Tag Archives: Eric Cornwell

Let’s stop Sabal Trail before it makes any more mistakes

Thanks to Julie Bowland for the picture of my VDT op-ed today. -jsq


jsq op-ed in VDT
The same day the Sabal Trail was quoted in the VDT August 5th as
saying it had done enough subsurface analysis on our fragile karst
limestone topography, a sinkhole opened up next to Shiloh Road.
Sabal Trail already had to move its Albany compressor station
because arrowheads had been found there. The pipeline itself is a
much bigger mistake: let’s stop it before it damages our property
values, forests, rivers, or our people.

Spectra Energy’s paid staff are continue to assert that Sabal
Trail’s proposed gouge through our fields, farms, and under our
rivers will proceed according their plan to profit executives and
investors in Houston, Texas.

Actually, Continue reading →

Seth Gunning LTE in the VDT

This is the text of Seth Gunning’s letter to the editor that the Valdosta Daily Times printed on 20 Dec 2010. Here’s video of the referenced
air quality permit hearing.
-jsq



Recently on Thursday December 16th, State Judge Ronit Walker denied
air quality permits for a proposed coal plant in Sandersville, Georgia.
Judge Walker cited the Georgia Environmental Protection Divisions failure
to properly review permits, and their lack of enforcement of basic Clean
Air Act standards for several hazardous emissions.

Flashback to April 27th in Valdosta Georgia when Environmental Protection
Division Air Branch Manager Eric Cornwell openly admitted to having NOT
READ the air permit application for Wiregrass Biomass LLC’s proposal to
build a hotly contested 40mw power plant&emdash; during a Valdosta EPD hearing
meant to evaluate those permits.

Today, the Valdosta Industrial Authority is hazardously entrenched

Continue reading →

Video of Biomass Air Quality Hearing, Valdosta, 27 April 2010



A video of
a hearing about the biomass plant Wiregrass Power LLC proposes
to build in Lowndes County just outside of Valdosta was held

in Valdosta on 27 April 2010
by the Air Protection Branch (APD)
of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of the Georgia
Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Eric Cornwell of APD explains location,
process flow, and specific items
covered by the permit (soot, SO2, NOX, CO, VOC, HCL, etc., but not
CO2).
He remarks that Wiregrass Power LLC is building a small plant with a
“lower emission limit in order to avoid some of the red tape”
by getting a minor permit instead of a major permit.
The first half hour concludes with Bob Turner, the plant manager,
presenting similar material, ending with:

“No new carbon is added to the atmosphere when burning woody byproducts.”

I beg to differ on that:
in the time it takes trees to grow back,
there is indeed new carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere.
More from

Dr. William Sammons on that.

Back to the video of the hearing.

Questions start at 00:29:44.
Here are some time markers and very brief summaries
of Q and A; see the video for the full questions and answers.

Continue reading →

WCTV on Biomass

A couple of biomass plant stories from WCTV.

On April 28 Deneige Broom wrote,
Proposed Plant Raises Air Quality Questions:

A Biomass plant could bring business and money to the area. But some want to be assured their health won’t suffer in the name of progress.

Some good quotes in there:

Dr. Brad Bergstrom attended the hearing wants concrete answers.

“There’s not going to be anything in the permit that will say, you can only burn this much sewage sludge,” said Bergstrom. “The company plans to only burn a small percentage but once they get their permit, that could change.”

Continue reading →

Hearing on Biomass Plant

Update: Seth says Eric Cornwell says earliest March 15 and latest probably May 1.

Update 2: Contact information:

Environmental Protection Division, Air Branch
4244 International Parkway, Suite 120
Atlanta, Georgia 30354
Subject: Docket 19407
Or folks can email Eric Cornwell, the director of the Air Branch
Division: Eric.Cornwell@dnr.state.ga.us

Seth Gunning tells us:

I received word from the EPD Air Branch Manager, Eric Cornwell, that they
have decided that they *WILL*, now, be working to host a public hearing in
Valdosta (and possibly a Q & A session prior to a hearing).

They expect the public hearing to take place sometime at the end of March
(law requires a 30 day notice before a meeting takes place). Eric informed
me that he would reply to all the emails he has received with the hearing
information, and as well would be putting an ad in the Valdosta Daily Times.

The plant’s air quality application is supposed to be online at EPD.
I can’t find it there, but here it is
hosted on the LAKE site.

More as it develops.