Category Archives: Pollution

1,000 feet is not enough –Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson @ GCC 2014-02-20

The President of Our Santa Fe River said even much more distance than the pipeline company was proposing wouldn’t be far enough away from her river, and the Chairman said specific answers were lacking from the pipeline company, at the Gilchrist County Commission meeting 20 February 2014.

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, President of Our Santa Fe River, said:

I don’t think a thousand feet on either side is going to deal with the impacts on the Santa Fe River.

She asked for the Commission’s support.

Chairman D. Ray Harrison Jr (District 2) thanked her and added: Continue reading →

Small town in Michigan votes to oppose nuclear waste dump across the lake in Canada

It’s unlikely a U.S. town has any direct power over a siting decision in Canada, but a small Michigan town made its views known anyway, because it would be affected. Local governments affected by the Sabal Trail methane pipeline could do the same.

Lori Maranville wrote for the Milan News-Leader 22 February 2014, MILAN: Council approves resolution opposing nuclear waste site in Canada,

In October, U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry showing their concern for the proposed nuclear waste site.

“The placement of this nuclear waste storage facility is of great concern given its location near Lake Huron and the importance of the Great Lakes to tens of millions of U.S. and Canadian citizens for drinking water, fisheries, tourism, recreation, and other industrial and economic uses,” they wrote in the letter.

In passing a resolution opposing the site, Milan elected officials brought the issue to light for the city’s residents.

Continue reading →

Recent clear cutting in north of Lowndes County

Multiple people reported clearing work at the site of the Moody Family Housing project on Val Del Road, with its sinkhole next to an aquifer recharge zone, that not even Moody Air Force Base can get in to inspect. So we went out to look. There is clear cutting happening on Val Del Road (both sides) but it does not appear to be happening on the property slated for Moody Family Housing.

There has been clear cutting going on in the north of Lowndes County for some time on large tracts near Skipper Bridge Road, Staten Road (near the new river bridge) and on Val Del Road immediately south of the Moody Family Housing tract.

It appears that most of those properties are owned by Natco LLC: Continue reading →

Fossil fuels are a disaster: literally in WV

300,000 people have their drinking water poisoned by a coal chemical in a disaster declared by a state and the federal government. Do we know what’s in that coal ash coal ash in the Lowndes County landfill? Do we trust a pipeline company with a long list of safety violations to dig into our aquifer?

David Jackson wrote for USA Today yesterday, Obama sends disaster aid to West Virginia,

President Obama is sending federal assistance to West Virginia, where schools and businesses are closed after a chemical spill Thursday into a Charleston river.

“The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of West Virginia and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts,” said an administration statement on Friday morning.

Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency will coordinate efforts with local officials.

Kiley Kroh wrote for Thinkprogress yesterday, West Virginia Declares State Of Emergency After Coal Chemical Contaminates Drinking Water, Continue reading →

Susan Waller refusing to answer a question @ Sabal 2013-12-17

Here’s Susan Waller of Spectra refusing to even listen to a question that she had just asked for:


FERC-required Open House about the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline
by Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy,
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

Blake Clark remarked on this video he took:

This short clip speaks for it’s self. Notice Susan Waller’s condescending tone through out the clips entirety. It is assumed, and I have witnessed her speaking to most landowners inquiring more information in the same tone here. Are the people at Sabal (Spectra) or “what ever they may be calling themselves this week” really concerned for you, your questions, or your property? You decide!

Visit Spectrabusters.org for more information on the Sabal Trail Pipeline, Thank you!

Earlier she complained that someone who presented her with evidence was “disruptive”.

What I wanted to ask her about was Continue reading →

Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL @ Sabal 2013-12-17

When someone took Susan Waller up on her offer to answer questions about the Sabal Trail pipeline, she seemed to find the truth as reported by her own company to a federal pipeline oversight agency to be “disruptive”.

Disable Sabal – Sabal Trail (Spectra Energy) Open House Madison, FL,

We are a very genuine, safe, law-abiding company.
So said Spectra VP or Shareholder Outreach Susan Waller. She then complained that “your group” was “disruptive” and “you don’t want to hear the truth”.

