Tag Archives: WWALS

Valdosta Wastewater presentation to Greenlaw, Save Our Suwannee, SRWMD, Hamilton Co., and WWALS 2015-03-17



Due to requests from Greenlaw in Atlanta and Save Our Suwannee in Florida,
WWALS Watershed Coalition asked the City of Valdosta for a presentation
on their wastewater situation.
Valdosta presented less than two weeks later, and brought their entire
hierarchy related to this issue, from the mayor on down.
Plus Lowndes County, which isn’t even responsible for Valdosta’s wastewater,
was represented by their Chairman and a Commissioner.

Not all questions could be answered that quickly, but many were.

The slides are on the LAKE website and the videos are on the LAKE YouTube channel; see below.
See also Valdosta’s Sanitary Sewer System Improvements web page.

At the meeting,
clockwise from Tim Carroll (introducing), were: Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Maps for Naylor Boat Ramp, Frank’s Creek Bridge, and Deloach Road @ LCC 2015-02-10


300x186 Naylor Boat Ramp aerial, in Maps from board packet, by John S. Quarterman, 10 February 2015
The three maps arrived by email for the engineering items in
the Lowndes County Commission
Monday Work Session and Tuesday Regular Session.
The rest of the response to that Open Records request did not,
so I’ll have to go back again to pick up the rest of it on paper.
And the other Open Records request, for Continue reading →

Videos: Devine tabled, Naylor boat ramp, no HB 170 or animals @ LCC 2015-02-10



Nothing was said about the
GA HB 170 state tax grab from local governments,
even though both school boards and the Valdosta City Council
already passed resolutions against it.
No citizens spoke about animals, or about anything else,
not even in the Public Hearings,
except for

me thanking the Commission about the Naylor Boat Ramp.

The
Devine Subdivision at Tillman Crossing
was tabled at request of applicant to try to sort out continuing
concerns about safety and congestion,
while
REZ-2015-01 Gramercy 2
and
REZ-2015-03 Scurry Property,
were unanimously approved.
No citizens spoke for or against any of them.

You the taxpaying public didn’t get to see any of the materials
in the board packet
beyond the one-page agenda item forms, before the Commission voted last night,
unless you were in the Commission Chambers or watched the LAKE videos of yesterday morning’s Work Session.
The open records request for those rezonings came back with
paper maps, despite my request for electronic format;
at least the paper maps were in color this time.
I asked again for electronic format, and will post them
soon even if I have to scan them.
The other open records request, for maps and materials for the
engineering agenda items, came back with no maps at all, so I sent
it back to be satisfied.
Both County Planner Jason Davenport and County Engineer Mike Fletcher
said they had never seen those open records requests,
and they’d both be happy to email electronic copy if they
were authorized to do so by the County Clerk.

All the other items were unanimously approved: Continue reading →

Video: SPLOST Facility Update with boatramp @ LCC 2015-02-05

The Naylor boat ramp might be finished this fall,


and here’s a list of other SPLOST expenditures, from

yesterday’s Lowndes County Commission Annual Planning Meeting.

County Manager Joe Pritchard asked
Chad McLeod Project Manager and
Mike Fletcher County Engineer to come forward, saying
“Turn in your book to that tab….”
A book you, the taxpaying public reader, do not have.
The county can publish board packets on their new website if they want to.

McCleod presented current facilities for SPLOST VII,
after a long introduction by Pritchard, who said McLeod
was the county’s liaison with Parks and Rec (VLPRA)
and the Sheriff’s Department
and other offices.
McLeod said VLPRA projects are built by the county
and turned over to VLPRA for administration, except
for two projects at Freedom Park, which are being managed
by VLPRA due to House Bill 489.
He listed dollar amounts.
I couldn’t catch all of them, but here are some of them: Continue reading →

Valdosta Passes Resolution Against Sabal Trail Pipeline: not in this city, this county, or this state @ VCC 2014-12-11


Go away, Sabal Trail:



