Received yesterday on
Nuclear Plant Hatch radioactive leaks. Tritium (3H, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen)
is the stuff nuclear Plant Hatch
is letting leak into our groundwater.
NRC lists 44 leaking sites
out of 65 active reactor locations.
No solar or wind plants leak tritium.
-jsq
Continue readingIn case you haven’t seen this yet: TRITIUM: HEALTH CONSEQUENCES. Excerpt:
Most studies indicate that tritium in living creatures can produce
The NRC publishes annual Radioactive Effluent and Environmental Reports for every operating nuclear power reactor. The reports for Plant Hatch 1 & 2 say radioactive tritium has repeatedly leaked into the soil and groundwater, but the internal swamp is getting less radioactive. Reports like this are not needed for wind or solar plants.
Annual Radiological Environmental Operating Reports for 2011
According to a 2007 Industry Groundwater Protection Initiative Voluntary Data Collection Questionnaire,
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Sinkholes aren’t just
for Florida anymore: Albany’s got them.
Are sinkholes risky?
You may think so if one is under your house.
And here above the Floridan Aquifer you probably won’t know that
until your foundations starts cracking.
Maybe we should do something to prevent the problem,
and to help people who are affected by it.
Perhaps the Lowndes County government till pay attention when
somebody’s house falls into a sinkhole.
Jim Wallace wrote for WALB 9 March 2013, Expect more sinkholes,
Some sinkholes have opened up in South Georgia since the recent heavy rains.
And engineers and public works experts say they expect more sinkholes to develop in the coming weeks. It’s just nature at work, but it can really cause some problems.
Really? Does “nature at work” include sinkholes predictably forming after massive water pumping to sprinkle strawberries during a cold snap?
The WALB story pooh-poohs the possibility of anything like that Sefner sinkhole showing up in south Georgia, and then details two Albany sinkholes:
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David (tiny five-person activist group NIRS with no lawyer)
defeated Goliath (the world’s biggest nuclear reactor manufacturer, Areva, and operator, EDF).
Previously
a committee terminated the licensing process
but the proposed operator wanted NRC review for the Calvert Cliffs 3
nuclear reactor.
For the first time ever, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied
a nuclear license, closing the book on Calvert Cliffs 3 for good,
and probably taking down
with it half a dozen or more other proposed reactors.
ENENEWS posted a roundup 12 March 2013, NIRS: Victory! License denied for U.S. nuclear reactor — First time in history NRC has upheld denial
Who is this proposed nuclear operator? The NIRS press release explains:
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Sinkholes in
Seffner, Fort Myers,
Tallahassee,
and now even closer.
Follow the Withlacoochee River south to the Suwannee River,
and two counties south of us in Suwannee County, Florida,
they’ve got dozens of sinkholes,
one of them massive, with another one this month,
including apparently a cavern under some yards.
This is in the same Floridan Aquifer that underlies Lowndes County,
where we had
a road drop into a sinkhole three years ago
and sinkholes were discovered under a man’s garage and yard last year.
Greg Gullberg 4 March 2013, The Science Behind Sinkholes,
Continue readingMikell Cook says he and his neighbors have learned more about Geology than they ever cared to since last summer when Tropical Storm Debby swept through much of Florida leaving Live Oak and surrounding areas peppered with sinkholes.
He and his neighbors live in the town of McAlpin, where
Even closer than Tampa Bay or Fort Myers, Tallahassee has sinkhole problems in our same Floridan Aquifer just across the state line. Will the Lowndes County Commission do anything about our sinkhole problems before people start losing their insurance and get sucked into holes in the ground?
Andy Alcock wrote for WCTV Wednesday, Tallahassee Woman Faces Sinkhole Problem,
Imagine living in a home you can’t insure, no one wants to buy and it may not be safe.
A Tallahassee woman is currently facing that problem.
At first glance, her home in Tallahassee’s Mission Manor neighborhood on the city’s northwest side doesn’t look much different from any of the other homes in the neighborhood.
Then about two years ago, homeowner Vickie Gordon found a problem.
