Tag Archives: New York City

Horses to automobiles in NYC: 13 years

This is how fast energy sources can change: from all horses but one automobile in the 1900 New York Easter Parade to all automobiles but one horse in the 1913 Easter Parade.

horses in 1900
Source: U.S. National Archives

The automobile above is easier to spot than the horse below, 13 years later. Continue reading

Radioactive tritium leak at Indian Point nuke stopped, but still in groundwater

Papers forged, fire and oil leak into the Hudson River, fracked methane pipeline planned next door, oh, yet built on a fault line, and people are surprised there’s radioactive tritium leaking from Entergy’s Indian Point nuclear plant? Just like at Plant Farley on the Chattahoochee River, Plant Hatch on the Altamaha River and Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River? How about surprised if there are any nukes that don’t leak tritium?

AP, 6 February 2016, Radioactive Material Found in Groundwater Below Nuke Plant, Continue reading

NYC Schools to use more solar power; how about in sunny southeast?

Solar high schools: not just for Dublin, Georgia anymore. New York City, and Rochester, NY, too! How about solar Lowndes High School? Or the new Valdosta High School? Or since Valdosta has already put solar at its Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, how about on other city buildings? How about on the county palace? Or in Hahira, Dasher, Remerton, or Lake Park?

Erin Durkin wrote for New York Daily News 29 September 2014, 24 NYC schools getting solar panels in $28M project — and City Hall could be next, Continue reading

GA Supreme Court rules against Deep South Sanitation: DSS vows to keep going

Lowndes County suing a local business with our tax dollars has produced a preliminary Georgia Supreme Court ruling overturning the appeals court and favoring the county’s “exclusive franchise” with ADS, a company owned by New York City investors. Local company Deep South Sanitation vows to keep going.

Do you think this lawsuit is a good use of your tax dollars? What will you think if ADS’ rates go up from Veolia’s bid of $13.05/month ($156.60/year) just before ADS bought Veolia, to ADS’s bid of $13.39/month ($220.68/year)? Continue reading

Georgians march in NYC for climate action

It’s a start. At least New York City is already doing something. Time for Georgia to stop burning more fossil fuels and uranium and get on with solar power.

By Lisa W. Foderaro, NY Times, 21 September 2014, At climate change march in New York, a clarion call for action,

Participants from across the country began arriving early on Sunday morning at the staging area near the American Museum of Natural History. Rosemary Snow, 75, stretched her legs after a nearly 14-hour bus ride from Georgia.

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Nuke supervisor arrested for falsifying safety records at Indian Point

A single person risked 50 million lives at Indian Point, 24 miles north of New York City. And it’s Entergy again, the company that couldn’t keep the power on during the Super Bowl, that can’t keep Pilgrim 1 running in a Massachusetts snowstorm, or summer heat, or the spring, either, that still has Arkansas Nuclear 1 down since a fatal accident in March. Meanwhile, how many fatal solar accidents have you heard of?

Lucas W Hixson wrote for Enformable Nuclear News, Indian Point supervisor arrested for deliberately falsifying critical safety records,

Entergy announced on Tuesday that a former supervisor, who worked at the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City for twenty-nine years, had been arrested for deliberately falsifying critical safety records and lying to federal regulators last year. The utility said that Daniel Wilson, age 57, who was in charge of ensuring compliance in critical safety areas, falsified tests and records related to the quality of fuel in back-up tanks for the emergency diesel generators installed at the nuclear power plant which are necessary to prevent core damage in the event of a loss of power. Federal charges have been brought against the former employee by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, who was released on bail and could be sentenced up to 7 years in prison.

The story says co-workers caught him (good for them): Continue reading

Korean nuke supplier for Plant Vogtle forged documentation for “a host of nuclear reactors”

Korea’s Doosan supplied that that train-wrecked Plant Vogtle reactor vessel later left unprotected sitting at Savannah port, as well as parts for more than a dozen U.S. reactors. And Doosan, according to the Korean government, forged documentation that just shut down “a host of nuclear reactors” in Korea, whose Prime Minister said,

“Those found to be involved in wrongdoing or corruption must be sternly punished by the law, regardless of their rank and status.”

