A video snippet of them playing: Continue reading
First Friday, Valdosta, 2 April 2010
Jazz at Hildegard’s, the Odafe Trio:
Tag Archives: Valdosta
Impervious cover increase, Lowndes County
Sixty eight percent (68%) from 1991 to 2005, 22% of that from 2001 to 2005.
Tree canopy change from 1991 to 2005: minus fourteen percent (-14%),
almost all of it between 2001 and 2005.
Where’s all this change coming from and going to?
The dark green is labeled “Evergreen Forest” and decreased from 31.81% in 1991 to 26.47% in 2005. Meanwhile, the light pink labeled “Low Intensity Urban” went from 5.37% to 8.57%. Other changes include the red “High Intensity Urban” slice going from 1.15% to 1.98%. But the biggest change is piney woods being paved over for urban sprawl.
Could this have some effect on flooding?
-jsq
John S. Quarterman
WCTV on Biomass
A couple of biomass plant stories from WCTV.
On April 28 Deneige Broom wrote, Proposed Plant Raises Air Quality Questions:
A Biomass plant could bring business and money to the area. But some want to be assured their health won’t suffer in the name of progress.Some good quotes in there:
Dr. Brad Bergstrom attended the hearing wants concrete answers.Continue reading“There’s not going to be anything in the permit that will say, you can only burn this much sewage sludge,” said Bergstrom. “The company plans to only burn a small percentage but once they get their permit, that could change.”
Biomass Plant Hearing Today
You can ask questions and expect answers.
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Environmental Protection Division (EPD) Air Protection Branch issued a
Press Release on April 12, 2010 announcing a meeting:
EPD will hold a question and-answer (Q&A) session and a public hearing on Tuesday, April 27, from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room in the Valdosta City Hall Annex. The city hall annex is located at 300 N. Lee Street.The subject is “on Proposed Biomass-Fired Power Plant Application Submitted by WireGrass Power, LLC”
You can also submit questions and comments in writing: Continue reading
Media to Attract Local Industry?
In addition to those previously blogged,
some other projects are also mentioned in
Sunday’s VDT article about the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.
Malynda Fulton’s writeup of the February Industrial Authority meeting
mentions a couple more projects, Project Butter, and Project Loaves, both about baking, that don’t appear in either the January or April articles.
This leads to the question: what are the current projects, and what is
their status?
Apparently the media campaign discussed in the January article didn’t happen, since it’s not mentioned in either of the later articles.
The February writeup does brag about the Industrial Authority’s “newly-designed Web site”. Well, it’s fancy, all right. Continue reading
Industrial Authority Projects
Kara Ramos writes in the VDT today about
Building industry:
A look at current Industrial Authority projects.
The
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
has quite a few interesting projects projected.
It will be interesting to see which of them pan out.
Members were in agreement that while there are many students graduating from area colleges, they are moving to other cities to find higher paying jobs. Some board members agreed the local workforce needs improvement to enhance the work of current employees, improve the skills of unemployed individuals, and create more job openings.Can’t argue with that.
The controversial aspects of the Wiregrass Power, LLC biomass project are not discussed in the article. Instead, the tiny accompanying solar plant gets some press: Continue reading
Oldest Building in Valdosta Renovated by Client Tell
Pat Sullivan, CEO of Client Tell, shows John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman his renovation of the oldest building in Valdosta.
No, not the courthouse. Older than that. 119 North Patterson Street. Here Pat explains the hidden windows they found: Continue reading
Europe has clean incinerators; why can’t we?
Elisabeth Rosenthal write in the NY Times about
Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags:
Far cleaner than conventional incinerators, this new type of plant converts local trash into heat and electricity. Dozens of filters catch pollutants, from mercury to dioxin, that would have emerged from its smokestack only a decade ago.Here’s the catch:
Denmark now has 29 such plants, serving 98 municipalities in a country of 5.5 million people, and 10 more are planned or under construction. Across Europe, there are about 400 plants, with Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands leading the pack in expanding them and building new ones.That means the biomass plant proposed for Valdosta is not that kind of clean incinerator.By contrast, no new waste-to-energy plants are being planned or built in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency says — even though the federal government and 24 states now classify waste that is burned this way for energy as a renewable fuel, in many cases eligible for subsidies. There are only 87 trash-burning power plants in the United States, a country of more than 300 million people, and almost all were built at least 15 years ago.
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 2010We’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.
Multipurpose Room
Valdosta City Hall Annex
300 North Lee Street
Valdosta, Georgia
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
Comment on the Transportation Plan
The Metropolitian Planning Organization (MPO)
invited people to a Public Open House last week
about prioritization of the 2035 Transportation Plan, so we went to the
RDC offices on W. Savannah Ave. and had a look.
You can see many of
the same materials online.
The MPO has a comment form you can fill out and mail to them.
There is also contact information on their web pages.
They are actively soliciting input.
One thing I noticed was that along Cat Creek Road they are proposing several intersection upgrades (at Hambrick Road, New Bethel Road, and Radar Site Road) which look like they would funnel still more traffic through Hambrick Road to Moody AFB. Hambrick Road and Cat Creek Road are not highways. State highways 122 and 129 (Bemiss Road) make a nice fast route from Hahira to Moody. A few improvements at Walker’s Crossing (where 122 and 129 intersect) would seem much more appropriate. The MPO could request for the state to do that.
Widening of Old US41N is on the list again as a county project, this time as far as Union Road.
Several new roads are proposed throughout the city and county as well as widening of many roads with additional travel or turn lanes.
You can look over the list of projects and you’ll probably find ones to comment on.