

Zoning laws are often legal weapons deployed in facilitating energy apartheid.

There’s more, including a writeup about the local proposed incinerator, starting:
Residents in Valdosta, Georgia are fighting to block a 40 megawatt biomass incinerator slated for construction on a 22-acre site in their community. The community is already overburdened with polluting industries and heavy truck traffic.
Read it and see.

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Stopping a ‘done deal’ -Jim Parker

This LTE appeared in the VDT today. -jsq
I’m just an older, working man that lives in our fair city of Valdosta. I have children and grandchildren that live, work and go to school in Lowndes County. After looking at the information available, and doing some research in my limited spare time, I’ve come to the conclusion that this proposed biomass facility that the Industrial Authority is trying to push through is a really bad idea. The pollution that will continuously pour from the plant will create cancers, heart and respiratory disease, as well as seriously aggravating chronic conditions such as asthma. Children are especially at risk, and there are two schools within a mile of the plant site, not to mention all the homes.

As a cancer survivor

Continue reading →

“Using words like green, renewable, etc. does not magically make it so.” –Russ Anderson

Following up on his previous correspondence. -jsq

From: Russ Anderson
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:20:24 -0500
Subject: Re: Attn: Clarifications on my comments
To: blofton@industrialauthority.com, info@sterlingplanet.com, bmaddox@sterlingplanet.com

Brad,

I’m not saying the project is good, responsible, that it will actually happen, and def. not that you are in any way right in your opinions of “green” and “renewable”.

Furthermore, I really wish you could get beyond the talking point of “the agencies and groups endorsing similar projects”, because again that is a highly contestable and skewed figure as many local, regional, and national agencies, groups, and networks still voice heavy opposition to this issue and biomass incineration.

Using words like green, renewable, etc. does not magically make it so. I know all about framing language and tactics of those wishing to line their pockets and exploit subsidy and tax loopholes. The simple fact that you are so set in your opinion and mentality is quite alarming..

For example, I am more than willing to embrace control technologies and

Continue reading →

the myth that biomass constitutes a “health benefit” –Dr. Noll

A followup to his presentation at LCC last Tuesday. -jsq
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:59:50 -0500
From: noll_family
To: apaulk@lowndescounty.com, jevans@lowndescounty.com, rraines@lowndescounty.com, cpowell@lowndescounty.com
CC: kay.harris, “John S. Quarterman”
Subject: Last Night’s Meeting

Dear Chairman Paulk and Commissioners.

Thanks for providing my wife and I and others opposed to the biomass plant the opportunity to address you last night. As a follow-up to last night’s meeting, let me share some thoughts with you, including reflections on a comment made about other “biomass incinerators” in our county and the continuing myth that biomass constitutes a “health benefit”:

Continue reading →

What you didn’t hear at the County Commission meeting

The interesting commission meeting will be the next one. Remember, Chairman Paulk said they were still operating by the old rules at the meeting that happened this week. So next meeting they may actually refuse to let people speak on certain topics.

On the Frank Barnas Newstalk105.9 WVGA radio show 25 Jan 2011 the morning before the County Commission meeting, County Commmission Chairman Ashley Paulk complained that Citizens Wishing to be Heard has been abused and meetings are not free; there are people to pay.

“In these times we’ve got to run efficient meetings.”
Chairman Paulk also invoked Tuscon and said:
“You need to monitor people who are there.”

…

“You want a little better control over who and where they are.”

So posting videos of the meeting to the web should be a good idea so everyone could see what is going on.

And in the larger picture, should we be more concerned with a few dollars now or with the ability of citizens to be heard or for that matter with the long-term economics and health of the county?

Policies and Procedures for Citizens Wishing to be Heard

The host asked if tonight would be the time to comment on the new policy, and Chairman Paulk responded: Continue reading →

More about biomass –Dr. Michael Noll

A bit better reception than he got last time.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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“our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge” –Dr. Matthew Richard

Here is Dr. Richard speaking before the Valdosta City Council. He summarized in a comment on this blog:
as i endeavored to point out at the last city council meeting, our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge. my example: the brain has two types of cells: neurons and glial cells. there are NO white blood cells; thus, the brain has no immune system, relying on the the tiny diameter of the capillaries themselves to keep infectious agents out. this is called the blood-brain barrier. BUT, as dr. sammons pointed out, PARTICULATE MATTER is small enough to make it through the body and into the brain. as dr. bob gannon (dept. head of biology at VSU) told me again the other night, this constitutes a major threat to health in the form of brain cancer.

Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

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Environmental Justice Community? –Phyllis Stallworth, First VP, NAACP

She asks about preschools, apartment complexes, etc.
I am for green energy, but I am against infant mortality. To VLCIA, City Councillors, County Commissioners, try planning with the community in mind.
A: It’s in an already-industrial area.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman of the 6 Dec 2011 VLCIA biomass event
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

See also Phyllis Stallworth’s previous letter. See also VLCIA executive director Brad Lofton on “some opposition has crept up”.

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