The New York Times provides an interactive map of water polluters.
According to that map, derived from Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) data mostly from 2004 through 2007,
the biggest offenders in Lowndes County by number of violations are:
These are all way ahead of Hahira’s notorious sewer system
(supposed to be fixed now)
and Valdosta’s Mud Creek WPCP (supposed to be being fixed now),
both with 11 violations.
Moody is not surprising, due to sheer size, although disappointing.
The one that surprises me is the Boys Ranch.
Of course, number of violations is just one measure, but it is an interesting one.
Jack Kingston (R GA-01) came back to Valdosta, GA to hold another Health Care Town Hall after his previous one in August had ten times as many people as he expected. This time the 1200 seat Mathis Auditorium was maybe half full, so probably somewhere between 500 and 600 people attended.
The picture on the right is the core of Kingston’s argument. See for yourself.
Here’s a YouTube playlist for all the LAKE videos by Gretchen Quarterman from that September Town Hall. This is Kingston’s complete presentation except for a few words lost between videos and a few cases of camera failure. We’re still adding more videos from the question session. All the videos from the questions session are now available (17 Oct 2009); starting with Microphones are open.
Dennis Marks notes that VSU-TV’s rebroadcasts of the
AAUW Forum of 15 Sep 2009
will include the two-minute statements of unopposed candidates who
showed up. Those are not in the LAKE videos of the event which are already on YouTube, but pretty much everything else is.
Maybe VSU-TV will also put their videos online.
According to email from Walter Rollenhagen:
The Lowndes Co. Political Forum, or as we label it, VOTE 2009, will air on
VSU-TV cable channel 20:
By Kenny R. Bush and John S. Quarterman, with videos by Gretchen Quarterman.
On Sept 15, residents of Lowndes County gathered inside VSU’s Whitehead
Auditorium for a political forum concerning the upcoming 2009 General
Municipal Elections.
It was the competing Mayberrys, Hahira and Dasher,
in the shadow of the big city of
Valdosta with its council and school board.
The 100 or so people who watched learned about the candidates.
You can too, by watching the videos of each speaker
provided by LAKE on YouTube.
Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are
probably of higher quality.
Perhaps VSU can also be encouraged to release online the videos it took, which are
probably of higher quality.
The event was sponsored by the American Association of University Women
(AAUW) and moderated by Jim Peterson, chair of the Political Science
Department at VSU. Before the forum began, the audience was provided
note cards and encouraged to write questions for forum participants.
A three person committee then decided which four questions that would be asked
on stage for each set of candidates.
Valdosta City Council District 2
The forum began with the five candidates competing to be the newest councilman of Valdosta’s 2nd district.
Willie T. Head, the incumbent, is not running,
but five other people other are:
David G. DeMersseman, David L. Dempsey, Rodney R. Flucas, Deidra A. White, and Dr. L. W. Williams.
The first question of the night concerned annexing land neighboring
Valdosta and if candidates believed it to be a good idea or not.
Continue reading →
When compared to coal, per megawatt, this burning [biomass and the like] emits 1.5 times the carbon dioxide (CO2), 1.5 times the carbon monoxide (CO, a toxic air pollutant), and as much particulate matter.
Georgia already has the country’s dirtiest coal plant, at Juliette, near Macon.
Do we need still more CO2?
Maybe
the Wiregrass biomass plant planned for Valdosta is somehow more efficient than the one
near Gainesville.
If so, it would be good to hear about that; I don’t recall the topic coming up
at the Lowndes County Commission meeting in which this plant was approved.
Dr. Bussing elaborated in a recent letter:
The fallacy is in believing that plants take up all
CO2 emissions. In fact plants absorb some, the
ocean absorbs more (and as a consequence is
becoming more acidic by the year), but a
portion just stays and builds up in the
atmosphere. That buildup is associated with
global warming, and it doesn’t matter if the
CO2 comes from coal, gas or biomass.
Here’s the Lowndes County Commission (most of it), posing about the new StormReady County designation:
We love the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT), WCTV, and WALB, but if they published anything about that, we missed it. They have space constraints, and we don’t. Local governments do a lot of good things (and other things) that don’t get reported in the traditional press. This is where LAKE comes in.
Continue reading →
The New York Times provides an interactive map of water polluters.
According to that map, derived from Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) data mostly from 2004 through 2007,
the biggest offenders in Lowndes County by number of violations are:
