Category Archives: VLCIA

Industrial Authority and the general welfare –Dr. William Fuller

First time speaker Dr. William Fuller refers to a paper copy he got from the City of Valdosta of the charter of the Industrial Authority. He says it allows them to make contracts, and he asks for someone to check to see the unelected members of the Industrial Authority don’t contract with relatives. He notes that the charter says their main purpose is to promote the general welfare of the people of Lowndes County, and the proposed biomass plant won’t do that.


Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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Environmental interest –Bobbi Anne Hancock

She says she has asked the Industrial Authority who in our local community has done studies on the environment and our health? She says she understands that they have constituents who are not from here, but who locally can do some investigating that specifically cares about Lowndes County, who has the environmental expertise?

Chairman Paulk thanks her for their earlier conversation, and says: “I will seek an answer.”


Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Lowndes County Commission, 25 Jan 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Two cameras and the sound is bad in both, although for other speakers it’s fine. I attribute it to the microphone being too far away from her, and when Chairman Paulk speaks to the audience he leans around his laptop and thus away from his microphone.

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“our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge” –Dr. Matthew Richard

Here is Dr. Richard speaking before the Valdosta City Council. He summarized in a comment on this blog:
as i endeavored to point out at the last city council meeting, our local gov’t officials are making decisions about things of which they have little knowledge. my example: the brain has two types of cells: neurons and glial cells. there are NO white blood cells; thus, the brain has no immune system, relying on the the tiny diameter of the capillaries themselves to keep infectious agents out. this is called the blood-brain barrier. BUT, as dr. sammons pointed out, PARTICULATE MATTER is small enough to make it through the body and into the brain. as dr. bob gannon (dept. head of biology at VSU) told me again the other night, this constitutes a major threat to health in the form of brain cancer.

Video by John S. Quarterman
of the regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 January 2011
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

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“Georgia’s EPA standards are a lot lower than other standards”

I didn’t get this questioner’s name. He wanted to know:
Georgia’s EPA standards are a lot lower than other standards and lower than federal EPA standards that are coming along. My question is what will the plant do when these new standards come along?
A: Don’t know what you got; probably didn’t include studies. GA EPD issues a permit.
No answer about when new standards come along.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman of 6 Dec 2011 VLCIA biomass event
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

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Environmental Justice Community? –Phyllis Stallworth, First VP, NAACP

She asks about preschools, apartment complexes, etc.
I am for green energy, but I am against infant mortality. To VLCIA, City Councillors, County Commissioners, try planning with the community in mind.
A: It’s in an already-industrial area.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman of the 6 Dec 2011 VLCIA biomass event
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

See also Phyllis Stallworth’s previous letter. See also VLCIA executive director Brad Lofton on “some opposition has crept up”.

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Videos and transparency –John S. Quarterman

Here I discuss with the mayor about the Valdosta City Council videoing their entire meetings and putting them on the web for everybody to see. The mayor indicated costs of streaming was an issue; I recommended putting it on YouTube or Vimeo and letting them handle that part. I think the AJC article he mentioned is this one: Meeting access video grows among city councils, by Patrick Fox, 18 Jan 2011.

This comment by the mayor was amusing:

The worst thing you could do would be to have one camera in the back that has room audio.
Touche, Mr. Mayor! :-) What do you think, is a noisy video from the back of the room more useful than no video at all? Can you see him waving his arms around? Continue reading →

“An error was made” –Luana Goodwin

This LTE appeared in the VTD 23 Jan 2011. -jsq
I wonder if there is any way for the Industrial Authority, County Commission and City Council to now do the right thing for Lowndes County. How can they save face?

Reading the scientific data makes it clear that an error was made, and clearly this data wasn’t made available to those who have been charged with finding appropriate industry for us, industry that will raise the quality of life for the citizens of Lowndes County by providing good jobs. They can be excused for an industry that provides only a few jobs. Jobs are jobs, after all. But how can we help them apologize to all of us and thank those citizens who have spent so many hours of their own time gathering information and providing a forum to educate us? I wish it were possible.

Luana Goodwin
Valdosta

“some opposition that has crept up” –Brad Lofton

On 6 Jan 2011, Brad Lofton made a joke out of “some opposition that has crept up” that he claims called him an “environmental racist”. He says “we just provided the facts” and “all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.”

Lofton has been misquoting like this since September. Back then he was willing to name the chairman of the local NAACP. He doesn’t mention that Leigh Touchton responded to him back then:

I did not call the Industrial Authority an environmental racist. What I stated quite clearly was that the siting of the Biomass Incinerator in a predominantly black neighborhood constitutes environmental racism.
In her response, she went on to rebut Lofton’s alleged facts. He has never to my knowledge responded to the points Touchton raised in her rebuttal. Instead, he goes around making a joke out of the NAACP.

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“we are satisfied with the safety of this plant” –Brad Lofton

Giving up on answering Dr. Sammons latest, Brad Lofton resorts to the xenophobia card. -jsq
From: Brad Lofton
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:07:16 -0500
Cc: [Dr. Noll, Kay Harris, jsq, lhenderson, hopeforcleanwater]
To: “Bill” [Sammons, Leigh Touchton], aricketts@industrialauthority.com
Subject: Re: Background information on Dr. Christopher Teaf

Thanks again for your e-mail Dr. Sammons. As we have said multiple times now, we are satisfied with the safety of this plant, the numerous experts that have approved it, and the due diligence we have done. You can continue to send ten e-mails a day, yet our position remains the same. I hope the weather is nice today in Massachusetts.
BL
Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone

See also Col. Ricketts on “folks come into the community”. -jsq

Granting a permit is not evaluating safety –Dr. Sammons

Dr. Sammons responds to Brad Lofton’s email. -jsq
From: Bill [Sammons]
Cc: [Dr. Noll, Kay Harris, jsq, lhenderson, hopeforcleanwater]
To: blofton@industrialauthority.com, leigh.touchton@gmail.com, aricketts@industrialauthority.com, [Roy Copeland, Mary Gooding]
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 14:44:54 -0500
Subject: Re: Background information on Dr. Christopher Teaf

Dear Mr. Lofton:

Having talked with many different people in different departments in multiple state governments I do not think that any of them would suggest that granting a permit is the same as “do nothing but evaluate the safety of these projects”. When asked they all say the are following the guidelines set out by EPA/state regulations– they are not evaluating the safety of each project. Many will admit in private that the regulations/guidelines are not up to date with science, but the people in the permitting agencies do not have the authority to grant the permit based on the best available science/data. It’s not dissimilar to discussions of BACT– depending on the size of the stationary source not all BACT is the same.

As an example if you look at the EPA regulations on PM 2.5

Continue reading →