Category Archives: Safety

Alternative 3: Albany, Camilla, Thomasville, Monticello, Capps FERC to Sabal Trail

Watch out Dougherty, Mitchell, and Thomas Counties Georgia, and Jefferson, Taylor, Lafayette, Suwannee, and Columbia Counties, Florida, and the Flint, Ochlockonee, Aucilla, Ecofina, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers: Alternative 3 is for you! County Commissions and city councils in the county seats of Camilla, Thomasville, Monticello, Perry, Mayo, Live Oak, and Lake City may want to take action like Jefferson County already did to stop water bottling, as may Alachua, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood, The Villages, and Ferndale in Alachua, Marion, Sumter, and Lake Counties, Florida.

300x341 Alternative 3, in Alternative 3: Armena to Capps to FGT FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 Alternative 3 in FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” begins like Alternative 2 near Armena, GA and goes through Albany, then veers due south.

Alternative 3 beginning at approximately MP 141 (near Albany, Georgia) and following Highway 82 to Highway 19 (Slappy Boulevard) in Albany, Georgia; then following Highway 19 through Albany, Camilla, and Thomasville, Georgia to the FGT pipeline corridor south of Capps, Florida; then following the FGT pipeline corridor to I-75 and the Alternate 1 and 2 routes to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s a very rough map of the whole route of Alternative 3, including the FGT pipeline part: Continue reading →

Alternative 2: MP 141 -> US 82 -> I-75 -> FL Turnpike FERC to Sabal Trail

Watch out Albany Mall, Deerfield-Windsor School, Kerr Gardens Park and Pond, Miller-Coors Albany Brewery, Pilot Travel Center and of course the Flint River at the US 82 bridge! 300x154 Armena through Miller-Coors Albany Brewery, in Alternative 2: Armena to US 82 to I-75 to FL Turnpike, FERC to Sabal Trail, by John S. Quarterman, 14 September 2014 If Sabal Trail’s mile point (MP) 141 is still on the Lee-Dougherty County line just west of Armena, GA on US 82, then Alternative 2 in FERC’s recent instructions for Sabal Trail to “include analyses” would look very much like Alternative 1, plowing through the north edge of Albany, GA and much of Dougherty County, before heading on through Sylvester, Tifton, Adel, Hahira, Valdosta, Jennings, Lake City, Alachua, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood, past The Villages, to Ferndale, FL.

Alternative 2 extending along other pipeline and road rights-of-way from near MP 0 to approximately MP 141 (near Albany, Georgia), and then following Alternate 1 to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s MP 141 in the maps Sabal Trail sent to FERC in November 2013: Continue reading →

Alternative 1: US 82 -> I-75 -> FL Turnpike FERC to Sabal Trail

After Dawson and Albany, new Georgia cities Sylvester, Tifton, Adel, Hahira, Valdosta in Georgia (right past Lowndes High School), and Jennings, Lake City, Alachua, Gainesville, Ocala, Wildwood, and Ferndale in Florida. If you thought this pipeline wouldn’t affect you, think again. Or some later pipeline if we let this one through. See also Alternative 2 (watch out, Albany!), Alternative 3 Camilla, Thomasville, Monticello, Capps and a row of north Florida counties), and Alternative 4 (Richland, Preston, Americus, Cordele, Ashburn and yet again down I-75 as in Alternative 1).

Update 2014-09-15: Added first paragraph and fixed typos.

FERC’s recent instructions direct Sabal Trail to “include analyses” of

Alternative 1 Alternative 1 extending from near MP 0 to MP 460.6 (the proposed endpoint) following the Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC (Sabal Trail) proposed Sabal Trail Project (Project) route until reaching Highway 82 near Dawson, Georgia; then following Highway 82 to Interstate 75 (I-75); then following I-75 to Highway 91 near The Villages, Florida; then following Highway 91 to Highway 27 near Ferndale, Florida; and then following a Florida Gas Transmission (FGT) pipeline to the proposed endpoint.

Here’s a very rough map of that route, and then let’s name some cities and towns thus targetted by the yard-wide fracked methane pipeline: Continue reading →

Water issues in rezoning near VSU, appointments to Hospital and Tree Authorities @ VCC 2014-09-11

WWALS adds some water issues about that Turner Brooks rezoning, and there are appointments to the Hospital and Authorities at tonight’s Valdosta City Council meeting.

Here’s the agenda.

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, September 11, 2014
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
Continue reading →

Nova Scotia banned fracking; will southeast U.S. ban fracked methane pipelines?