“I started noticing that the doors were getting stuck in the bathroom, couldn’t open them,” said Gordon.
Then the issues became more noticeable.
Cracks started showing up all over the house.
After Gordon contacted her insurance company, investigators found sinkhole activity at her home.
I wish this part was a joke:
Continue readingMore sinkholes in Florida in the same Floridan Aquifer that’s under us, this time evacuating a church. Maybe sinkhole safety should be important here, too.
WCTV carried an AP story today, Suspected Sinkhole Forces Church Move
Pastor Rick Shuck told WBBH in Fort Myers on Monday the sinkhole has caused uneven floors, cracks in the walls and a hole in the ground so large that a landscaper fell into it.
Shuck says they had to end Faith Community Church’s Sunday service early because “it’s just not safe anymore.” He says some cracks in the walls are a half-inch wide and part of the auditorium floor has dropped about 4 1/2 inches.
Geological engineers say it’s definitely a sinkhole. But the church’s insurance company sent engineers who determined there is no problem. So next month the two sides are heading to mediation.
That second picture above was taken in Lowndes County,
showing
printouts of analysis by a VSU professor of sinkholes
under a yard in Lowndes County.
And they’re
under Michael McCormick’s shed (see picture on the right),
and they’re
in his garage.
The same Floridan Aquifer is underground here as in Florida. Perhaps something needs to be done about sinkholes right here in Lowndes County?
-jsq
The VDT's Sunday front page was covered with wastewater stories, continuing the circular firing squad of the local powers that be. Meanwhile in Dublin, GA, they're breaking ground for solar panels at the local high school, using a bond financing model that we could use here, if local leaders would look up.
In addition to
some detail about the city's FEMA application
and
following up on flooded yards,
the VDT followed up on
its EPD and EPA scrutiny story
with one saying
City received help from EPD to keep EPA away.
It's good the VDT is covering these issues, but it's still leaving out
important parts of the local water story.
Apparently firing back at
Thursday's Valdosta City Council session,
perhaps especially
Robert Yost's very pointed criticisms of the VDT,
the VDT concluded its
rather rich Sunday editoral:
City leaders, please, no more of the blame game. The citizens of this community are imploring you to just accept responsibility and fix it.
Yet the VDT has spent the last week blaming the city, and has accepted no responsibility for its own role, or that of its editor, Kay Harris, in the recent loss of the SPLOST referendum that would have further funded wastewater work in Valdosta.
Now, I agree with the VDT that Continue reading
Still more about the recent flooding and water issues in these
videos of the 7 March 2013 Valdosta City Council Regular Session,
by
City Manager
Larry Hanson,
Council
Robert Yost excoriated the VDT,
former City Engineer
Von Shipman defended the city.
Multiple citizens brought up issues of diversity
and
local government transparency.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes.
AGENDAContinue reading
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, March 7, 2013
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
The sinkhole that formed under a man’s bed and pulled him in has made a lot of news in Florida, plus another one a few miles away. But the news seems to neglect why those sinkholes are forming. Could it be the same reason sinkholes are forming in Lowndes County, Georgia? And will the Lowndes County Commission do anything about that before we see news about somebody here falling into a sinkhole?
Will Hobson, Laura C. Morel and Jodie Tillman wrote for the Tampa Bay Times 1 March 2013, Seffner sinkhole 911 call: ‘Bedroom floor just collapsed’,
Jeremy Bush just went to bed when he heard what sounded like a car hitting the house. Then screams from his brother Jeffrey’s bedroom.
“Help me! Help me!”
Someone flipped the lights. Jeremy, 36, threw the door open, revealing a sight that defied belief: The earth had opened beneath his brother’s bedroom and was swallowing everything in it. The tip of Jeffrey’s mattress was the only thing left, and it was sinking into a churning sinkhole.
The Tampa Bay Times has a long series on what happened afterwards, rescue workers who didn’t find him, the demolition of the house, objects found, etc. They never quite get around to saying why the sinkhole was there. They first say (Shelley Rossetter 2 March 2013),
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