Tag Archives: Transparency

Videos: SPLOST VII open up, Prisoners, Water, Roads, and Costs @ LCC 2013-07-23

The closest we’re apparently going to get to a town hall or public hearing about the county’s SPLOST VII list: Chairman said “we’re going to open up” for comments. The only taker was Airport Authority Executive Director Jim Galloway. Confusion about the minutes continued. They appointed Ellen Golden to the Department of Family & Children’s Services Board. They hired prisoners again to compete with local labor. They approved a letter from Lovell Engineering to GA EPD on behalf of the county; it wasn’t clear whether any of the Commissioners knew about all the previous violations at the same water treatment plant. They accepted Barrington subdivision infrastructure, whereever that is, saying it wouldn’t cost the county anything, except, of course, maintaining those roads as county development sprawls outwards. They approved their their Directors and Officers insurance. This was all with a bare 3 of 5 quorum, because Commissioners Raines and Powell didn’t show up for work. A citizen thanked the Commission for increasing library funding.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos and a few notes. See also the previous morning’s Work Session.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JULY 22, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Airport Authority Director pled for SPLOST VII funding @ LCC 2013-07-23

The Executive Director of the Airport Authority pled for runway funding at the 23 July 2013 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

5. SPLOST VII request from Executive Director of Airport Authority

The one public speaker when County Chairman Bill Slaughter “opened up” the SPLOST VII item was Jim Galloway, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Airport Authority, who noted SPLOST VII included nothing for the airport from the county or any of the cities. The long runway is federally funded, but the shorter runway is not. He asked for county funding. which I see now lists its board members on its website:

Steve Everett – Chairman
Jeff Sikes
Nathaniel Haugabrook
Dr. James Sinnott
Anthony Payton
Jane Shelton
Jim Galloway – executive director/airport manager (229) 333-1833

Here’s Jim Galloway in a Valdosta CEO video explaining what the Airport Authority is and does, for example Continue reading →

Fourth or fifth flooding at Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater plant this year?

So many I’ve lost track; somebody help me….

Valdosta City PR Friday, Public Notice for Permit Violation at WWTP,

Due to continued heavy rains in Valdosta and surrounding areas in recent days, moderate flooding of the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers caused a hydraulic overload at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant. As a result of a peak hourly flow of 15.58 million gallons, the incident led to a discharge of total suspended solids in excess of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit limit.

The total suspended solids result for the effluent sample collected August 22, 2013 was 203 milligrams per liter. This is greater than Continue reading →

River gauge, park deed, personnel costs, pest control, and a special presentation @ LCC 2013-08-26

Five minutes for tomorrow morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session? The mysterious “Special Presentation” might take longer Tuesday.

The last time the river stream gauge funding came up was I think 10 September 2012. At that time I thought Emergency Director Ashley Tye was referring to the Withlacoochee River, but he actually didn’t say which river, and USGS only lists a gauge on the Little River at GA 122, not on the Withlacoochee. If the county put agenda packet information online with the agenda, that sort of confusion wouldn’t be so easy.

Here’s the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2013, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2013, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

Salem 1 nuke back up in NJ

No, that can’t be: NRC hasn’t said it’s up after Salem 1 was scrammed down last week.. Of course, NRC never posts events or status on weekends, no matter what’s down, up, or on fire.

Bill Gallo Jr. wrote for the South Jersey Times yesterday, Salem 1 nuclear reactor returns to service after faulty valve is repaired,

The Salem 1 nuclear reactor was returned to service today, less than 48 hours after a leaking valve caused the plant to be shut down.

The plant began sending electricity out over the regional power grid at 4:47 p.m. today, according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for the reactor’s operator, PSEG Nuclear….

On Thursday, operators became aware Continue reading →

Pilgrim and Salem nukes scrammed down

Two nukes down Friday: “lowering reactor water level was due to the trip of all three Feedwater Pumps” (Pilgrim 1 in Massachusetts) and “unidentified leakage” (Salem 1 in New Jersey). That’s the fifth downtime for Entergy’s Pilgrim 1 this year: cold, heat, leak, and now feedwater pumps. Remind me about the reliability and safety of big baseload nuclear?

Pilgrim 1 and Salem 1 down 23 August 2013

Event Number: 49296 Facility: PILGRIM,

REACTOR PROTECTION ACTUATION (SCRAM)

“On Thursday, August 22, 2013 at 0755 hours [EDT], with the reactor critical at approximately 98% core thermal power, and the mode switch in RUN, a manual reactor scram was inserted due to lowering reactor water level. The cause of the lowering reactor water level was due to the trip of all three Feedwater Pumps. The cause of the Feedwater Pump trip event is currently under investigation.

