Category Archives: Solid Waste

The trash problem could be worse: north of Naples

They call it the Triangle of Death because of the cancer clusters. No, not Waycross: near Naples, Italy,

Jim Yardleyjan wrote for NYTimes 29 January 2014, A Mafia Legacy Taints the Earth in Southern Italy,

“The environment here is poisoned,” said Dr. Alfredo Mazza, a cardiologist who documented an alarming rise in local cancer cases in a 2004 study published in the British medical journal The Lancet. “It’s impossible to clean it all up. The area is too vast.”

He added, “We’re living on top of a bomb.”

Maybe it’s not that bad Continue reading

Last day to oppose NRC bad nuclear waste plan

Today you can object to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) inadequate plan for radioactive waste storage.

Comment through regulations.gov on Docket #NRC-2012-0246-0456; here’s a link to the comment form.

NRC’s web page on Waste Confidence:

The public comment period on the Waste Confidence Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement and proposed rule ends on Friday, December 20, 2013.

Background from Beyond Nuclear:

No safe, permanent solution has yet been found anywhere in the world—and may never be found—for the nuclear waste problem. In the U.S., the only identified and flawed high-level radioactive waste deep repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada has been canceled. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an end to the production of nuclear waste and for securing the existing reactor waste in hardened on-site storage.

Facebook event with more information.

Here’s a petition:

The NRC, by court order, has been required to gather public input regarding a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) regarding the storage of nuclear waste that is grossly inadequate and leaves over 150 million Americans who live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant at risk.

The NRC has declared that it would only be a SMALL risk to the environment and communities near nuclear power plants to store nuclear waste on-site for 60 years, 160 years or even INDEFINITELY if no permanent repository is established….

And NRC’s oversight committee is the Subcommittee on Energy and Power of the Energy and Commerce Committee, which just held a hearing 12 December 2013 on Oversight of NRC Management and the Need for Legislative Reform.

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ADS included household trash in their recyclded items –Tim Carroll

Personal recollection from Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll received today on ADS fails to recycle, appeals DSS ruling anyway, adding detail that wasn’t in the VDT article.

The main problem the City was having with ADS was they included household trash in their recycled items. Used diapers and other household products mixed in with recycle materials is not allowed. The City advised ADS back to this past October of the issue and no improvements were made. Eventually the city had no choice but to cut them off. The City is a regional hub for recycle material and proud to offer the service.

OK, so is that a violation of the county’s “exclusive franchise” with ADS?

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ADS fails to recycle, appeals DSS ruling anyway

Why is Lowndes County leaving the City of Valdosta to subsidize the county’s failed “exclusive franchise”? And is ADS’ failure to recycle recyling a breach of its contract with the county?

Adam Floyd wrote on the front page of the VDT today, Advanced Disposal appeals Deep South decision,

Requests made to Advanced Disposal Service’s corporate office and Robert Norman, the lawyer who filed the appeal, to learn the company’s reasoning behind the appeal were not returned by press time.

Meanwhile, the City of Valdosta’s recycling center has denied Advanced Disposal further access to its facilities, citing concerns about volume.

John Whitehead III, deputy city manager for operations, said that the center could not process the company’s deliveries fast enough, and material was beginning to pile up. The suspension is temporary, Whitehead said, and was done to ensure that the city could process its recycling which increases during the holidays.

“We had been taking our recycling to the City of Valdosta, and Monday they cut us off without any notice,” said Greg Walk, local general manager for Advanced Disposal. “We’ve constructed a bunker at the landfill, and the material that is being collected in that bunker will be taken to a processing plant in Milledgeville.”

The company had to dispose of recycled materials collected Monday and Tuesday but continued recycling service Wednesday.

“It was the last thing we wanted to do to our recyclables, but we responded as quickly as possible,” said Walk.

Does that mean the city of Valdosta sent the recycling to the landfill? And is that a violation of the county’s contract with ADS?

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Buried under nine feet of manure: 19th century horse predictions

There is a big difference between the 19th century horse excrement crisis and the current 21st century energy crisis, similar as they may sound. One was real. The other is manufactured by the modern equivalent of stagecoach vendors.

Stephen Davies wrote for The Freeman 1 September 2004, The Great Horse-Manure Crisis of 1894,

In 1898 the first international urban-planning conference convened in New York. It was abandoned after three days, instead of the scheduled ten, because none of the delegates could see any solution to the growing crisis posed by urban horses and their output.

The problem did indeed seem intractable. The larger and richer that cities became, the more horses they needed to function. The more horses, the more manure. Writing in the Times of London in 1894, one writer estimated that in 50 years every street in London would be buried under nine feet of manure. Moreover, all these horses had to be stabled, which used up ever-larger areas of increasingly valuable land. And as the number of horses grew, ever-more land had to be devoted to producing hay to feed them (rather than producing food for people), and this had to be brought into cities and distributed—by horse-drawn vehicles. It seemed that urban civilization was doomed.