Yesterday Nova Scotia announced a ban on fracking. Will local or state governments in the southeast, now threatened by the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline, ban such pipelines? Especially since FERC has now directed Sabal Trail to examine routes through Americus, Cordele, Ashburn, Tifton, Adel, Valdosta, and even Thomasville, in addition to the ones it already proposed through Dougherty, Colquitt, Brooks, and Lowndes Counties?

Sierra Club Canada wrote about public meetings in its Media Release of 28 August 2014, Government of Nova Scotia Needs to Ban Fracking,

“Public meetings held by the panel were attended by an overwhelming majority of well-informed citizens who had deep concerns about fracking,” according to [Gretchen] Fitzgerald, “Those concerns should be met with the type of leadership they deserve: an immediate, legally binding ban.”

And the Nova Scotia government listened. Bruce Erskine wrote for The Herald Business 3 September 2014, Nova Scotia to ban fracking, posting a video in which you can hear Energy Minister Andrew Younger say: Continue reading →

A presentation and some rubberstamping @ LCC 2014-08-26

Congratulations to Ashley Tye for being only the third in the state to attain a certificate as a professional emergency manager.

“I was trying to break a record,” bragged County Chairman Bill Slaughter as several people reminded him not to skip approving the minutes, presumably referring to the previous morning’s three-minute Work Session. After the six-minute presentation, they took less than a minute on each of the remaining items, except they did find time for an Executive Session for Attorney-Client Privilege. Who are they suing this time? Crawford Powell had to remind the Chairman not to skip Citizens Wishing to Be Heard, but “There are none,” said the Chairman, with satisfaction.

This time the contractor had magically finished punchlist for Nottinghill that the previous morning the County Engineer said would take a week, but had not finished the work. What does this rubberstamp punchlist mean, then? They approved the Davidson Road drainage easement quit claim from the county back to the landowner.

Here’s the agenda with links into the videos and a few notes, followed by a video playlist.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Three minutes, three items @ LCC 2014-08-25

The contractor hasn’t finished the punchlist for Nottinghill but the County Engineer wants the Commission to accept that infrastucture anyway. The Davidson Road drainage easement quit claim is from the county back to the landowner. The third item must be for tomorrow evening. Three minutes total for only two items from the agenda, but that’s probably a record. Normally we post videos of each item separately, but this time, why bother? They vote Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM.

Here’s the video, followed by the agenda with a few notes, and links to the individual items inside the one video.


Three minutes, three items
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 25 August 2014.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Emergency, Nottinghill, Drainage @ LCC 2014-08-25

Last December Chairman Slaughter wanted relatives of those selling land for Nottinghill to come forward and state their names the day after he didn’t ask Spectra Energy reps to do that during their sales pitch for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline? Well, the county is now pondering accepting infrastructure for that subdivision. Maybe the won’t accept that pipeline, which they could prevent by passing or enforcing local land use zoning ordinances. There’s also a Quit Claim Deed for Drainage Easement on Davidson Road and an Emergency Management Certificate Presentation, and that’s it, on the lightest agenda in recent memory.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 25, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Videos: Double water equip. 2 to 1@ LCC 2014-07-22

The three Commissioners who showed up voted 2 to 1 for a no-bid purchase of not just one but two expensive pieces of water treatment equipment, with no bids, not on the budget, not discussed at the retreat, and not included in SPLOST VII.

The KLVB appointment was tabled because applicant withdrew. They finally found out the open Board of Health slot was only until December 2015 and the usual terms are six years. Commissioners as usual didn’t ask any questions when County Engineer Mike Fletcher said yet another subdivision was ready for infrastructure to be accepted by the county.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 21, 2014, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 22, 2014, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Here are links to the videos, followed by a playlist.

Continue reading →

Children, cancer clusters, citizen water tests @ GA EPD 2014-07-17

Citizens are not convinced EPA, GA-EPD, and GA Dept. of Health are doing enough to find what’s causing widespread sickness and death in Waycross, GA. They asked questions and provided data and anecdotes for more than an hour, demanding more testing and answers, at a meeting about the Seven Out Superfund and other air and water contamination, for example from CSX and AGL.

Georgia Department of Health did offer a new survey, with local help. She also offered to send a local health dept. rep. right out whenever they were alerted a certain site stunk after rains. EPA and GA-EPD admitted there was a problem and said they were trying to fix it, which is a step forward from their preliminary Waycross meeting last November. But not a big enough step or quick enough to satisfy Waycross people who are or who know many who are sick or dying.

They asked very insightful questions, about Continue reading →