NOW THEREFORE,
be it resolved that the City of Valdosta supports the
Lowndes County Board of Commissioners in their opposition to the
construction of the Sabal Trail pipeline in any portion of Lowndes
County. The City’s support includes concerns with fundamental
property rights, the manner in which eminent domain might be
utilized, and the lack of demonstrated benefit to the City and
County. Furthermore, the City of Valdosta supports the Lowndes
County Commission in their formal request to the Federal Energy
Regulation Commission (FERC), and to State and Federal Legislators
in the effort to have Lowndes County and the State of Georgia
bypassed in the construction of the proposed pipeline.

Here is Continue reading →

Resolution against Sabal Trail pipeline + 3-1 ordinances @ VCC 2014-12-11



The resolution against the Sabal Trail pipeline, including to be filed with FERC, was

passed 6 to 1 by the Valdosta City Council Thursday 11 December 2014,
supporting

the resolution the Lowndes County Commission passed unanimously Tuesday,
plus

a clause about protecting our drinking water in the Floridan Aquifer; see
separate post.
John Robinson

thanked the city for a VSEB contract.
The

personal care home rezoning passed.
The

taxicab ordinance was deferred (not all cab company owners had been consulted yet), while two others passed.
Also

some bids rejected
while

others

were

approved,
a reappointment of

Tom Kurrie to the Valdosta Housing Authority,
and
recognized

employee of the month Terrial Small.

Here’s

the agenda.
For background, see the

videos of the Tuesday Work Session,
including

a bomb report by Police Chief Childress.
The videos from the Thursday Regular Session are linked below,
followed by a video playlist.

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail disappointed in GWC Dirty Dozen; locals disappointed in Sabal Trail –WCTV

Spectra’s Andrea Grover is “disappointed” in Sabal Trail being on the
Georgia Water Coalition Dirty Dozen;
does she also find it “hard to believe” like Sabal Trail’s well-documented
eminent domain threats?


300x166 Harm --Chris Manganiello, in GWC Dirty Dozen Sabal Trail on WCTV, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 26 November 2014
Winnie Wright, WCTV, 26 November 2014,

Sabal Trail Pipeline Environmental Concerns Cited In Annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ Report,

Recently, The Georgia Water Coalition put

the Sabal Trail Pipeline
on their Dirty Dozen Report for 2014.


300x167 Winnie Wright of WCTV, in GWC Dirty Dozen Sabal Trail on WCTV, by John S. Quarterman, for WWALS.net, 26 November 2014
You can see Cherry Creek sinkhole behind her as she reported.
She was navigated there by VSU professor Can Denizman.

She also interviewed several locals, including me
at the Withlacoochee River.

Continue reading →

China, U.S., and Russia energy deals: bad news for Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline?

The U.S. and China made a historic deal on climate change this week.


Here’s the good (it’s real, it’s huge, and it’s positive economically
for both countries), the bad (nuclear is first on the list of those “clean energy” sources), and the ugly.
Also this week China made a second huge natural gas deal with Russia:
what does that mean to the current U.S. push for LNG exports,
including the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline gouge through Georgia?

The Deal

Rebecca Leber, The New Republic, 12 November 2014,

The World Has Waited for the U.S. and China to Take Action on Climate Change. They Just Did.

President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on
Wednesday commitments to reduce both countries’ greenhouse gas
emissions. The surprise announcement, which came while Obama visits
Beijing this week, is the clearest sign yet the two countries are
serious on climate change.

After months of negotiations Continue reading →

A Hazardous Sabal Trail to LNG Export

Here are


the slides for the talk I gave at the
Alabama Sierra Club Retreat 1 November 2014.

The outline, with links to supporting evidence:

Afterwards, somebody asked me if there was a study on LNG exports
driving up domestic natural gas prices.
Turns out there is, requested by LNG-export-authorizing
Office of Fossil Energy from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

EIA’s summary of 29 October 2014: Continue reading →