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Lowndes County can’t make a monopoly –Judge Harry J. Altman on DSS in VDT

Maybe filing the lawsuit in the first place was “premature”, to use Chairman Bill Slaughter’s word in the VDT yesterday about a possible appeal. Commissioner Demarcus Marshall had the common courtesy on WCTV to apologize to DSS for the unnecessary lawsuit. How much did the Commission spend on that waste of time and effort?

Editor Kay Harris wrote on the front page of the Valdosta Daily Times yesterday, Company wins fight to stay in business: Deep South wins case brought by County,

Southern Circuit Judge Harry J. Altman issued a ruling Monday in the civil action filed by Lowndes County against Deep South Sanitation, LLC to enjoin Deep South from continuing its garbage business. Advanced Disposal Services was later added as an intervenor plaintiff in the case against Deep South as well.

In the ruling, Altman denied the County’s request for an injunction to put Deep South out of business. The order addresses the County’s ordinance passed in 2012, saying that to “simultaneously invoke an exclusive franchise agreement with one company would, in effect … permit Lowndes County to construct a monopoly while simultaneously putting pre-existing companies out of business.”

Well, it appears the judge thought it was about right or wrong.

The county Chairman’s view now? Continue reading

DSS on WCTV

The WCTV reporter interviewed Lowndes County Commissioner Demarcus Marshall at yesterday’s Chamber of Commerce Legislative Lunch because Chairman Bill Slaughter was not there.

Winnie Anne Wright wrote yesterday for WCTV, Deep South Sanitation Will Continue Work In Lowndes County, quoted Cary Scarborough about winning the lawsuit the Lowndes County Commission brought against his company, and then:

He has invested quite a bit of money in his only truck that you can see here. Despite all of the litigation, he is proud to be born and raised in Lowndes County.

One of the Commision’s newest representatives, Demarcus Marshall, says he hopes the County and private businesses will be able to negotiate out of court, if an issue like this comes about again.

“I commend him for his efforts. Commend his family. And I just really apologize to them that they had to undergo this. And I hope that in the future, don’t be afraid to do any business here in Lowndes County”, says Marshall.

Residents of Lowndes County will now be able to choose between Deep South Sanitation and Advanced Disposal, as well as any other sanitation service for their trash collection.

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Local company trashed County Commission lawsuit

According to Deep South Sanitation’s facebook page today, DSS won the court case brought against them by the Lowndes County Commission.

So how much money did the alleged County Attorney spend sueing a local company to benefit ADS investors in New York City? The County Commission was very concerned recently about how much the Sheriff and the Coroner spent (which the Sheriff and the Coroner ably rebutted). Why isn’t the Commission as concerned about spending money on a completely unnecessary lawsuit that they started? Why do they let that same attorney set prices for purchase orders?

That exclusive franchise with ADS: not so exclusive anymore, is it?

Will ADS sue the county, as many people rumored was the Commission’s greatest fear?

Will the county now have to pay DSS’s attorney fees? As a taxpayer I don’t like the idea of wasting more of my tax dollars on that lawsuit, so maybe they could take it out of the fees or salaries of whoever recommended and approved that lawsuit.

Maybe somebody down at the county should “check our work”.

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GA EPD Hazardous site 10645: Brooks County, Piscola Creek, Withlacoochee River

Brooks County has a hazardous waste site: a closed landfill a few miles southeast of Quitman, about a mile from Piscola Creek, and less than four miles from the Withlacoochee River.

parcel 0096 0003 Brooks County Georgia

This Georgia EPD Hazardous site 10645 on Johson Short Road and SR 333 (also known as Washington Street and Madison Highway) Map: Quitman SR 333 GA EPD Landfill Hazardous Site 10645 was presumably why we find this Continue reading

Open House at Mildred Hunter on Common Community Vision @ VLMPO 2013-10-23

“We have broadband”, said Bill Slaughter, while other people had different opinions on that and other topics Wednesday night at the Mildred Hunter Community Center.

Corey Hull introduced the session and a small but vocal group of citizens discussed all the main topic headings. He noted that there are more than twelve plans already in place in the various cities and counties in the Valdosta Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Area. Yet there were many common themes in those plans, and VLMPO was looking for other common areas in these meetings and online, and more specifically strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. If you have a community group of any size, VLMPO can come talk to it. They’ve been to the Chamber, to Rotary, to churches, etc. They expect to wrap this process up in December, with common vision and goals for the next ten or twenty years.

Matt Martin Local officials present included Matt Martin, Planning and Zoning Administrator for the City of Valdosta, and Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter. Martin didn’t say much, but Bill Slaughter was quite vocal. I thanked him for speaking up, even though I didn’t agree with everything he said. He helped clarify current county codes for stormwater retention, and Martin helped clarify the city’s codes.

As a long-time participant in local development (he’s CEO of Waller Heating and Air) Slaughter said when people are buying houses all they look at is Continue reading