Tag Archives: Hamilton County

Development Authority sells land for solar arrays

Next to ERCO Worldwide,
one of the few tenants in
VLCIA’s “eight industrial parks”,
SolAmerica is buying land for a solar farm
that will take up most of the rest of the Perimeter East Business Park.


Site Layout, East of Valdosta

Site Layout submitted by SolAmerica to VLCIA in 14 November 2017 meeting.

Jason A. Smith, VDT, 15 November 2017,

Solar arrays planned for land,

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority voted Tuesday to
approve the sale of 27.42 acres for $137,100 to be used for solar
arrays.

Continue reading →

Florida state-owned uplands crossed by Sabal Trail

FDEP is fine with Sabal Trail
boring through the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway in Marion County, FL,

Marjorie Carr Cross Florida Greenway State Recreation and Conservation Area, FLORIDA NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL, Marion Co., FL

as well as
drilling under Suwannee River State Park in Hamilton and Suwannee County, FL.

For that Greenway,
see the maps shown here (click on any one of them for a larger image),
pulled from Sabal Trail’s Continue reading →

Yoho hikes Sabal Trail pipeline route

Calling on Austin Scott GA-08 and Sanford Bishop GA-02 and other members of Congerss
to also ask the Corps
for a Supplementary Environmental Impact Study (SEIS) about Sabal Trail discrepancies.
Same story appeared in the Suwannee Democrat yesterday.


Page 5A
Thomas Lynn, Valdosta Daily Times, 17 May 2016,
Yoho hikes Sabal Trail pipeline route,

LIVE OAK. Fin. — US. Rep. Ted Yoho hiked with around 30 opponents
to the Sabal Trail pipeline through Suwannee River State Park’s Big
Oak Trail in north Florida to look at sinkholes near the proposed
route.

The morning hike was a result of Continue reading →

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 →

Live Oak bus service starts Monday 2015-07-20

How come Live Oak (pop. 6,974) in Suwannee County (43,734), Florida can do


what mighty Valdosta (56,481) in Lowndes County (112,916), Georgia can’t?

Amber Vann, Suwannee Democrat, 17 July 2015,

Live Oak bus route starts Monday,

The Suwannee Valley Transit Authority’s Live Oak bus route will
begin operating on Monday, July 20, running continuously from 7 a.m.
until 7 p.m. throughout every direction of the city, Monday through
Friday. The route’s unofficial stops include apartment complexes and
other residential neighborhoods, public schools, grocery stores,
parks, government offices, nursing homes, the library and the
hospital.

The route starts at the intersection of Walker Avenue and US 90 West Continue reading →

Valdosta Wastewater presentation to Greenlaw, Save Our Suwannee, SRWMD, Hamilton Co., and WWALS 2015-03-17



Due to requests from Greenlaw in Atlanta and Save Our Suwannee in Florida,
WWALS Watershed Coalition asked the City of Valdosta for a presentation
on their wastewater situation.
Valdosta presented less than two weeks later, and brought their entire
hierarchy related to this issue, from the mayor on down.
Plus Lowndes County, which isn’t even responsible for Valdosta’s wastewater,
was represented by their Chairman and a Commissioner.

Not all questions could be answered that quickly, but many were.

The slides are on the LAKE website and the videos are on the LAKE YouTube channel; see below.
See also Valdosta’s Sanitary Sewer System Improvements web page.

At the meeting,
clockwise from Tim Carroll (introducing), were: Continue reading →

Don’t Frack Georgia –sing along



Alton Paul Burns
commented yesterday on

Fracking south Georgia and north Florida?

Mr Emmet Carlisle wrote a song about fracking Florida

“Don’t Frack Florida”.
So in support of that movement I wrote another verse:

The battle is on in Bama & Georgia too

Spectra wants to run a pipeline through,

They could care less ’bout me or you,

And they lie to FERC more than they have too,

More Solar energy, Yeah that’s the thing

To everyone this message we bring,

We don’t need Spectra’s pipeline, That’s a fact!

And we don’t have to Frack!

-apb

So this would be the chorus for that verse: Continue reading →

Fracking south Georgia and north Florida?

Potential fracking in north Georgia was too close,
but what about right here in south Georgia?
Florida has a snowballing anti-fracking movement.
Looks like Georgia needs one, too.


300x149 South Georgia and North Florida Basins Map, in Shale gas basins in South Georgia and north Florida, by USGS, 4 June 2012
Dan Chapman, AJC Online Athens, 10 March 2013,

Gas drillers turn to Georgia,

Jim Kennedy, the state’s geologist, says another company is
considering the shale gas fields of the Mesozoic Basin that covers
60 percent of the Coastal Plain in South Georgia.

Most of the story is about proposed fracking in north Georgia
that

we noted back in 2013,
plus fossil fuel industry propaganda about how great they say
that would be for the local economy, with very little
about the immense destruction, environmental hazards,
and invasions of private property that would ensue.
The AJC version of that Dan Chapman story didn’t seem to have Continue reading →

Valdosta sewage into Alapaha River watershed three times in February 2015

Valdosta didn’t mention it and the Florida Department of Health doesn’t seem to know it,

300x219 Knights Creek in Valdosta, in Knights Creek, Valdosta, Georgia, by USGS Streamer, for WWALS.net, 28 February 2015
but
Knights Creek is in the Alapaha River watershed.
Valdosta spilled sewage into it twice in February.
Plus that 16 February spill into Dukes Bay Canal
also ends up in the Alapaha River.
But never you mind,
Valdosta also spilled
into the Withlacoochee River through the usual Sugar Creek.
Somehow I don’t think all these spills are not Valdosta’s fault.
Seems like it’s time for Valdosta to finish fixing its wastewater problem.
And since the most recent spills were due to rainfall directly on
Valdosta,
the

levee proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers on Sugar Creek
at the Withlacoochee River wouldn’t help,
nor would it help at any time for spills directly into the Withlacoochee
River at GA 133, nor for Dukes Bay Canal nor Knights Creek,
which flow into the Alapaha River.

News Release, Florida Department of Health (FDH), 27 February 2015,

Florida Department of Health Advises of Possible Wastewater Contamination, Continue reading →

Protest today against Sabal Trail pipeline


It’s a bad week for Sabal Trail and its proposed fracked methane pipeline,
with three back-to-back protests today alone (March and Protest in Valdosta, GA plus Development Authority meeting, and Protest at Sabal Trail Open House in Jasper, FL, plus Hamilton and Suwannee County Commission meetings)
after one yesterday (at Albany Open House and Dougherty County Commission) and more to come. Continue reading →