I talked about the Water Trail that WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc.
is developing on the Alapaha River with a tiny grant from the
Georgia River Network, and how that was a plus for local economic
development that wouldn’t cost VLCDA a dime.
They seemed to like that, at the
19 August 2014 Regular Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority.
Here’s the video, followed by some pictures, links, and notes:
Continue reading
ZBOA postponed
Lowndes County’s Lake Alapaha water treatment plant variance
so the county could think about it some more,
presumably related to that
no-bid contract for equipment upgrade..
Two other county
Lowndes County
variances (
minimum side yard setbacks (approved),
lot access (denied).
Both of
Dr. Urbonas’ solar parking lot
Valdosta cases
were tabled for a month so he could figure out a revised way to do it,
probably involving connecting the supports to the building so
they wouldn’t be accessory structures.
Plus some sentiment that Valdosta City Council needed to address this
issue that solar parking shouldn’t be classed as accessory structures.
The county cases are variances from the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) and the city cases are variances from Valdosta’s Land Development Regulations (LDR), and both the ULDC and LDR are supposed to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.
Here’s
the agenda with links into the videos and some notes.
All ZBOA members were present: Paul Alvarado, Laverne Gaskins, Nancy Hobby, Dr. Willie Houseal,
Mac McCall, Scott Orenstein, Gretchen Quarterman, and Chairman Allan Strickland.
The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes
online in real PDFs.
Continue reading Valdosta -Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals
High noon rally Tuesday and 9AM to 8PM hearings Monday and Tuesday 29-30 July 2014
at the
Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, Main Tower Bridge Conference Area, Conference Room B, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, GA.
Plus you can comment online, maybe about
mercury from coal Plant Scherer
in the Alapaha River and how shifting to “natural” gas just promotes
more fracked methane pipelines like that
Sabal Trail boondoggle.
EPA could take a second step on methane, and we can get on with
faster, cheaper, cleaner, and far more environmentally beneficial
solar power in the sunny southeast.
For details see the
Sierra Club
or
WWALS
or
SpectraBusters postings.
-jsq
Emily Davenport, Valdosta Stormwater Manager, sent a letter 2 June 2014
to attendees of the 6 May 2014 Army Corps of Engineers presentations,
with paper materials attached, and a note that they are also online at
Stormwater Division, Regional Flooding. [Not there anymore, but see updated first bullet item below. 2018-01-28 -jsq]
This one is just the presentation by the Corps.
See also: Continue reading
In these videos of
the initial flooding study
by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the Valdosta City Council Work Session,
you can see they’re the Corps, all right: they want to build a levee.
They did emphasize that this was just an initial study on
what could be done inside Valdosta, and their main conclusion
was that there was enough need to indicate federal interest,
as in possibilities of getting federal funding for solutions.
City Manager Larry Hanson got the Corps to confirm (several times)
that Valdosta alone couldn’t stop the flooding, since the vast
majority of floodwaters comes from upstream
on the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers.
Later that same evening in response to citizen questions
at the Valdosta City Hall Annex, the Corps clarified more that
they did understand there were issues of impervious surfaces
and development and loss of wetlands and they wanted to
do a much larger study of the entire watershed,
which could take several years to accomplish.
They kept emphasizing that the Suwannee River watershed
is one of the largest in the country, and there are also
flooding problems on the Suwannee River, which could be important
for obtaining federal dollars.
As we already knew, Valdosta has funded projects already started to move the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) uphill and to add a force main to prevent manhole overflows. People downstream in Florida may be relieved to hear something is being done.
Here’s a video playlist, followed by images of the Corp’s slides and of the City Council, and some notes.
Continue readingWhere is the Alapaha Water Treatment Plant that has had 20 violations in the past 10 years, for which the Lowndes County Commission had Lovell Engineering write a letter to GA EPD and then approved a no-bid contract to the same firm? April Huntley supplied this pictorial answer. -jsq
Take Highway 84 east from Valdosta GA:
After passing through Naylor GA look for this neighborhood on your right (Lake Alapaha Hidden Cove):
Continue reading
The
big item was a public-private partnership for units to be rented only to
military personnel, built on top of the same soil as has a sinkhole
next door.
They also approved a no-bid contract for
a drinking water treatment plant upgrade near the Alapaha River,
plus another no-bid contract for Lovell Engineering, for
wastewater treatment.
And they’re so confident SPLOST VII will be approved
by the voters (even though they never held a town hall or public hearing)
that staff is going to ask the state
to continue collections in January;
plus Gretchen pointed out that
if citizens knew what was in SPLOST they might be more willing to vote for it.
Including maybe even
the woman who noted that since garbage trucks
are coming down her road it needs to be fixed.
Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes, including a few links to related posts.
Continue readingLOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
A no-bid contract for the engineering firm that already wrote a letter
to GA EPD on behalf of the county, this one for upgrading the
Alapaha Plantation Water Treatment Plant, at the
13 August 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
7.b. Engineering for the Alapaha Water Treatment Upgrade
Utilities Director Mike Allen said the
engineering agreement with Lovell Engineering
(presented at the previous morning’s Work Session
was ready for the board to approve in a no-bid agreement with Lovell Engineering.
County Commissioner Demarcus Marshall wanted to know Continue reading
Did Demarcus Marshall know when he asked, “The water is good now, right?” about the 15 “Health Based Violations” and the 4 “Complete Failure to Report” plus the 1 “Monitoring, Routine Major (TCR)”, all in the last ten years? Maybe some of those have to do with why Lowndes County is doing major upgrades to the Alapaha Water System by the end of March 2015. However, given all those “Complete Failure to Report”, how will we know when or if it’s fixed? These reports found by Chris Graham. -jsq
U.S. EPA
SWDIS Violation Report:
This report was created on AUG-22-2013 Results are based on data extracted on JUL-30-2013 |
| Type of Violation | Compliance Period Begin Date | Compliance Period End Date | Drinking Water Rule or Contaminant | Analytical Result | Violation ID |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCL, Average | JUL-01-2012 |
SEP-30-2012 |
TTHM | .166 | 11422 |
| Follow-up Action | Date of Response |
|---|---|
| St Public Notif requested |
MAR-05-2013 |
| St Violation/Reminder Notice |
MAR-05-2013 |
in
the 22 July 2013 Work Session
Here is the letter discussed (“So at this point, in order to comply with the deadline submitted by EPD, it was necessary to go ahead and work with Lovell on this.”)
and approved (“The water is good, right?”)
at the
23 July Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission,
obtained through an Open Records Request by April Huntley,
plus a transcription.
You may wonder, as I do, why the county didn’t just put it online
along with the agenda, like so many other county commissions and
city councils do. Continue reading