Category Archives: Water

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

Pipeline concerns about Flint River and Floridan Aquifer heard by Dougherty County Commission

Someone reminded her County Commission they can do something about the pipeline, only a few counties from here. At least one county commissioner there gets it that “it’s clearly not just a local issue. It’s a Southeast issue.” And the pipeline company has now promised public hearings in that county.

Dougherty County Chairman Jeff Sinyard followed up within a few days on his promise to do something. Carlton Fletcher wrote for AlbanyHerald.com 9 September 2013, County Commission hears concerns about pipeline,

Dinorah Hall told commissioners at their business session that the proposed $3 billion pipeline would pose danger to the environment and to residents in the path of the 465-mile project.

“It is within your authority to advocate citizens’ safety first by proposing an alternate site for the large, industrial compression station that will be used to push the gas through the pipeline and an alternate route away from more heavily populated areas,” Hall said. “Just imagine the catastrophic impact a pipeline disaster could have on our natural resources such as the Flint River and our underground aquifer.”

Commission Chairman Jeff Sinyard encouraged Hall and other impacted landowners to attend the commission’s work session Monday to discuss their concerns with project representatives.

“It is very, very important that they meet every legal and environmental requirement on this project,” Sinyard said of Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp., which is building the pipeline to supply gas to Florida Power & Light. “We expect them to use professional, non-bullying dialogue when talking with our citizens, and we’re going to do everything we can to see that this project negatively impacts the least number of citizens.”

Local residents are still just NIMBY, but District 4 Commissioner Ewell Lyle said, Continue reading

Pipeline opposition growing

Why should Georgia landowners have to cede property rights to benefit nobody in Georgia, and at risk of our aquifer and environment? But Dougherty County residents are still playing NIMBY instead of trying to stop it entirely.

Carlton Fletcher wrote for the Albany Herald 7 September 2013, Local opposition to natural gas pipeline growing,

Dougherty County landowners who’ve been contacted by representatives of a group planning the 465-mile Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline projected to run underneath their property say they’re not convinced by assurances that the $3 billion project is safe.

And they’re preparing to challenge the pipeline even as project surveyors seek access to their land.

“This is not just a threat to my land, to our region’s water, Continue reading

Nuke overruns already causing distributed solar in south Georgia

People are tired of irresponsible trash government at the state level colluding with monopoly utilities to hold Georgia back in distributed solar power, and some of us are doing something about it; you can, too.

Jigar Shah wrote for SaportReport 15 September 2013 Solar more viable as Georgia’s new nuclear power plants face overruns,

I am seeing Georgia’s nuclear financial woes starting to prompt a boon for distributed energy including solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, low-impact hydro, high efficiency cogeneration, and other sources of electricity.

Biomass? Let’s not go back to that carbon-polluting forest-destroying factory-exploding waste of time and resources. Solar, wind, efficiency, and conservation are the main events, with solar increasingly leading the pack. And those nuke cost overruns are already driving solar up even faster: Continue reading

Cancelled: Valdosta City Council this week @ VCC 2013-09-19

According to In the City this Week, Sept. 16-21

The Valdosta City Council meeting = scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 19 has been canceled. The next City Council meeting is scheduled for Oct. 10. The Mayor and Council look forward to seeing you there. Click here for information about Mayor and Council meetings.

I guess you’ll have to get your entertainment elsewhere downtown this week. From that same newsletter: Continue reading

Waste from Superfund site in Waycross went to Lowndes County landfill

What was in that waste water that went into landfill in an aquifer recharge zone, with surface runoff into the Withlacoochee River? The 44 shipments from the toxic waste site in Waycross to the Pecan Row landfill in Lowndes County were “Non RCRA Regulated Liquids”, but “PCBs are not defined as hazardous wastes” and according to the U.S. Department of Energy, “To be a hazardous waste, a material must first be a solid waste.” So “Non RCRA Regulated Liquids” apparently says nothing about hazard or toxicity.

Cover 44 shipments went from the “7 Out Site” to “Pecan Row, Valdosta, GA” for $59,495.00 total of your federal tax dollars paid to Veolia, according to pages 12 and 13 of Final Report, Task Order # F-0032, Seven Out LLC Tank Site, Waycross, Georgia, Contract No. 68S4-02-06 for Emergency and Rapid Response Services, EPA Region 4, Prepared By WRS Infrastructure & Environment, Inc., 5555 Oakbrook Pkwy, Suite 175, Norcross, Georgia 30093, May 2, 2006.

