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”:
Chairman Paulk thanks her for their earlier conversation,
and says: “I will seek an answer.”
Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Two cameras and the sound is bad in both, although for other speakers
it’s fine. I attribute it to the microphone being too far away from her,
and when Chairman Paulk speaks to the audience he leans around his laptop
and thus away from his microphone.
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
I wonder if there is any way for the Industrial Authority, County Commission
and City Council to now do the right thing for Lowndes County.
How can they save face?
Reading the scientific data makes it clear that an error was made,
and clearly this data wasn’t made available to those who have been
charged with finding appropriate industry for us,
industry that will raise the quality of life for the citizens of Lowndes County
by providing good jobs.
They can be excused for an industry that provides only a few jobs.
Jobs are jobs, after all. But how can we help them apologize to all
of us and thank those citizens who have spent so many hours
of their own time gathering information and providing a forum to educate us?
I wish it were possible.
More
from the NAACP
about Wiregrass Power LLC’s proposed biomass plant.
-jsq
From: Leigh Touchton
Subject: NAACP Georgia State Conference asks EPA for review of Wiregrass permit
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 21:39:26 -0500
To: [numerous parties]
Apparently some people have incorrect information about the Georgia State
NAACP Conference position. Please see attached.
Former VLCIA Executive Director decides based on rants in the VDT
to come say “I trust in you” and
“If it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.”
“I made a decision that although I’m concerned about a lot of things,
and I’m concerned about anything….
I have to trust those people who are in those positions
will do their homework and make the right decision.
Then I will live with that.
If it turns out to be wrong, then we live with that.
What bothered me was when I started reading in the paper
about the veiled threats.
The personal issues.
…
When I started reading about veiled threats.
When I started reading about people being chastised because
they didn’t accept a brochure or some literature.
You know, that bothered me.
Then when I read one of the rants about it;
they wondered how you folks were chosen.
If you don’t know how these people are chosen….
They ought to do their basic homework.
But I’m here tonight to say that:
I’ve looked at it; I’ve researched it; I don’t always agree
with all the things the authority does… but I trust in you….”
Update 2014-03-31:VDT wrote 3 March 2014 that Garren joined VLCIA after Sterling Chemical came in.
Then he praises Sterling Chemical which came in on his watch,
and while Norman Bennett (currently on the VLCIA)
was Chairman of the County Commission.
See for yourself:
In the current fashion he begins by saying when he first moved here
(1965).
Is that what’s required these days to be worth listening to?
Continue reading →
Bobbi Anne Hancock asked a question at the VLCIA board meeting 18 Jan 2011,
and Chairman Jerry Jennett explained that he’s a businessman,
not a scientist, he has to trust the experts, and he’s not prepared
to answer questions.
He says she can state a position, though, and she does so.
See it for yourself:
Apologies for missing the first part, and for the muddy sound.
Professional staff of a tax-funded organization could probably
do a far better job of taking and publishing videos than
a tiny all-volunteer activist organizations such as LAKE.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
I was recently reading “Masterpieces of Eloquence,” which includes a
speech delivered by the fourth Earl of Chesterfield to the House of Lords in
Feb., 1743. “The bill now under our consideration appears to me to deserve a
much closer regard than seems to have been paid to it in the other House,
through which it was hurried with the utmost precipitation, and where it
passed almost without the formality of a debate. Nor can I think that
earnestness with which some lords seem inclined to press it forward here
consistent with the importance of the consequences which may with great
reason be expected from it.” He goes on to say, “surely it never before was
conceived, by any man entrusted with the administration of public affairs,
to raise taxes by the destruction of the people.”
I find this quote applies exactly, mutatis mutandis, to the present
situation. The effects of these toxic chemicals are far more devastating to
my mind than the effects of gin. The science panel assembled by Michael is
more credible than the assurances of the industrial authority expert. In
fact, the emissions from the plant are so close to the permit threshold that
they could easily exceed that threshhold on occasion. Would the IA expert
then continue to hold the position that there is “No health hazard to the
public?” I don’t think anyone who favors the proposal is aware of the
enormity that could result if the plant goes into operation. They have left
the public health out of their equation. They have just enough science, they
think, to push the deal through over the objections of an easily deceived
public.
From: “Matt Flumerfelt”
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:58:56 -0500
My Dear Mayor, City Manager, and City Council Members,
You who I know to be men and women of principle, you should know
by now I have no axe to grind, no agenda except to see justice done, no
desire but to benefit the people of this fair community. I ask you to please
put the brakes on the Industrial Authority and convince them that the
Wiregrass Power Biomass Electric Generating Plant may be complying with the
current laws and clean air requirements of Georgia, but it is still not
safe. Opening this plant is not in the best interest of our community.
We are at an important crossroads in our nation’s history,
This week as the rhetoric around the proposed biomass facility has
continued heating up, leading up to
last night’s forum,
one of the main themes has been that “government should do something.”
While the Times does not condone or condemn
Chairman Paulk’s actions in the commission meeting Tuesday night,
understanding the situation may
help shed light on the issue. The county is powerless to do anything to
stop this power plant. The only governmental entity with any power over
the project is the city, and that’s only in the form of the services
being extended and the water being sold to the company, as well as the
sewage sludge that’s being burned. They too are powerless at this
point to stop it.
The editorial continues with the tired old excuse “they can be sued”.
Don’t they have insurance for that?
If the whole thing goes as bad as some opponents predict,
they could be sued for the kind of financial disaster
that faces Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
There is one governmental entity that does have the power.
Ah, here it is:
Continue reading →
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:59:50 -0500
