Tag Archives: John S. Quarterman

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.

Matt Martin 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

Spectra maps @ Pipeline 2013-10-16

Lowndes County The path of the pipeline through Lowndes County (and part of Brooks and Hamilton) is shown in these maps that were on easels at the Spectra presentation at Wiregrass Tech last night.

Brooks @ US 84 and Withlacoochee River:

Brooks @ US 84 and Withlacoochee River

Lowndes @ Spain Ferry Road:

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Spectra met Lowndes and Valdosta @ Pipeline 2013-10-16

Spectra Energy subsidiary Sabal Trail Transmission held a landowner one-on-one at Wiregrass Tech last night. Matthew Woody of the VDT was there, as was one Valdosta City Council member, one Lowndes County Commissioner, and at least two county staff, plus some landowners (“might as well get something out of this”, several said at the food bar), one of whom was a match for Andrea Grover.

Matthew Woody, VDT:

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Pipeline dog and pony in Albany Monday

Monday in Albany, Tuesday in Moultrie, and tonight in Valdosta, the pipeline roadshow is rolling through Georgia towards Florida. These are not public hearings or town halls: the pipeline company seems to be trying to get landowners in the path to show up, but anybody can attend.

Brad McEwen wrote for the Albany Herald yesterday, Residents attend pipeline forum,

Sabal Trail Transmission LLC, which is a joint venture between energy giants Spectra Energy Corp. and NextEra Energy Inc., hosted the event to give citizens an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the proposed project.

Set up like an open house, the forum had 15 Sabal Trail subject matter experts on hand to greet residents and Continue reading

Spectra pipeline meeting tonight at Wiregrass Tech @ Pipeline 2013-10-16

Spectra Energy will tell us how great their proposed pipeline will be, as it cuts a 100-foot wide path from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida through south Georgia, using eminent domain to make you sell your land, to deliver gas from fracking in Pennsylvania for the benefit of Florida Power and Light. Maybe you’d like to ask Spectra reps Brian Fahrenthold or Andrea Grover a few questions, like can we see a map of the proposed route, with parcel numbers, and what about those fines for violating federal regulations and Spectra’s own corporate operating procedures?

Added: facebook event.

Tonight (Wednesday) 16 October 2013 5:00-7:30 pm.
Wiregrass Georgia Tech (Atrium)
4089 Val Tech Road
Valdosta, GA

The Wiregrass Tech contact is Christy Cobb; she wasn’t in when I called yesterday. Tech’s web server still seems to be down, but Google has cached her as: Continue reading

GIS maps of Sabal Trail pipeline preferred route

Sabal Trail had an interactive GIS map of the entire pipeline route in Moultrie last night, with zoom and pan detail as good as the tax assessor maps for Brooks and Lowndes Counties. The Sabal Trail reps declined to provide a copy of the whole GIS, but they obligingly panned down the pipeline and waited while I took pictures with my smartphone.

Here’s GIS of the pipeline route through Brooks and Lowndes Counties:

GIS of Brooks and Lowndes Counties

This is zoomed in where the route crosses US 84 and then the Withlacoochee River, which is the county line:

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Sabal Trail Pipeline Context maps –Spectra Energy and FPL

Where does Spectra Energy’s natural gas come from, and where does it go? These maps from the Moultrie meeting help explain. Spoiler: from fracking to FPL.

In “Our Portfolio of Assets”, Spectra Energy shows pipelines running from shale gas formations in and around Pennsylvania and down the Appalachians into Tennessee, through north Georgia, and into Alabama, as well as from gas storage facilities in Louisiana and shale fields in Texas.

Our Portfolio of Assets --Spectra Energy

So that’s where it comes from: the Marcellus Shale and its relatives down through (soon) the Conasauga Shale in north Georgia and Alabama and into Louisiana and Texas. Fracking, in other words.

That was not a word that was used by any of the Sabal Trail reps nor a word that appeared on any of their maps or in any of their handouts. But fracking is how natural gas is extracted from the Marcellus Shale, as Andrea Grover presumably knows, since she was sent to Pennsylvania in April to explain a Spectra Energy gas release from a compressor in Marcellus Shale country.

Where is the gas through the Sabal Trail pipeline supposed to go? Orlando, to the Sabal Trail Central Florida Hub. Why? Well, according to Andrea Grover, Florida Power and Light is “modernizing”. She explained that FPL has shut down some coal plants, and is converting to natural gas. She this map of the Florida Southeast Connection:

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Spectra Energy in Moultrie about Sabal Trail Pipeline

I went to the Spectra Pipeline meeting in Moultrie tonight, where many people in blue shirts saying Sabal Trail, including Brian Fahrenthold (who volunteered that I could take pictures of maps) and Andrea Grover (who will be in Valdosta tomorrow), were happy to answer questions from a landowner such as myself.

Here’s just part of the display:

Part of the Moultrie display

The Making of a Pipeline:

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Logistics, Ports, and Partnerships @ VLCIA 2013-10-15

More good news at Valdosta’s other wastewater treatment plant, Mud Creek, where more solar is being installed; more about that at tonight’s meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. Mud Creek was already upgraded in 2012 to handle expected wastewater flow.

Here’s tonight’s agenda:

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 5:00 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Agenda
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Broadband fiber correlates with increased house prices

Preliminary research indicates that broadband fiber results in about 5% increase in property values for connected houses. This would indicate that an MSA wanting to profit from broadband should want to deploy it as widely as possible, especially in new housing. Hm, what’s the Homebuilders’ Association’s position on this?

NCM 0268 fiber ... result in 5.1% change in real estate value

The authors report that “fiber presence is associated with a positive effect on property values”, in The Impact of High-Speed Broadband Availability on Real Estate Values: Evidence from United States Property Markets by Gabor Molnar, University of Colorado at Boulder; Scott Savage, University of Colorado at Boulder; Douglas Sicker, University of Colorado at Boulder.

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