As near as I’ve been able to tell, this project deals with erosion
caused by flooding.
This thing has been
bid
and
rebid.
Sounds like they’ve finally accepted a bid
involving at grant to pay for much of it.
Here’s the video:
6.c) Browns Canal streambank restoration @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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Do you ever wonder what your regular SPLOST 1% sales tax goes for?
Some of it goes to buy vehicles for Valdosta Public Works.
Here’s the video:
6.a) Four F-650 Trucks for Public Works, some from SPLOST @ VCC 7 April 2011
Regular monthly meeting of the Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 7 April 2011,
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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Mayor Fretti presented a check for $200 to Randall Jones,
who gets his name inscribed on a plaque inside
the front door of City Hall.
Jones is a maintenance supervisor at the water plant.
The mayor said he identified that the
January water outage
involved damage to switch gear and dealt with the problem.
Here’s
the video.
Regular Meeting, Lowndes County Commission, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 April 2011
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
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Stewart Brand of Whole Earth Catalog fame is a long-time environmentalist
who in recent years decided nuclear was necessary.
(He also decided
no-till was necessary, which was enough
to convince me he’s gone barmy.)
Here
at TED
he debates Mark Z. Jacobson,
whose new study says we can
power the world with wind, water, and sun.
I think Jacobson should reconsider including building more hydroelectric dams,
but his study does demonstrate that we don’t need nuclear or biomass.
But watch it and see what you think:
Here is my critique of Brand’s arguments: Continue reading
Here’s the video:I’m the president of Students Against Violating the Environment at VSU. I’m here representing 200+ members of SAVE, that consists of students, faculty, community members. We are deeply concerned with environmental issues and we are networking together to make this city a more humane and sustainable community for future generations.
As a student, I feel I have the right to be able to breathe clean air at the college I attend. With this biomass plant possibly being built here, the future for generations to come are in jeopardy, and we want to protect our fellow and future students’ health.
Please take into consideration the future health of this university and its community, and don’t sell grey water to the proposed biomass plant.
Erin Hurley, President of
SAVE, Students Against Violating the Environment, speaking at
Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 24 March 2011,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
She said who she was, who she represented, how many, what they were for, what they wanted, quickly enough that attention didn’t waver, slowly and loudly enough to be heard, and briefly enough to transcribe, with pathos, logic, and politic. Even the mayor looked up at “As a student….”
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Karen Noll of WACE, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy,
asked the Valdosta City Council not to sell wastewater
to the proposed Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant.
She presented
“500+ signatures from community members and organizations”asking for that. She also said
“…furthermore a response to our request each member of the council is expected before the next council meeting.”Here’s the video.
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By water the study authors, Mark Z. Jacobson (pictured) Mark A. Delucch, mostly mean hydroelectric power, which would involve building more dams, with all their environmental problems. Still, it’s an interesting study demonstrating that true renewable energy could power the world: no coal, no oil, no nuclear.…a new study just published in the journal Energy Policy states that the world can provide for all of its energy needs, including electric power, transportation, heating/cooling, etc using only wind, water, and solar (WWS) energy by the year 2030.
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Here’s a four page explanation of that table.
Coal is not the cheapest: natural gas is. Onshore wind actually costs about the same as coal, and less than nuclear. Offshore wind is currently about 2.5 times more expensive.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) currently costs a bit more than twice as much as coal, and already less than offshore wind.
The table does not take into account the environmental costs of the various power sources, or obviously coal would fare far worse, and biomass would not be rated anywhere near as good as wind.
Remember, the cost of solar is falling rapidly, so solar will rapidly become more cost-effective compared to other energy sources.
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Water scarcity is a reality for many American states, particularly in the Southwest, and over-development in desert areas is compounding the issues between Colorado, Nevada and California. Georgia’s problems pale in comparison, but if the drought continues, consumption limits and conservation are going to have to be implemented again.That would be the drought that was already in progress in south Georgia in January.
The VDT mentions a student group trying to do something about it:
Here’s their web page and their facebook page.Saturday, the VSU Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) is hosting a community Walk for Water to raise awareness and money for people worldwide who don’t have access to clean water.
Free enterprise? Who knows? Maybe the Industrial Authority will get around to doing something about industry and water.
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According to the AP, Ga. foresters brace for busy wildfire season:
The nearterm effects:A cold, wet winter has left northern parts of the state in decent shape, but in southern Georgia river flows and soil moisture are both at some of the lowest points that would be expected in a century, said David Stooksbury, Georgia’s state climatologist at the University of Georgia.
“We have a good fuel load with plenty of dry vegetation, the soil is dry and there’s a low relative humidity and there’s wind,” Stooksbury said. “That is the simple recipe for a trash fire to get out of control very quickly and become a wildfire.”Yes, Sunday Georgia Forestry cut off burn permits in Lowndes County because some fires had gotten out of control.
The long term problem? Continue reading