“Following the reactor scram, Continue reading →

How big might a sinkhole be? @ LCC 2013-08-13

Viral Internet video of a human-caused sinkhole swallowing a clump of trees whole, in Bayou Corne, Assumption Parish, Louisiana.

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WCTV posted 22 August 2013, Sinkhole Swallows Trees In Seconds

Assumption Parish, LA – Cameras were rolling just as a sinkhole swallowed a group of trees….

CBS News reports that the sinkhole now covers 25 acres, and is expected to keep growing.

Video from NOLA.com of another tree going in: Continue reading →

Corruption in DeKalb meets consequences

Bid rigging and kickbacks? I’m sure that’s only in Atlanta…. Anyway, it turns out it’s not so much DeKalb County that’s a slum as the county government.

Somebody at AJC wrote yesterday, DeKalb to review government restructuring,

A day after a yearlong investigation into DeKalb contracting was made public — a report that detailed a culture of corruption that permeates county government — DeKalb commissioners say they will review how the county is governed and seek changes.

A special purpose grand jury investigating contracting in DeKalb’s water department recommended the county get rid of its CEO form of government. DeKalb is almost singular in the authority it gives its CEO, a countywide elected official who runs the day-to-day operations of Georgia’s third-largest county.

That authority, according to the report, was used to steer tens of millions of dollars in contracts to favored vendors. Suspended DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis has been charged with extortion for allegedly strongarming vendors into donating to his campaign.

Interim DeKalb CEO Lee May said the county will review its governing structure over the next 30 days and propose some recommendations on how to improve operations, especially contracting.

WSBTV reported Wednesday, DeKalb special grand jury recommends 12 for criminal investigation: Key county officials include former CEO and public safety director.

CBS Atlanta wrote 17 July 2013, Governor Deal Suspends Dekalb County CEO Burrell Ellis, Continue reading →

Violations at Alapaha Water Plant in Lowndes County –EPA @ LCC 2013-07-23

Did Demarcus Marshall know when he asked, “The water is good now, right?” about the 15 “Health Based Violations” and the 4 “Complete Failure to Report” plus the 1 “Monitoring, Routine Major (TCR)”, all in the last ten years? Maybe some of those have to do with why Lowndes County is doing major upgrades to the Alapaha Water System by the end of March 2015. However, given all those “Complete Failure to Report”, how will we know when or if it’s fixed? These reports found by Chris Graham. -jsq

U.S. EPA SWDIS Violation Report:

LOWNDES CO.-ALAPAHA PLANTATION S/D
VALDOSTA, GA 31601-1349
229-671-2504

Primary Water Source Type Population Served
Groundwater 205

This report was created on AUG-22-2013
Results are based on data extracted on JUL-30-2013


NOTICE: EPA is aware of inaccuracies and underreporting of some data in the Safe Drinking Water Information System. We are working with the states to improve the quality of the data.

The tables below list all violations that the state reported to EPA for this water system. Health-based violations are listed first, followed by monitoring, reporting, and other violations.

Health Based Violations: amount of contaminant exceeded safety standard (MCL) or water was not treated properly.
Type of Violation Compliance Period Begin Date Compliance Period End Date Drinking Water Rule or Contaminant Analytical Result Violation ID
MCL, Average JUL-01-2012
 SEP-30-2012
 TTHM .166 11422

Follow-up Action Date of Response
St Public Notif requested
MAR-05-2013
St Violation/Reminder Notice
MAR-05-2013

Continue reading →

Last NRC call about foreign ownership of U.S. nuclear reactors: now until noon today

Call in this morning or send written comments. Here are the previous materials (this URL works; the one in the NRC PR is broken). See also NRC’s PR and Commission Direction. The nuclear industry has been pushing for changes for a year now; see more posts. Rather than relaxing rules on foreign ownership of operating reactors, how about stop accepting foreign nuke parts from the likes of document-forging Doosan, which supplies Plant Vogtle among a dozen or so other U.S. nukes?

Try joining the webinar from a Linux system and you get:

This system isn’t supported

Not supported Joining a session from this computer’s OS or web browser isn’t supported.
Please view the GoToWebinar system requirements.
Questions?
Contact Global Customer Support or tweet to us @gotowebinar.

They support Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android, but not Linux. Seriously? And NRC is asking technical questions?

NRC PR 7 August 2013, NRC Webinar Aug. 21 to Discuss Regulations On Foreign Ownership of U.S. Reactors, Continue reading →