Category Archives: Water

Authority should listen to other sources –John S. Quarterman

This op-ed by me appeared in the VDT today, 24 Feb 2011. On 15 Feb 2011 I spoke directly to the VLCIA board about the main points and the next day I sent them the longer version, Why “jobs, jobs, jobs” isn’t good enough for the public good and the general welfare, which includes links to videos of the relevant speeches and to VLCIA’s charter. -jsq
Everyone wants jobs for those who need them and jobs for young people so they don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those people need to drink?

At the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner Brad Lofton gave a speech which I liked, and I told him so afterwards, because it was mostly about real industry with real jobs that that the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) has brought into the area.

But it had a problem:

Continue reading →

Uncontrolled growth and water problems

Daniel Mayer, November 2006
Maybe growth, growth, growth alone isn’t any better than jobs, jobs jobs alone, and water remains one of the main issues. Kay Harris wrote in the VDT 17 Feb 2011 that Aging infrastructure, growth, and other issues contribute to city’s sewer woes:
Valdosta Utilities Director Henry … Hicks addressed the sewage spills, saying they are caused by excess rain which overloads the Withlacoochee River Water Pollution Control Plant. He said growth along the river and throughout the regional watershed area has contributed to the amount of excess water running into the river.

“When you have all this growth and you create more impervious surface area (through paving and development), more and more water is running into the Withlacoochee. On average, the plant handles six million gallons a day and is equipped to accommodate twice that, but in recent rain events, we’ve gotten upwards of 15 million gallons extra in stormwater runoff and the system can’t handle that,” Hicks said.

Some of the comments on the VDT page are also interesting. Guest remarked: Continue reading →

The mentality that exploits and destroys the natural environment –Wendell Berry

And now a word from Wendell Berry:
The mentality that exploits and destroys the natural environment is the same that abuses racial and economic minorities…. The mentality that destroys a watershed and then panics at the threat of flood is the same mentality that gives institutionalized insult to black people and then panics at the prospect of race riots.
Source: “Think Little” in A Continuous Harmony: Essays Cultural and Agricultural, by Wendell Berry, 1972. Forty years later, that mentality is still a problem.

-jsq

Environmental apartheid and envieronmental racism –Leigh Touchton, VCC, 10 Feb 2011

NAACP reiterates charges of environmental racism, despite claims from Brad Lofton, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, that “all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.” Leigh Touchton, president of the local NAACP chapter, presents to the Valdosta City Council research published by Robert D. Bullard about environmental apartheid.


Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 10 February 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
She posted the appended as a comment on the previous LAKE post about Robert D. Bullard’s report.

-jsq

Dear Mr. Quarterman:
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Georgia forests worth more standing than incinerated

Sandi Martin writes in Southeast Farm Press:
A University of Georgia researcher has found that Georgia’s forestlands provide essential ecosystem services to the state worth an estimated $37 billion annually.

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.

That’s substantially more than the $28 billion annually from the conventional wood-products industry.

What are these ecosystem services? Continue reading →

Why “jobs, jobs, jobs” isn’t good enough for the public good and the general welfare –John S. Quarterman

Sure, everyone wants jobs for the people right now and jobs so the children don’t have to go somewhere else to find one. But what good is that if those jobs suck up all the water those children need to drink?

This is the problem:

“What I believe the three most important things are, not only for our community, and our state, and our country, but for our country, thats jobs number 1, jobs number 2, and jobs.”


Brad Lofton, Executive Director, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

I shook Brad Lofton’s hand after that speech and told him I liked it, because I did: in general it was a positive speech about real accomplishments. I’ve also pointed out I had a few nits with that speech. This one is more than a nit. This one is basic philosophy and policy.

Now one would expect an executive director of an industrial authority to be all about jobs. And that would be OK, if Continue reading →

Biomass water usage as a problem. –Ben Copeland

Ben Copeland, who is on the Suwannee-Satilla regional water council, has learned something about rivers:
“One of the things that keeps some of these rivers going is the treated effluent that goes into them.

Now Brad Lofton wants to use some of that up in a biomass plant. We have a problem there.”

It’s at the end of this video:


Video of Ben Copeland, Past Chairman of the Board, Wiregrass Technical College,
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Matthew Richard brought up a similar point in his LTE in the VDT of yesterday: Continue reading →

Dead fish in Cherry Creek

David Rodock wrote in the VDT on Sunday, Fish found dead following waste water discharge:
When the 27,000 gallons of untreated waste water was discharged at 4036 Bemiss Road on Tuesday, Jan. 20, local resident Dan Davis began to notice dead shiners over the next few days in the nearby Cherry Creek and Lake Cleve waters.

According to Davis, approximately fifty to sixty shiners — a small, silver-colored fish commonly used for bait by fishermen — were found dead in Cherry Creek over the last week. In addition to the fish, Davis also spotted a dead gray egret washed up underneath the bridge.

There’s more in the VDT.

-jsq

Taking water for granted? –Matthew Richard

This LTE appeared in the VDT today. -jsq
In the aftermath of Valdosta’s recent water calamity, it might be a good time to ask whether residents of Lowndes County are taking things like plentiful water for granted? Apparently, the Valdosta City Council is already thinking ahead, for on the agenda of their January 20, 2011 meeting, was a “Consideration of an Ordinance to establish standards for outdoor watering for the City of Valdosta.” One wonders if they’re worried about people watering their lawns in the summer? If that’s the case, it’s good that they acknowledge that the South is in the midst of a long-term drought.

Or perhaps I’m giving Council credit where it’s not due?

Continue reading →

Ben Copeland on water and growth in south Georgia

Ben Copeland asked the big question: “How much growth do we want?” He related it to regional water in the aquifer, rivers, growth, and planning, speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner, 28 January 2011.

Copeland is Past Chairman of the Board, Wiregrass Technical College. He serves on the regional water planning council. He said those councils were started due to worries about Atlanta not having a reliable water supply. He said the councils were planning for water and wastewater to 2050. The local regional council is the Suwannee-Satilla regional water council. He described the extent of the water planning region (see map). He expects finalization of the water plan by May. He talked about the Floridian aquifer, and how he’s worried not so much about Atlanta taking our water as about Orlando, Jacksonville, and Tallahassee. “Because they all have their straws in that same aquifer.”

Finally, Ben Copeland asked the big question: “How much growth do we want?”

“Do we want to be Jacksonville? Do we want to be Tallahassee? Do we want to be a large metropolitan region?

Folks are going to move to south Georgia, I can tell you that, because of all the resources that we have. I’m a great believer in the free enterprise system. How much do we try to limit that?

Continue reading →