Tag Archives: lawsuit

Sabal Trail protests continue –VDT 2016-09-23

Front page today in the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee River Basin: the WWALS protest against DAPL and Sabal Trail at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge last Saturday, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA.

Desiree Carver, Valdosta Daily Times, Friday, September 23, 2016, front page, Sabal protests continue,

The WWALS Watershed Coalition stood on the bridge between Brooks and Lowndes County Saturday to show solidarity with Dakota Access Pipeline opponents in Dakota and to continue its battle against the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline.

That’s the US 84 bridge over the Withlacoochee River, on the Continue reading →

Sabal Trail contractor yard at end of Valdosta Airport runway

The same company that sued Lowndes County in 2007 to try to put a tall building above the 30-foot height limit in Valdosta’s Runway Protection Zone now appears to want to put a contractor yard for Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline in the same location. Will this involve any tall cranes? What about Moody’s flights off of that runway at Valdosta Airport? And what about those aquifer recharge zones?

Among the contractor yard maps Sabal Trail filed with FERC 20 February 2015, there’s this one: Continue reading →

China, U.S., and Russia energy deals: bad news for Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline?

The U.S. and China made a historic deal on climate change this week. Here’s the good (it’s real, it’s huge, and it’s positive economically for both countries), the bad (nuclear is first on the list of those “clean energy” sources), and the ugly. Also this week China made a second huge natural gas deal with Russia: what does that mean to the current U.S. push for LNG exports, including the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline gouge through Georgia?

The Deal

Rebecca Leber, The New Republic, 12 November 2014, The World Has Waited for the U.S. and China to Take Action on Climate Change. They Just Did.

President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Wednesday commitments to reduce both countries’ greenhouse gas emissions. The surprise announcement, which came while Obama visits Beijing this week, is the clearest sign yet the two countries are serious on climate change.

After months of negotiations Continue reading →

Insurers suing for lack of preparation for record floods

What if, in addition to the record floods of 2009 and 2013 and 2014 apparently caused by local lack of planning in our watersheds, what if we got 15 inches of rain in one 24 hour period like Pensacola did a few weeks ago? Local governments might get sued by insurers for lack of planning, like 200 communities in the Chicago area already got sued. Maybe we should plan ahead for greater weather variability caused by climate change.

Eric Holthaus wrote for Future Tense on Slate 30 April 2014, The Calamitous Climate Responsible for Florida’s Record Rainfall, 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 →

Next Deep South Sanitation court date: 25 Nov 2013

According to Deep South Sanitation, their next court date is Monday 25 November 2013 at 9:30 AM, presumably at the Lowndes County Judicial Complex, 327 N. Ashley Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. The longer you drag this out, Lowndes County, the more good press DSS gets out of it. DSS reports 25 new customers for the fourth quarter, providing $125 to Lake Park Elementary School.

Oh yes, the alleged county attorney spending our tax dollars to sue Deep South Sanitation was the attorney for many of the cities that sued about LOST and just lost before the Georgia Supreme Court, resulting in many cities and counties scurrying around to make rapid agreements, including Lowndes County and Valdosta.

-jsq

Cash for Trash –Deep South Sanitation

The longer you drag on that lawsuit, Lowndes County Commission, about your bogus exclusive franchise that benefits nobody but ADS investors in New York City, the more good PR local company DSS gets. We could use better than trash government around here.

Advertisement by Deep South Sanitation in the VDT yesterday: Continue reading →

Down, up, down again: Arkansas Nuclear One

Entergy announced August 8th that its Arkansas nuke was back up after a man died there in March, but it only made it to 87% power on August 12th and then back to zero yesterday. There’s no NRC event for yesterday’s downtime: what’s going on? Meanwhile, the dead man’s family is suing Entergy, and Entergy is suing its contractors. Sounds like the Plant Vogtle circular firing squad.

THV11 wrote 8 August 2013, Nuclear One unit back on after deadly accident and EBR staff wrote more detail for Energy Business Review 9 August 2013, Entergy restarts Unit 1 at Arkansas Nuclear One power plant,

Prior to restart, the unit needed an extensive restoration, including damage evaluation, repairs to non-nuclear plant components and rescheduling its refueling activities.

The restoration was made compulsory following the collapse of a contractor’s crane on 31 March 2013, while shifting a generator stator out of the turbine building.

Hm, “made compulsory” by whom? NRC? OSHA, which also investigated? Arkansas? Other? Continue reading →

Directors and Officers Insurance: ACCG IRMA for Lowndes County

With almost $22 million in liability coverage, why do Lowndes County Commissioners and staff express such apprehension about lawsuits? This is what Lowndes County returned in response to an open records request for its contract for Directors and Officers insurance: paperwork about its ACCG IRMA subscription. IRMA is Interlocal Risk Management Agency, and ACCG is Association of County Commissioners of Georgia.

ACCG IRMA as D&O Insurance for Lowndes County
Open Records Request	Summary of Insurance	Contribution Breakdown	Contributions by Coverage	Renewal Contribution Worksheet

Copies of these documents are on the LAKE website.

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Lowndes County v. Deep South Sanitation: Why?

Why is Lowndes County suing a local business for the benefit of investors in New York City? I guess we’ve discovered the litigation last month’s Lowndes County Commission executive session was about. Why is this a good use of taxpayer money?

On Deep South Sanitation’s facebook page yesterday,

Friends, we all watch the news and we see governments making changes that are unacceptable to the American people. Well, it is happening right here in our hometown. LOWNDES COUNTY has issued a CIVIL ACTION LAWSUIT against DEEP SOUTH. The preliminary hearing is set for FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013 at 9:30AM in Courtroom 5D of the Lowndes County Judicial Complex. The purpose of the hearing is to force DEEP SOUTH to shutdown on that day! (We are a small, local, family owned and operated business.) We need your support because this hearing will effect almost every one of you. “IF” we are forced out, Advanced Disposal will be your “ONLY CHOICE” for garbage service. That means there will be a MONOPOLY for garbage service in Lowndes. The County maintains that it is not MANDATORY for the citizens to use Advanced Disposal so then who else can we choose? CHOICE keeps business healthy and HONEST. Please help support this matter for your sake and ours by calling LOWNDES COUNTY and voice your concerns. Also, there are several petitions being sent around as of today. We personally thank each and every one of you!! From: Cary, Debbie, Trevor, Dylan and Sadee Scarborough

Unnamed Lowndes County “representatives” spelled out in the VDT back in January that

“According to the solid waste ordinance, Advanced Disposal will be the only residential hauler licensed to serve unincorporated Lowndes County.”

A few hours later yesterday, also on DSS’s facebook page,

Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange