Tag Archives: Georgia

Southern Company Stockholder Meeting @ SO 2013-05-22

Spring means soon time for the Southern Company Stockholder meeting! See what one of the biggest electric utilities in the world is up to, and maybe make a few suggestions.

Here are videos of what you missed last year, and here is the official SO notice for this year (I got a link to it because I’m a shareholder): Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders of The Southern Company

DATE: Wednesday, May 22, 2013
TIME: 10:00 a.m., ET
PLACE: The Lodge Conference Center at Callaway Gardens
Highway 18
Pine Mountain, Georgia 3182

It includes a list of Items of Business, which doesn’t mention that stockholders are usually allowed to ask questions. Those questions are usually answered by Thomas A. fanning, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, who included a letter (text below) in which he recites his usual list of energy sources, in his usual order: Continue reading →

Kendrick Johnson inquest and protests

The death of Kendrick Johnson at Lowndes High School in January is still considered suspicious by many, and protests continue, with increasing news coverage. I hear there’s going to be a vigil at the Lowndes County palace tomorrow evening.

WCTV posted a compendium 16 January 2013, Father Speaks Out at Prayer Vigil for Lowndes High Student, including statements from the Lowndes County Schools Superintendent and from the Sheriff’s Department.

George Boston Rhynes of course has been on the case from the beginning, including videoing the protests and interviewing protesters. As he says, it’s a human rights issue.

Quinten Plummer wrote for the VDT 11 April 2013, Family wants answers in LHS student’s death

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Videos: Road abandonment, deannexation @ LCC 2013-04-08

More questions than usual at the 8 April 2013 Lowndes County Commission Work Session, but it still only lasted 11 minutes. And a question that wasn’t even raised: who does own both sides of Log Road? The Tax Assessor’s database says something different from what the County Engineer said. No special presentation was seen.

Here’s the agenda, with a few notes.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
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5.8 quake in Japan today

A quake big enough to shake houses, about 100 miles from the broken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. Details from Japan Meteorological Agency:

Earthquake Information (Information on seismic intensity at each site)
Issued at 21:10 JST 17 Apr 2013

Occurred at (JST) Latitude
(degree)		 Longitude
(degree)		 Depth Magnitude Region Name
21:03 JST 17 Apr 2013 38.5N 141.6E 60 km 5.8 Miyagi-ken Oki

-jsq

PS: Owed to Masaichi Shiozaki.

Agenda, Industrial Authority @ VLCIA 2013-04-16

The agenda is different for today’s Industrial Authority meeting! It has even less information than usual: no reports about PR or marketing or existing or new projects; nothing about business parks, and no executive director’s report. It does list an attorney report and an audit update.

Here’s the agenda.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street

General Business

  • Call to Order
  • Invocation
  • Welcome Guests

Minutes

  • Regular Meeting, March 8, 2013

Financial

  • Review Compiled Balance Sheet and Income Statements for March 2013
  • Audit Update

Attorney Report

Citzens Wishing To Be Heard

Adjourn General Meeting

Mission of the Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority is to
lead economic development in our community by supporting existing industries
recruiting industries through capitalizing on opportunities for collaboration.

-jsq

Plant Scherer coal ash maybe related to uranium in well water

Uranium has been found in well water near Juliette, Georgia, but tests by several different groups of researchers differ on whether it might be related to nearby coal ash from Plant Scherer. The same coal ash ponds near which some people are getting cancer from uranium in their well water. Coal ash like we have in Veolia landfill in Lowndes County.

S. Heather Duncan wrote for Macon.com yesterday, New water test results shed light on Juliette contamination,

Many Juliette residents have expressed concern that a coal ash pond at Plant Scherer, one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the country, might be causing the problem. Georgia Power is majority owner and operator of the plant and its 750-acre, unlined pond filled with coal ash slurry, which can contain heavy metals such as uranium….

Since then, water samples tested by the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as a smaller group of samples tested by a group of University of Georgia graduate students, showed no pattern of contamination that could be clearly linked to groundwater flow from the coal ash pond. The samples were taken last year, but in some cases it took months for the samples to be analyzed….

On the other hand,

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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:

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Atlanta trash and TVA coal ash to be shipped to Lowndes County?

Did you know we already have coal ash in our Lowndes County landfill?

And where will the trash come from for that landfill gas project, subject of the meeting 8:30 AM tomorrow morning at the Colquitt EMC office in Valdosta? Atlanta, or even farther north (or south)? And what will be in it: coal ash like Taylor County’s landfill, with arsenic and lead?

As we’ve seen, GreenPower EMC’s previous two landfill gas projects seem to be in Taylor County, Georgia. What none of GreenPower, ESG, ADS, or Colquitt EMC seem to have mentioned is that much of the trash in the landfill in Mauk, Taylor County, between Machon and Columbus, appears to come from farther north.

Jeffry Scott wrote for the AJC 24 October 2003, MAKING ROOM FOR GARBAGE: Landfill battles pile up: Rural areas targeted for urban trash,

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Green Power EMC landfill gas projects

As we saw, ESG’s Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility flash flyer quotes Jeff Pratt, President of Green Power EMC, who said this is Green Power EMC’s third landfill energy project. Curiously, Green Power EMC’s Landfill Gas Project page doesn’t list the other two, and its FAQ is apparently out of date, saying “Currently, our one landfill gas-to-electricity projects generate a combined four megawatts of power.” However, the other two appear to be:

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Landfill gas energy meeting Monday morning

Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility

Received Friday as a PDF. -jsq

Valdosta, Ga. (April 11, 2013) — Representatives from Advanced Disposal, Green Power EMC and Energy Systems Group (ESG) will hold an informational session about the Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility on April 15 at 8:30 a.m. EST at the Colquitt EMC Valdosta District Office, located at 273 Norman Drive.

The cover page seems to be condensed from ESG’s Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility flash flyer. That ESG flyer also quotes Gerald Allen, Landfill Vice President , Advanced Disposal, and Jeff Pratt, President of Green Power EMC, who said this is Green Power EMC’s third landfill energy project.

The rest past the paragraph above quoted seems to be verbatim from Continue reading →