According to World Nuclear News 5 June 2008, Doosan awarded further contract by Westinghouse, Continue reading

Exclusive Franchise for Solid Waste Collection Services @ LCC 2012-12-11

Why did the Lowndes County Commission make this exclusive franchise with a Florida or Alabama or New York company and then sue a local Lowndes County company after the VDT reported the previous spring that any contract would be non-exclusive and wouldn’t put anybody out of business?

Here, obtained by LAKE through an open records request, is the contract with ADS of Middle Georgia, LLC. The the agenda item for the 11 December 2012 Commission meeting at which this contract was approved says ADS of Central Alabama, Inc. The contract says ADS is “a Florida corporation”, and we know ADS is owned by Highstar Capital of New York City. Once again, why is granting a cheap monopoly to an out-of-state company more important than either letting local companies compete for the service or having the county continue to provide a public service directly to its taxpayers and citizens?

The termination clause I pointed out to the Commission after an ADS executive made excuses for nonperformance is Paragraph 18 of the contract:

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VDT should dig deeper into county trash

The VDT should dig deeper into the finances of Lowndes County trash collection. Nobody has ever seen an accounting of where where the money went for the county’s former waste collection sites, so nobody knows whether the county was really losing money or how much, and the county’s version of how those sites had to be paid for doesn’t match state law.. Sure, Bill Slaughter defending a decision made when Ashley Paulk was chair is amusing, but instead of transcribing what county officials tell it, the VDT could find lots more under the county’s garbage with a little digging.

Jason Schaefer write for the VDT Thursday, Concerns continue over garbage agreement: Business owner argues case against County

The County is not required under Georgia law to issue RFPs to any company for waste disposal services, according to Slaughter. That decision was made in a good-faith effort to find the lowest possible rate for garbage service for the citizens of Lowndes County, he said Tuesday.

Is that the point of county government, to act like Wal-Mart? Is money the only value the county government can name? Everyone I talked to about the trash issue in 2012 who already had a waste collection card said they’d be willing to pay more to keep the sites open. Maybe if the county had held public hearings they would have learned that.

And does anyone believe ADS’s rates are going to stay that low? Look at Wakulla, Florida, where it’s $196/year. But the bigger question is why did the county privatize trash collection anyway?

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Lowndes County v. Deep South Sanitation: Why?

Why is Lowndes County suing a local business for the benefit of investors in New York City? I guess we’ve discovered the litigation last month’s Lowndes County Commission executive session was about. Why is this a good use of taxpayer money?

On Deep South Sanitation’s facebook page yesterday,

Friends, we all watch the news and we see governments making changes that are unacceptable to the American people. Well, it is happening right here in our hometown. LOWNDES COUNTY has issued a CIVIL ACTION LAWSUIT against DEEP SOUTH. The preliminary hearing is set for FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 2013 at 9:30AM in Courtroom 5D of the Lowndes County Judicial Complex. The purpose of the hearing is to force DEEP SOUTH to shutdown on that day! (We are a small, local, family owned and operated business.) We need your support because this hearing will effect almost every one of you. “IF” we are forced out, Advanced Disposal will be your “ONLY CHOICE” for garbage service. That means there will be a MONOPOLY for garbage service in Lowndes. The County maintains that it is not MANDATORY for the citizens to use Advanced Disposal so then who else can we choose? CHOICE keeps business healthy and HONEST. Please help support this matter for your sake and ours by calling LOWNDES COUNTY and voice your concerns. Also, there are several petitions being sent around as of today. We personally thank each and every one of you!! From: Cary, Debbie, Trevor, Dylan and Sadee Scarborough

Unnamed Lowndes County “representatives” spelled out in the VDT back in January that

“According to the solid waste ordinance, Advanced Disposal will be the only residential hauler licensed to serve unincorporated Lowndes County.”

A few hours later yesterday, also on DSS’s facebook page,

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