So Ben Vieth showed Waller lists of incidents of corrosion reported by Spectra to PHMSA. To which another Sabal Trail rep. said, “We have a safe operation”.

Here’s the video:


Video of Spectra answering a question about Sabal Trail in Madison, FL
Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline,
FERC-required Open House, Sabal Trail Transmission and Spectra Energy (Sabal),
Video by Blake Clark, Madison, Madison County, Florida, 17 December 2013.

It’s interesting that even after Continue reading →

U.S. EPA, GA DNR, GA Health Dept., and landfill in Lowndes County @ EPA 2013-11-14

At the EPA meeting in Waycross about the Seven Out Superfund site, EPA, GA EPD, and state health officials also had information about crossover contamination in Lowndes County.

Matthew J. Huyser, On-Scene Coordinator for U.S. EPA, told me that before EPA shipped those 196,500 gallons of wastewater from Seven Out to the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County they had applied procedures that were supposed to ensure those liquids were no longer toxic and had tested them to be sure. He said he would send me the specifics on that. I didn’t ask him whether CSX toxic wastes were shipped to Lowndes County.

Huyser also said EPA had checked the record of that receiving landfill before sending anything there, and it had a good record. He seemed surprised to learn Continue reading →

EPA, GA EPD, and Southeast Health in Waycross about Seven Out Superfund @ EPA 2013-11-14

Now EPA is convinced that the public wants answers, after dozens of citizens turned out to ask questions at Waycross City Hall 14 November 2013. A study of contamination sampling is in peer review, and GA EPD and GA Health Dept. are also involved. Citizens and silentdisaster.org and Satilla Riverkeeper and WWALS Watershed Coalition are watching.


Matthew J. Huyser, EPA (l. standing blue shirt), Jim Brown, GA EPD (c. standing white shirt), Ashby Nix, Satilla Riverkeeper (facing Brown, paper in hand), Joan Martin McNeal, silentdisaster.org (r. in group)

Roger Naylor, Public Relations Director for Southeast Health District, is quite familiar with Janet McMahan’s discovery of arsenic in groundwater and says Continue reading →

Valdosta force main GEFA loan awarded

Valdosta city PR today, City Receives $36.7 million GEFA Loan to Move Forward with Force Main Project,

The City of Valdosta was awarded a $36.7 million Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) loan by the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA), on Nov. 14, 2013.

The city will use the low-interest loan to finance the construction of two major pump stations, two minor pump stations, a 6-mile 32-inch and 40-inch force main, a headworks structure with grit removal and bar screens, and a 6-million gallon equalization basin. Wastewater will be gravity fed to the existing site of the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) for final treatment and discharged utilizing the existing plant outfall, until the relocation of the plant is completed in November 2015.

Easement Exhibit Context

This project will Continue reading →

A complete lack of concern with our request –S.A.V.E. to VSU President McKinney

S.A.V.E. never gives up, and the VSU Foundation provided fuel for the fight. -jsq

November 13, 2013

Dr. William J. McKinney
President
Valdosta State University

Dear President McKinney,

Thank you very much for agreeing to be a part of our ceremony for the new solar canopy this Friday. We are excited for it, and we are glad that you will be able to come. We definitely appreciate your support, and we hope to have a nice turnout!

As happy as we are about VSU’s continuing efforts to “go green,” I am writing to you in regard to S.A.V.E.’s ongoing fossil fuel divestment campaign and the recent response we received from the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the VSU Foundation. If you have not yet read the letter, I have attached a copy for your convenience.

We were clearly disappointed to hear that our request had been denied, but what troubled us the most was the condescending tone used by Mr. Edwards in the last part of his letter. To end his letter on University (not Foundation) letterhead with sarcasm and cavalier dismissal of our concerns is unacceptable, especially as we have acted in a respectful manner throughout this process. Within his response, Mr. Edwards downplays the importance of practicing social responsibility and belittles the validity of past divestment campaigns that have been used to counteract injustices such as South Africa’s Apartheid regime, which represented an inhumane and repressive system that needed to be challenged.

We also find Continue reading →