The three rezonings back
the agenda
after being tabled were
approved,
tabled again,
and
denied.
They meet again this morning at 8:30 AM to consider
that tabled rezoning and other matters.
See also Continue reading
Tag Archives: wildlife
Videos: Turnberry, Seago, and Branham back again, 3 alcohol, and budget @ LCC 2017-01-09
They vote tonight at 5:30 PM, and yesterday morning they reviewed
the three rezonings back
the agenda
after being tabled
last month.
County Manager Joe Pritchard
said staff would be sending Commissioners
a list of upcoming board apointments so they could think of candidates.
He didn’t say anything about showing that list to the public.
See also the LAKE videos of last November’s Planning Commission meeting for those three rezonings.
Below are links to LAKE videos from each item yesterday morning, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading
Turnberry, Seago, and Branham back again, 3 alcohol, and budget @ LCC 2017-01-09
Three rezonings are back from
last month
on
the agenda for the Lowndes County Commission Work Session
this morning at 8:30 AM.
LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
Continue reading
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2017, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JANUARY 10, 2017, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Spectra backtracks about pipeline incident
Spectra flip-flops on major safety events as well as on whose houses are beautiful and whether Georgia cities can use gas from its pipeline from PCB-polluted Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida. And Spectra was fined recently for violating both federal safety requirements and its own operating procedures, including for pipeline monitoring. Oh, and its natural gas comes from fracking.
Remember Spectra rep Andrea Grover,
quoted by the VDT?
Well, she’s been quoted elsewhere, too.
Mike Benard wrote for
CSRHUB 5 April 2013,
Spectra Energy ‘Backtracks’ on Methane Incident:
First: “Nothing Released …. No Smoke …. No Incident”;
Then Admits: Methane & Hydrocarbons Released,
Spectra Energy Corporation (SE, NYSE) was forced to backtrack on dismissive assertions it made about a nighttime incident at its huge natural gas compressor station in Bedford County, PA, after persistent neighbors and a reporter kept pressing the company and state regulators for facts.
A natural gas compressor station, like the ones Spectra says will be along its proposed AL-GA-FL pipeline, maybe in Dougherty County, maybe in Lowndes County; we don’t know.
Now Spectra could say this was a different kind of compressor because it’s a different kind of operation in Pennsylvania. What kind? Fracking: Continue reading
VDT starts to catch up about pipeline
Spectra used
Dougherty County Commissioner Ewell Lyle’s question
in answer the Valdosta Daily Times about that natural gas pipeline
from Alabama to Florida.
And notice how they’re saying Tallapoosa County, Alabama now, and not
mentioning
PCB-polluted Anniston, Alabama as the source of the pipeline?
The VDT map conveniently clips Alabama completely out of the picture.
How about we clip Georgia out of the pipeline and install solar power instead?
Matthew Woody wrote on the front page of the VDT today, Pipeline intersects area: Sabal Trail project runs from Alabama to Florida,
Andrea Grover, Public Affairs Representative from Spectra Energy, said that initially the pipe was going to be a closed system, but Spectra Energy decided to turn the pipe into an “open access pipe,” meaning that any area along the pipe could potentially tap into the system to either receive gas from or supply gas to the pipeline. Describing the pipeline as a highway, Grover said it will have on-ramps and off-ramps. They provide the transportation of the gas, and once the pipe is in service, communities are encouraged to work with Sabal.
Dougherty County Commissioner Ewell Lyle suggested letting locals tap it less than a week ago.
Note that weasel word: “potentially”. I could “potentially” tap into the two (2) pipelines that cross my property, but decades they’ve been there and that’s never happened.
When asked about the benefits of the pipe, Grover stated, Continue reading
WALB on Spectra about that AL-GA-FL natural gas pipeline
Maps and video about
that pipeline public hearing in Dougherty County.
Spectra does have per-county maps and has finally doled them out.
What did Lee County do to make the pipeline avoid it entirely?
And what about Georgians even getting to use that natural gas?
Devin Knight wrote for WALB Sep 16, 2013 6:14 PM EDT Updated: Sep 21, 2013 6:14 PM EDT, Dougherty County residents ask for pipeline to be re-routed,
“Why not go ahead and put a tap in, or whatever you call it so we could utilize that gas instead of just being a transit through our area,” Lyle said.
WALB didn’t record an answer, but stay tuned, Spectra heard him.
Unfortunately, Commissioner Lyle is also now singing Spectra’s tune: Continue reading
Spectra speaks about that AL-GA-FL natural gas pipeline
One of the promised public hearings appeared within a week, and the pipeline company made all sorts of promises and emphasized how busy and important it is. The pipeline rep caused opposition from a second county commissioner, and inadvertently revealed some possible means of opposition.
Carlton Fletcher wrote for AlbanyHerald.com 16 September 2013, Spectra official discusses natural gas pipeline,
Brian Fahrenthold, the state and local government affairs director for Houston-based Spectra Energy, assured commissioners and landowners impacted by the pipeline that his company will “meet or exceed all safety standards” required by federal officials during construction of the $3 billion project that will, when completed, send 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day into Florida from central Alabama.
“We’re in the early rows of activity right now, and this is a marathon,” Fahrenthold said. “We operate close to 19,000 miles of pipeline in the United States, and we have an outstanding safety record. Almost 15 percent of the natural gas used in the United States flows through our system.”
Fahrenthold answered questions from commissioners and from members of the public during a lengthy public hearing, assuring those gathered at the downtown Government Center Spectra is open to any pipeline route alterations that are viable.
“We keep hearing that there is an alternate route being proposed by some (landowners) in the community, but we haven’t seen it,” Fahrenthold said. “If there is such a route proposal, we’re open to it.”
Well, that’s cute: he says landowners should band together and do the pipeline company’s work for it. How about we start by demanding to see Spectra’s current route maps?
And look at this! Remember Commissioner Ewell Lyle spoke up for closely monitoring the pipeline and noted it wasn’t just a local issue? Spectra listened: Continue reading
Many small ponds for flood control and irrigation
So Valdosta’s ponds for flood control idea
is a good start on local water issues.
Rather than a few big antiseptic ponds, how about many small distributed
ponds, like the
Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission’s
Ponds Program:
Because of increased irrigation from existing ponds in Southeast Georgia due to saltwater intrusion into groundwater aquifers and moratoriums on well drillings along Georgia’s coast, GSWCC, in cooperation with NRCS, developed the Ponds Program. By helping landowners to construct new and renovate existing ponds for irrigation, the Ponds Program has been able to take advantage of rain harvesting to increase landowners’ irrigation capabilities while simultaneously reducing withdrawal from our aquifers, protecting and improving water quality, capturing sediment to reduce downstream transport, and providing wildlife habitats.
-jsq
Georgia forests worth more standing than incinerated
A University of Georgia researcher has found that Georgia’s forestlands provide essential ecosystem services to the state worth an estimated $37 billion annually.That’s substantially more than the $28 billion annually from the conventional wood-products industry.This is in addition to the value of timber, forest products and recreation. This is the first time these indirect benefits of Georgia’s private forests have been estimated.
What are these ecosystem services? Continue reading