Is this where those PCBs in the landfill came from? EPA itself says, Are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) regulated under RCRA as a hazardous waste?

PCBs are not defined as hazardous wastes (Memo, Weddle to Verde; May 18, 1984 (RCRA Online #12235)). However, it is possible that PCBs may be incidental contaminants in listed hazardous waste (e.g., solvent used to remove PCBs from transformers) or may be present in wastes that are characteristically hazardous. In these cases, wastes that otherwise meet a listing criteria or are characteristically hazardous are still subject to RCRA regulation regardless of PCB content.

Pecan Row, Valdosta, GA page 1 However, to avoid duplicative regulation with Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), certain PCB containing wastes that exhibit the toxicity characteristic are exempt from regulation under RCRA (Monthly Call Center Report Question; September 1996 (RCRA Online #14014)). Section 261.8 exempts from RCRA Subtitle C regulation PCB-containing dielectric fluid and the electric equipment which holds such fluid if they satisfy two criteria. First, these PCB wastes must be regulated under the TSCA standards of Part 761. Second, only the PCB wastes which exhibit the toxicity characteristic for an organic constituent (waste codes D018-43) may qualify for the exemption (§261.8).

Apparently any liquid wastes from a Superfund site would be “Non RCRA Regulated Liquids”, according to U.S. DoE EH-231-034/0593 (May 1993), Exclusions and Exemptions from RCRA Hazardous Waste Regulation,

Pecan Row, Valdosta, GA page 2
  • any solid or dissolved material introduced by a source into a federally owned treatment work (FOTW) if certain conditions, described in Sect. 108 of the FFCA of 1992, are met;
  • industrial wastewater discharges that are point source discharges regulated under section 402 of the Clean Water Act [§261.4(a)(2)]

If a Superfund site is not a federally owned treatment work, what is? And if the Seven Out site was not an industrial wastewater point source, what is?

Sample waste manifest, Onyx Pecan Row, Valdosta, GA The Onyx Waste Manifests on pages 75-120 say the materials were “Non-Hazardous Non-Regulated Waste water”. (Onyx became Veolia Environmental Services in 2005, according to Veolia.) As we’ve seen, “Non-Regulated” apparently means little. We don’t know what was in that waste water that went into a landfill in a recharge zone for the Floridan Aquifer, the source of our drinking water, and with surface runoff into the Withlacoochee River.

-jsq

Videos: SPLOST VII Resolution, child proclamation, and appointment @ LCC 2013-09-10

They voted to put the SPLOST VII Resolution on the ballot in November, “to reimpose the tax”, with not even a hint of those town halls that never happened. They reappointed Mac McCall to ZBOA. The Proclamation was for a boy who called 911 to help an old neighbor who was trapped under a refrigerator (nope, not for South Georgia Pride). And we learned that nobody has to fear arrest or threat and everybody can speak their mind in the Commission chambers; nevermind recent history to the contrary.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also videos of the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading

Gaines Lane into county road system? Little chance for ordinary citizens @ LCC 2013-09-10

Citizen Anita L. Armstrong wants help with Gaines Lane, but it’s a private road, and it would have to be paved to state highway standards to get accepted into the county’s road system. She spoke at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session 10 September 2013.

I come before you again asking to see if we can get some help with our road. It is so bad and we don’t have the money. If we could get just a little help, maybe we could get it kind of straightened out so we could get in and out. The last bad weather that we had, we had to be pulled out of the road for at least five times. And each time that we pulled out, we have to pay someone to do it…. And we are asking your help.

Her problem is that Gaines Lane is a private road, not county maintained. To get it into the county road system, right of way would have to be donated to the county, because some years ago the county made a policy (try to find it in writing) that it would no longer pay for rights of way. Some of the landowners on Gaines Road have not agreed to donate. And even if they do, the county also has a policy (try to find that one in writing, while you’re at it) that it only accepts roads that are up to county standards, which means already paved to state highway standards. So basically unless you’re a developer, you’re not going to get a road into the county road system.

Ms. Armstrong spoke in the previous session, 13 August 2013, about garbage trucks damaging her road.

A Bess Armstrong 11 May 2010 according to the minutes:

Bess Armstrong, Gaines Lane, thanked the Commission for their help in assisting with road improvements made on Gaines Lane. Mr. Armstrong added that he needed some guidance on how to maintain the road in the future. Chairman Paulk stated that the credit should be given to Reames Construction, since the county was unable to work on the private road.

There was extensive discussion in the 23 February 2010 meeting, according to the minutes: Continue reading