In the VDT Community Calendar:
Board of Assessors Special Called meeting, 9 a.m. Oct. 25, 1st floor, Lowndes County Governmental Building, 302 N. Patterson St.
There’s no agenda, and nothing about this on Continue reading
Tag Archives: conservation
Still inconsistent, but has speed humps: Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan 2018
The little-known Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan drives development in Lowndes County. With no public notice and no public hearing. the Commissioners voted on it Tuesday, April 10, 2018. Probably you only heard that would happen if you looked at their agenda late last week, or you happened to read what I wrote about it Monday.
Obtained through open records request, it’s on the LAKE website now.
Like the 2009 plan, Continue reading
Sabal Trail protests continue –VDT 2016-09-23
Front page today in the newspaper of record in the largest city in the Suwannee River Basin: the WWALS protest against DAPL and Sabal Trail at the US 84 Withlacoochee River bridge last Saturday, between Quitman and Valdosta, GA.
Desiree Carver, Valdosta Daily Times, Friday, September 23, 2016, front page,
Sabal protests continue,
The WWALS Watershed Coalition stood on the bridge between Brooks and Lowndes County Saturday to show solidarity with Dakota Access Pipeline opponents in Dakota and to continue its battle against the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline.
That’s the US 84 bridge over the Withlacoochee River, on the Continue reading
Sabal Trail front page Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now that Atlanta has finally taken notice there’s even more reason
to repel these pipeline invaders.
There’s still time to submit an amicus brief for the
court case in Leesburg, Georgia.
And time to file an ecomment or an out-of-time motion to intervene against Sabal Trail.
Or against
Elba Island LNG
or against
Transco and Atlanta Gas Light’s Dalton Expansion Project.
Or to oppose
Kinder Morgan’s southeast Georgia Palmetto oil pipeline
at the Georgia Department of Transportation or GA-EDP.
Both those state agencies have to provide permits for Sabal Trail
to get the Georgia emininent domain it demands in Leesburg,
so they are relevant to Sabal Trail, as well, as is your opinion
and those of all local elected governments in Georgia.
Dan Chapman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3 April 2015, Pipeline project fuels fight on state’s future,
Regardless of route, Sabal Trail opponents fear pipeline construction could create sinkholes Continue reading
Sabal Trail disappointed in GWC Dirty Dozen; locals disappointed in Sabal Trail –WCTV
Spectra’s Andrea Grover is “disappointed” in Sabal Trail being on the Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen; does she also find it “hard to believe” like Sabal Trail’s well-documented eminent domain threats?
Winnie Wright, WCTV, 26 November 2014,
Sabal Trail Pipeline Environmental Concerns Cited In Annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ Report,
Recently, The Georgia Water Coalition put the Sabal Trail Pipeline on their Dirty Dozen Report for 2014.
You can see Cherry Creek sinkhole behind her as she reported.
She was navigated there by VSU professor Can Denizman.
She also interviewed several locals, including me at the Withlacoochee River.
Continue readingSeven Out Superfund Assessment Public Meeting 2014-07-17
6-8PM tomorrow, Thursday 17 July 2014
Memorial Stadium, 715 Dewey St., Waycross, GA 31501
The Environmental Protection Agency, GA Environmental Protection
Division, and Georgia Department of Public Health will be present to
discuss sample collection and results from the Seven Out Tank site
in downtown Waycross.
EPD will also be available to address issues and answer questions regarding CSX.
From Satilla Riverkeeper’s facebook event. Here’s a map: Continue reading
Study before Levee –Tim Carroll @ VCC 2014-05-06
Comment on facebook 10 May 2014 and he told me the same by telephone.
It is clear a full watershed wide study must be completed before any decisions can be made.
As established in this first study—The City of Valdosta is the recipient-not the origin- of the flood waters. While it confirms what we already knew, my job is to try and keep the ball rolling forward. Engage congressional leaders, secure funding and find long term, sustainable solutions that benefit all communities within the watershed basin. A levee by itself is not the answer.
–Tim Carroll
This was a comment on 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.
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
Common Community Vision for Lowndes County
What do you the citizens want Lowndes County to be?
Here’s a chance to speak up, so when somebody asks where were you when
the decisions were being made, you don’t have to answer “lying on the couch
watching television.” (Thanks to Nolen Cox for that phrase.)
Corey Hull wrote on facebook today, Help Spread the Word for the Future of Lowndes County,
My office is conducting a survey and gathering public input on Facebook (go to www.facebook.com/valdostalowndesmpo) about what they want the Lowndes County Common Community Vision to be
( www.bit.ly/LowndesCCV). So far our participation has been low. I am calling on all of you to encourage your friends, family and colleagues to spread the word and let us know what you think about the future of Lowndes County and its cities.
Over the next two months there will be future opportunities for public input so stay tuned.
Thanks for your help.
On the Southern Georgia Regional Commission’s website, Lowndes County Common Community Vision, Continue reading
Watershed meeting organized by Army Corps of Engineers
The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) didn’t know there was
a large water problem hereabouts, but now they do, and they want
to take a watershed-wide approach, from the headwaters to the Gulf of
Mexico, including both surface water and aquifer issues,
perhaps starting with redrawing FEMA’s flood maps,
and maybe even including once again funding the state water council.
Thursday 11 April 2013 there was a rather large governmental meeting
organized by USACE in response to
the City of Valdosta’s request of 11 March 2103.
Yesterday,
Valdosta City Council District 5 Tim Carroll sent the appended
list of attendees, augmented by a conversation with him on the phone 13 April
and a blog comment by him later that same day on
the original post on the WWALS blog,
in which he also remarked:
Very good preliminary meeting that hopefully will yield real action on our region wide water issues. Thanks for sharing this info with WWALS.We know little else, because no media or private citizens were invited.
- USACE Savannah office: Jeff Morris, Georgia Silver Jackets Coordinator and Beth Williams, Hydraulic Engineer
- USACE Jacksonville office: David Apple, Chief, Watershed and Restoration Planning Section
- GADNR: Christopher Hill and Tom Shillock, GAEPD Floodplain Management Unit
- GEMA: Dee Langley, Planning Program Manager and Terry Lunn, Director, Hazard Mitigation Division
- GEMA: Gary Rice – Regional Field Coordinator
- USGS: Brian McCallum, Supv. Hydrologist/ADir and Keith McFadden, Physical Scientist
- FEMA Region 4: Susan Wilson, CFM, Floodplain Management and Insurance Branch Chief and Janice Mitchell, Insurance Specialist and Lender Compliance
Those state and national agencies were brought by:
Continue reading