Tag Archives: LAKE

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 →

Electric utiltiies know about Moore’s Law for solar power

And they know compound annual growth, even at a low 22% rate, is going to cause them a heap of trouble.

More from the Edison Electric Institute January 2013 report, Disruptive Challenges: Financial Implications and Strategic Responses to a Changing Retail Electric Business (rehosted on the LAKE web server, since it disappered from the EEI server),

The decline in the price of PV panels from $3.80/watt in 2008 to $0.86/watt in mid-20121. While some will question the sustainability of cost-curve trends experienced, it is expected that PV panel costs will not increase (or not increase meaningfully) even as the current supply glut is resolved. As a result, the all-in cost of PV solar installation approximates $5/watt, with expectations of the cost declining further as scale is realized;

Sure, costs won’t continue to drop forever, but Continue reading →

13 oil spills in 30 days

As if three spills in one week wasn’t bad enough, the spills, leaks, and derailments just keep on coming, 13 of them on 3 continents in just the past 30 days, as listed by tcktcktck and illustrated in this graphic. Meanwhile, a solar spill is still called a nice day.

-jsq

Speed dating local officials

Tallahassee does it, and local governments here could also sit down and talk with citizens. It even has built-in time limits, for those elected officials who are concerned about citizen longwindedness.

Gina Pitisci wrote for WCTV Thursday, Ever heard of speed dating? What about speed dating your local officials?

“The more any one of us can get out and talk with the citizens the better off we are,” Gil ziffer, Tallahassee City Commissioner, said. “If we’re insulated in our offices, it’s not like getting out and talking with folks so this is great for us.”

Here’s how it works: every 9 minutes the 12 leaders rotate from table to table giving each group of people an opportunity to ask questions or offer their ideas.

Listening to citizens: now there’s an idea!

-jsq

Valdosta receives water treatment award

Rather ironic, wouldn’t you say, what with all the problems at the other end of the water usage pipeline? This award is for treating water as it comes out of the city’s wells.

WCTV posted a City of Valdosta press release yesterday, Valdosta Receives GAWP Water Treatment Plant of the Year Award,

The City of Valdosta Water Treatment Plant has been recognized as the 2013 Water Treatment Plant of the Year by the Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP).

The plant was recently evaluated by GAWP inspectors on its well field operations, chemical processes and documentation, and scored 90% or better in all areas. City staff will accept the award in the category for groundwater systems that pump over 10 million gallons daily (MGD), at the GAWP Conference in Macon, Ga., on Tuesday April 16.

“Every day,

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