Tag Archives: Seth Gunning

Where’s the wood to come from and who will buy the electricity?



Here’s video of what I asked at the recent VLCIA biomass event
(6 Dec 2010) and the answers from the panel.

So there’s actually not any new study of wood sourcing
(Brad Lofton told me after the meeting that the study had been “completed”
after we met in June),
and the study that exists is not publicly available.
Someone from Sterling promised me after the meeting to redact the
private parts of the wood sourcing study and provide the rest
for public distribution. We’ll see.

Regarding my question about who will buy the electricity and
whether we’ll end up like Plant Scherer, selling electricity
to Florida while keeping the pollution here, the answer was:

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Bergstrom, Noll, and Gunning biomass questions from June 2009

These are the questions Dr. Michael Noll submitted to the
LCC at its 9 June 2009 meeting.
I invite anyone else who submitted written comments to that meeting
to send them here and I’ll be happy to post them.

-jsq

TO: Lowndes Co. Commission

RE: Wiregrass LLC Biomass Electricity Plant

Date: June 9, 2009

Dear Lowndes County Commissioners.

As the county is currently considering the development of a biomass electricity plant, we wish to share some important concerns and questions with you, which we believe need to be addressed before any further action is taken.

First, the proposed biomass plant is being touted as a “Green Energy” project because it produces electricity from renewable materials. However, this wood waste and yard waste could have other uses—such as compost, landscaping mulch and forest soil amendments, which are much “greener” still and produce no pollution at all. The fact that these materials are labeled “waste” tells you something, and Reducing, Re-using, and Recycling waste should come higher on the list of green processing than incinerating it.

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Brad Lofton: “simply walk down the hall”

This message from Brad Lofton was sent to
Dr. Brad Bergstrom and the Valdosta
Board of Education and some other people.

-jsq

Dr. Bergstrom-

As opposed to spending hours online and pouring through publication databases, I would respectfully recommend that you simply walk down the hall to actually discuss Dr. Tom Manning’s experience with Dr. Tom Manning. He’s in the same building with you I assume. No doubt on the same campus. Seems odd that you would publicly discredit a colleague here prior to even talking with him. Dr. Manning’s credentials certainly do not need your validation.

Thank you for finally acknowledging the Sierra Club and all of the other environmental support we have. You are the first to acknowledge it publicly. Our support goes well beyond the Sierra Club, and we provided the Board of Ed with dozens of nationally known environmental leaders who support our project.

If you would be so kind, please meet with us again, and we will provide you actual numbers

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Brad Bergstrom: “unsubstantiated assertions are not facts”

This message from Brad Bergstrom to the Valdosta Board of Education
is as he sent it, except instead of his blue font I’ve formatted
quotations the same as usual for the blog, and as usual I’ve not included
the entire list of email addresses copied.
He’s responding to
Brad Lofton’s message.

-jsq

To all:

I appreciate the opportunity Monday night to have briefly shared my perspective on the environmental impacts of biomass incineration with the BOE. It was at the urging of the "core group" (whom Mr. Lofton seems to disparage, below) that VBOE invited me
and my coleague Dr. Bielmyer to speak. As an ecologist and VSU professor for more than 24 years, I’ve long been interested in issues of conservation, forest resources and sustainable development in south Georgia. About a year-and-a-half ago, I met with Mr.
Ricketts, who kindly gave me and Mr. Seth Gunning a thorough presentation on the proposed biomass plant. Ever since then, I’ve been educating myself on the general issue of biomass power generation and specifically on the Wiregrass plant. I attended the
April 2010 public hearing (as did Mr. Ricketts and Mr. Lofton) conducted by EPD, and I asked several questions. I also submitted several written questions and comments to EPD for the public record, as did many others. All of those questions, and EPD’s answers,
and the complete application, and permit, can be seen here:

http://airpermit.dnr.state.ga.us/gaairpermits/

(After you open this link, type "Wiregrass" into the search box, then click on "Narrative"; the last 13 pages contain all the public comments and responses.)

I’m sure Mr. Lofton is a well-meaning and certainly a tireless advocate for new industry. That is his job. It is the rest of our jobs to determine what really is "fact" and "opinion." No matter how loudly one proclaims it, unsubstantiated assertions are
not facts, and inconvenient facts are not misinformation. I will point out some of these facts, along with links to document them, in blue font, interspersed among Mr. Lofton’s comments, below.

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Biomass Air Quality Hearing Set



This appears to be the date and location for the Georgia EPD
air quality hearing for the Wiregrass Biomass plant proposed
for Valdosta:

6:30 PM, 27 April 2010

Multipurpose Room

Valdosta City Hall Annex

300 North Lee Street

Valdosta, Georgia

We’ve been waiting on this date
for a while.
EPD is going to send a press release to the VDT a few weeks in advance
and post it on its own website,
www.georgiaair.org.
Assuming, of course, that the date and place don’t change again.

Why should you care?
This plant proposes to burn sewage sludge, which can release numerous
hazardous chemicals into the air.
Here is Seth’s letter to the editor of the VDT of 21 Feb 2010:

Continue reading →

Hearing on Biomass Plant

Update: Seth says Eric Cornwell says earliest March 15 and latest probably May 1.

Update 2: Contact information:

Environmental Protection Division, Air Branch
4244 International Parkway, Suite 120
Atlanta, Georgia 30354
Subject: Docket 19407
Or folks can email Eric Cornwell, the director of the Air Branch
Division: Eric.Cornwell@dnr.state.ga.us

Seth Gunning tells us:

I received word from the EPD Air Branch Manager, Eric Cornwell, that they
have decided that they *WILL*, now, be working to host a public hearing in
Valdosta (and possibly a Q & A session prior to a hearing).

They expect the public hearing to take place sometime at the end of March
(law requires a 30 day notice before a meeting takes place). Eric informed
me that he would reply to all the emails he has received with the hearing
information, and as well would be putting an ad in the Valdosta Daily Times.

The plant’s air quality application is supposed to be online at EPD.
I can’t find it there, but here it is
hosted on the LAKE site.

More as it develops.