Tag Archives: Environment

U.S. Rep. Bishop to listen to landowners about Sabal Trail pipeline

Maybe Lowndes County Commissioners can ask Rep. Austin Scott (GA-08)
to do what Dougherty County Commissioners have successfully asked
Rep. Bishop (GA-02) to do: those two Congressional districts
cover the entire Georgia part of the proposed path of that methane pipeline.
And maybe they could help Greenlaw
get the FERC scoping period extended and get the GIS data from
Sabal Trail.



Carlton Fletcher wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday,

U.S. Congressman Sanford Bishop to take part in pipeline listening session:
Metting called to address safety, other concerns surrounding controversial natural gas pipeline,

Two Dougherty County Commissioners and one of their former
colleagues who is running to rejoin them have scheduled a listening
session at 10 a.m. Thursday with U.S. House District 2 Congressman
Sanford Bishop to discuss the proposed Sabal Trail Transmission Gas
Pipeline project and a planned accompanying Continue reading →

VDT has selective smell



To the VDT the county government always smells like azaleas
and the city of Valdosta government always smells like sewage.
The local newspaper of record doesn’t seem to smell sewage
or landfill problems from Lowndes County.
Today’s VDT editorial complains about
environmental groups paying attention to “theoretical disasters”
(presumably referring to the Sabal Trail pipeline),
yet the VDT has never covered the group that has
most consistently followed the watershed-wide
flooding issues that cause Valdosta’s flooding problems:
WWALS Watershed Coalition.
The VDT recommends citizens get more involved
in sniffing out Valdosta’s sewage problems, yet it doesn’t seem
to cover Citizens Wishing To Be Heard anymore, nor has the VDT called
for the citizen participation sessions promised by
the local governments for the Army Corps of Engineers flooding studies.
Maybe the VDT could encourage citizen participation, rather than ignore it.

VDT editorial today,

It just plain stinks, Continue reading →

On the behalf of the Commission and Citizens of Lowndes County –Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter to FERC about the Sabal Trail methane pipeline



These are the fourteen items he promised

two weeks ago at the SpectraBusters panel at VSU:

Sabal Trail will be expected to adhere and honor all Lowndes County Ordinances –Bill E Slaughter, JR to FERC, 10 April 2014.
I thank Chairman Slaughter for making that statement to FERC.

Despite his apparent refusal to speak on behalf of all the citizens
of the county

after the 24 February 2014 Commission meeting,
he did actually say his ecomment to FERC was
“on the behalf of the Commission and Citizens of Lowndes County”,
and that he expects Sabal Trail to follow all Lowndes County ordinances,
plus Continue reading →

Videos: Candidates, Landowners, Methane and Solar Power @ SpectraBusters 2014-03-29


Candidates for Lowndes County Commission
went on the record (
Mark Wisenbaker
and

Tom Hochschild both running for District 3,
and

Norman Bennett
and

Gretchen Quarterman both running for District 5),
plus

a statement by County Chairman Bill Slaughter,
in addition to essential background information from
directly affected landowners in the audience and from the panelists
on why the proposed
Sabal Trail methane pipeline
is

bad for property values,
is

hazardous here and elsewhere,
and

will be obsolete in a few decades,
all at

a SpectraBusters panel on the Sabal Trail pipeline at VSU,
Saturday 29 March 2014.

The panelists were Continue reading →

How to invite toxic industries to your county



Maybe we should stop inviting toxic industries to Lowndes County.
We’ve been doing that with coal ash, PCBs, superfund wastewater,
used diapers in recycling, and suing local businesses while not terminating
an exclusive franchise with a company that is involved in all of that.
Not to mention Sterling Chemical.



Here in Lowndes County we have

TVA coal ash and Florida coal ash
in our landfill,
and the landfill operator spreads the coal ash on roads on the site,
which is just uphill from the Withlacoochee River.

GA EPD
fined that landfill operator $27,500 in January 2013

for accepting PCBs into that same Pecan Row Landfill.
The same landfill that accepted

196,500 gallons of wastewater from the
Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross, GA.

A landfill that is

in an aquifer recharge zone. Continue reading →

There are things you can do about the Sabal Trail Pipeline –Mario Bartoletti @ LCC 2014-03-11



Apparently the community believes the Commission thinks

there’s nothing they can do,
but Mario Bartoletti, speaking for himself and for

WACE,
said he thought there were things the Commission could do
about that 36-inch methane pipeline, and he listed some things,
at the

11 March 2014 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Here’s

the video:



There are things you can do about the Sabal Trail Pipeline –Mario Bartoletti

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 March 2014.

His list included:

Continue reading →

Water issues under Moody Family Housing –Dr. Michael Noll @ LCC 2014-03-11

Water issues still need to be investigated and resolved under
the proposed Moody Family Housing,
said Dr. Michael Noll,
presenting a public comment by him and two other VSU professors about the recent

evironmental assessment
to the

11 March 2014 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

Here’s

the video:



Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC)

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 March 2014.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

Appended is the text of the VSU professors’ letter,
and here it is in
PDF.

Continue reading →

Valdosta sewage PR reaches Florida



Valdosta sure has an effective PR mechanism,
famous all the way to Florida again,

for the second time this month.
Most cities wouldn’t think

to dump stuff into the river to get in the news!
But Valdosta buried the solution at the end of

a traditional press release:

“The city has planned, designed and bid a force main project and
will award a $32 million contract in May that will prevent the
majority of these overflows from occurring in the future.”



That would be one of the projects Valdosta will use the
$36.7 million GEFA loan to fund.
Other projects are related to the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), which wasn’t the culprit this time.
This sewer spill came from manholes overflowing.

Winnie Wright wrote for WCTV yesterday,

Over 1 Million Gallons Of Wastewater Spills Into Local Waterways,

The Florida Department of Public Health is warning residents to
avoid contact with water from the Withlacoochee River.

Continue reading →

Manhole overflows –City of Valdosta



Maybe that SPLOST money will build that force main and stop this.
Meanwhile, they don’t call it Sugar Creek for nothing.
And Twomile Branch flows into Sugar Creek, which flows into the Withlacoochee
River, which flows into the Suwannee River through Florida into the Gulf of Mexico.
Today we’ll probably see stories from Florida about river water warnings.

Winnie Wright wrote for WCTV 18 March 2014,

National Flood Preparedness Week Comes to Valdosta, Along With The Rain,

It’s pretty ironic that National Flood Preparedness Week has come
right alongside 5 inches of rain in South Georgia, but for residents
of Valdosta who remember the flood of 2009, that much rain can be a
real problem if you don’t have flood insurance.

“Many people don’t realize that flood is not covered in their
homeowners policy. It’s important to know what is and isn’t covered
in your homeowners policy”, says Christi Marsh, a State Farm Agent
based in Valdosta.

Winnie Wright reports homeowner Carrie Eager found flood insurance preferable
to evacuating by boat like before.

Continue reading →

Lowndes County Democratic Party opposes the Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline –Gretchen Quarterman @ FERC 2014-03-04



Gretchen Quarterman stood up for local landowners, the economy,
and the environment,
by reading the statement against the pipeline recently
approved by the Lowndes County Democratic Party, of which she is the chair,
at the

Valdosta FERC Scoping Meeting 4 March 2014.

Here’s

the video:



Lowndes County Democratic Party opposes the Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline –Gretchen Quarterman

Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline,

Scoping Meeting, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 March 2014.

Here’s the text she was reading:

Lowndes County Democratic Committee Opposes Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline Continue reading →