Tag Archives: Water

Sugar Creek sewer main, permit, WWTP –VDT @ VCC 2015-03-19

The VDT has some information apparently from the agenda packet the city didn’t publish with its agenda for Thursday. Joe Adgie, VDT, 17 March 2015, City Council to consider revisions to radar ordinance,

Bids will be considered for the sewer main at Sugar Creek near Gornto Road and near the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks.

The sewer main has become exposed due to ongoing steam bank erosion, and the sewer main has started to sag. The city said this exposure needs to be repaired sooner rather than later, as the exposure could lead to a failure, and could allow raw sewage to directly leak into Sugar Creek.

This would be a violation of the city’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit with the state.

The recommended bid comes from Garney Companies, Inc., for $286,000.

Other bids come from Continue reading

Sewer Main bids and Wastewater Plant contract @ VCC 2015-03-19

Fixing wastewater problems requires bids and contracts, some of which are on the Valdosta City Council agenda for Thursday.

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, March 19, 2015
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL

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Videos: Leadership Lowndes, rezonings approved, one citizen about a Water Trail @ LCC 2015-03-10

Leadership Lowndes Class of 2015 was there, and Gretchen Quarterman spoke about the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Conference. Everything else went as predicted with the rezonings and pretty much everything else unanimously approved, at the Tuesday 10 October 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

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Videos: Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

These videos are of yesterday morning’s Work Session, and they’re voting right now on the annual grant paperwork for the county’s on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., on a commercial and a subdivision rezoning, both previously recommended unanimously by the Planning Commission. Plus they will accept Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer. They will declare at least two Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes on the board of the hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC), before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a Resolution to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC. We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual the county only published the agenda sheets for each agenda item, without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

Judge H. Arthur McLane spoke yesterday about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings.

Tonight they have Citizens Wishing to Be Heard on the agenda.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system.

Below are links to the LAKE videos from Monday morning, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

Historic Courthouse, 2 rezonings, 1 utilities, MIDS bus, CDBG @ LCC 2015-03-09

The county has an on-call bus system, run by MIDS, Inc., and they’re doing the annual grant paperwork. Judge H. Arthur McLane will speak this morning about the Courthouse Preservation Committee; see LAKE videos of its public meetings. Tuesday the County Commission will decide the rezonings, one commercial and one subdivision, previously recommended unanimously by the Planning Commission: will they discuss the poor people they’re displacing, unlike the Planning Commission? Plus they will accept Utilities for Creekside West Phase II, i.e., water and sewer. They will declare at least two Potential Conflict(s) of Interest for Commissioner Joyce Evans and County Clerk Paige Dukes on the board of the hildren’s Advocacy Center of Lowndes County, Inc. (CAC), before agreeing for the Chairman to sign a Resolution to submit to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the CAC. We don’t know what those conflicts are, because as usual the county only published the agenda sheets for each agenda item, without the rest of the details that are in the board packets.

It’s a welcome change that for rezonings they now consider traffic on nearby roads, unlike back in 2011 when then-Chairman Ashley Paulk said:

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

Who knows? Next maybe they’ll consider expanding to regular routes on the bus system. Continue reading

Renewables outcompete oil –National Bank of Abu Dhabi

A Middle East bank says:

300x309 Ambitious scenario, in Financing the Future of Energy, by National Bank of Abu Dhabi, March 2015 Renewables accounted for 57 per cent of global power investment in new generation in the period 2000-2013.

And that’s even with all the legal and financial roadblocks thrown up by entrenched fossil fuel companies and electric utilities. The report recommends aligning policy and finance:

To deliver a sustainable energy system for the long term, the financial community and policymakers need to work collaboratively: stimulating and de-risking investment, and developing innovative structures which can support the financing of future energy.

With that collaboration, the Middle East and North Africa could see this kind of energy deployment scenario: Continue reading

Sabal Trail contractor yard at end of Valdosta Airport runway

300x388 Lowndes County, GA, next to Valdosta Airport, in Sabal Trail Contractor Yards aerial maps, by John S. Quarterman, for SpectraBusters.org, 20 February 2015 The same company that sued Lowndes County in 2007 to try to put a tall building above the 30-foot height limit in Valdosta’s Runway Protection Zone now appears to want to put a contractor yard for Sabal Trail’s fracked methane pipeline in the same location. Will this involve any tall cranes? What about Moody’s flights off of that runway at Valdosta Airport? And what about those aquifer recharge zones?

Among the contractor yard maps Sabal Trail filed with FERC 20 February 2015, there’s this one: Continue reading

Valdosta sewage into Alapaha River watershed three times in February 2015

Valdosta didn’t mention it and the Florida Department of Health doesn’t seem to know it, 300x219 Knights Creek in Valdosta, in Knights Creek, Valdosta, Georgia, by USGS Streamer, for WWALS.net, 28 February 2015 but Knights Creek is in the Alapaha River watershed. Valdosta spilled sewage into it twice in February. Plus that 16 February spill into Dukes Bay Canal also ends up in the Alapaha River. But never you mind, Valdosta also spilled into the Withlacoochee River through the usual Sugar Creek. Somehow I don’t think all these spills are not Valdosta’s fault. Seems like it’s time for Valdosta to finish fixing its wastewater problem. And since the most recent spills were due to rainfall directly on Valdosta, the levee proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers on Sugar Creek at the Withlacoochee River wouldn’t help, nor would it help at any time for spills directly into the Withlacoochee River at GA 133, nor for Dukes Bay Canal nor Knights Creek, which flow into the Alapaha River.

News Release, Florida Department of Health (FDH), 27 February 2015, Florida Department of Health Advises of Possible Wastewater Contamination, Continue reading

Sewage spill not Valdosta’s fault this time

Not every spill is the city’s fault.

City of Valdosta PR, VDT, 18 February 2015, Sewage spilled into waterway,

VALDOSTA — An estimated 375 gallons of sewage dumped into a tributary of Dukes Bay Canal Monday, according to city officials.

A spokesperson for the city said the wastewater spill near Old Statenville Road and Arlington Ave. was the result of a manhole overflow at the 1100 Block of Old Statenville Road around 11 a.m. Monday.

The public is being cautioned Continue reading

Videos: Denied Lake Alapaha variance @ ZBOA 2015-02-03

The variance about not connecting to county water at Lake Alapaha Blvd. seemed to actually involve adjoining property, as several Commissioners pointed out, and ZBOA denied it, 4 to 3. Zoning Director Carmella Braswell represented the county as usual.

Here’s the agenda, which now is on the City of Valdosta website as http://www.valdostacity.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=7948, after Board member Gretchen Quarterman asked for agendas to be posted up to date.

Scroll down below for the video. Continue reading