{"id":2624,"date":"2010-09-25T16:53:08","date_gmt":"2010-09-25T20:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/unanswered-concerns.html"},"modified":"2010-09-25T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2010-09-25T20:53:08","slug":"unanswered-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/unanswered-concerns.html","title":{"rendered":"Unanswered Concerns about the Biomass Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"I’m quoting myself here, responding to \nBrad Lofton’s letter of 19 Sepember 2010.<\/a>\n

\n-jsq\n

\nFrom: “John S. Quarterman”\n
\nTo: <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, Leigh Touchton\n
\nCc: [VDT and several elected officials; list available upon request]\n
\nSubject: Re: Brad Lofton, Executive Director Industrial Authority, doesn’t want his correpondence in the Valdosta Daily Times\n
\nDate: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:08:17 -0400\n

\nBrad Lofton,\n

\nLeigh Touchton has forwarded me copies of the correspondence between\nyou on behalf of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)\nwith her and the VDT.\n

\nI must say I don’t agree with your assertion that:\n

\n“The vast majority of her concerns for our project would have\nbeen answered two years ago if she had come to any of our forums…”\n<\/blockquote>\nHere are some examples of unanswered concerns.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
\nUnanswered concern: carbon neutral?\n

\nRegarding the well-known question of how a plant that emits 50% more\ncarbon dioxide (CO2) than a coal plant can be carbon neutral:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2009\/09\/biomass-twice-the-co2-of-coal-.html<\/a>\n

\nI asked that question at a meeting I requested with you and Col. Ricketts\nof VLCIA, that you organized for 10 June 2010 (thanks for doing that).\nIn response, I was given a document that generically described biomass\nnationwide. A document that admits that biomass produces more CO2 than\ncoal, says that there could be some situation in which trees are planted\nfast enough to take up the CO2 faster than it’s being emitted, but:\n

\n“For many purposes, analysis on a regional scale or national scale\nmay be most appropriate.”\n<\/blockquote>\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/06\/biomass-and-carbon-dioxide.html<\/a>\n

\nAs you and I and Col. Ricketts have discussed at length, there is no\nsuch study: he couldn’t find it; I couldn’t find it; Jill Stuckey of\nCIE doesn’t have it.\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/07\/center-of-innovation—energy.html<\/a>\n

\nIn the video of the biomass air quality hearing of 27 April 2010,\nyou can hear (at 01:05:06) the EPD rep saying:\n

\n“We’re not going to do a regional impact study.”\n<\/blockquote>\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/09\/video-of-biomass-air-quality-hearing-valdosta-27-april-2010.html<\/a>\n

\nThat is despite the proposed biomass plants for Hamilton Co., Florida,\nPlant Mitchell in Albany, the pellet plant in Waycross, and the existing\nLangdale and PCA operations in Valdosta and Clyattville, all well within\n100 miles of the proposeed biomass plant site in Lowndes County.\n

\nSo any assertion of this biomass plant being carbon neutral is\nunsubstantiated, and the more plausible assumption is that there\nwill be a 15 year or more gap between the time trees are cut down\nand burned and the time they grow back. A gap in which a lot of\nCO2 will enter the atmosphere.\n

\nUnanswered concern: whole trees?\n

\nIn that video you can also hear Bob Turner, the Wiregrass Power LLC\nplant manager, say (00:54:34):\n

\n“We cannot go out and cut down whole trees to burn”\nor we’d lose our tax credits.\n<\/blockquote>\nYet in the study VLCIA gave me, all the scenarios seem to be about\nclearcutting, and other biomass proponents in Georgia openly say\nthey plan to burn whole trees in their plant:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/06\/whole-trees-as-biomass.html<\/a>\n

\nSo the evidence VLCIA gave me as well as that of other biomass\nproponents indicates that biomass plants such as the one proposed\nfor Valdosta can indeed burn whole trees.\n

\nUnanswered concern: emissions per kW-h produced?\n

\nAt the June 10th meeting in the VLCIA office, I asked for direct\ncomparisons of emissions per kilowatt hour (kW-h) of electricity\ngenerated for this proposed biomass plant vs. a coal plant. I was\ntold that item went on VLCIA’s action items. Yet when the meeting\nattendees later recieved the action items, what was on them was not\nthat, and even after I asked VLCIA for it again, I never got it:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/topics\/biomass\/vlcia\/index.php<\/a>\n

\nUnanswered concern: frequency of monitoring?\n

\nAt the air quality hearing, Dr. Gretchen Bielmyer, an environmental\ntoxicologist, asked several questions about frequency of monitoring\nof several types of emissions, including mercury, dioxins, and furans\n(00:37:28 in the video). She was told then that\n

\n“There will not be continuous mercury monitoring.”\n<\/blockquote>\nAnd for the others:\n
\n“I don’t have those in front of me.”\n<\/blockquote>\nAt the 10 June meeting in the VLCIA office I asked for further\ninformation, and was told that it would be sent later. All the\nattendees got later was a copy of the same air quality permit\napplication of February that Dr. Bielmyer had before she asked\nher questions, and that we already had posted publicly on the\nLAKE web pages:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/topics\/biomass\/<\/a>\n

\nI could go on, but I think this is enough to illustrate my point:\nit’s not at all clear that Leigh Touchton would have had her\nconcerns answered if she had come to some of VLCIA’s meetings,\nsince others have not had their concerns answered.\n

\nYou refered to “Our unprecedented effort of educating the public”.\nPerhaps you are unaware that the Metropolitan Planning Organization\nholds numerous open houses and lengthy public comment sessions:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/02\/transportation-plan-open-house-mpo.html<\/a>\n

\nSimilarly every rezoning proposal has to go through public hearings\nat the Planning Commission and either the County Commission or\nthe City Council. Planning documents with longterm effect such\nas the Comprehensive Plan or Valdosta’s Land Development Regulations (LDR)\nor the county’s Uniform Land Development Code (ULDC) go through even\nmore extensive processes. The City of Valdosta and Central Valdosta\nDevelopment Authority (CVDA) has held a series of town halls\n“to seek citizen input on the future of Downtown Valdosta over the\nnext 20-30 years”:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/local\/x369041617\/CVDA-hosts-downtown-master-plan-meeting<\/a>\n

\nThe effort you describe actually is precedented by quite a few other\nlocal organizations and boards, and doesn’t sound as extensive as some.\nYet a biomass plant would affect us all for the next 20-30 years or longer.\n

\nYou wrote:\n

\n“We’ve spent more time educating the community on this project\nthen the sum of any other projects we’ve worked combined.”\n<\/blockquote>\nThen I must wonder about the other projects VLCIA is proposing.\n

\nYou also remarked:\n

\n“Now that we’re moving into the third year of due diligence,\nshe’s concerned all of a sudden.”\n<\/blockquote>\nAny city council or county commission member can tell you that\npeople often get concerned at the last minute, no matter what the\nprocess.\n

\nYet after attending commission and council sessions for years,\nI’ve never heard a single public official say anything like this:\n

\n“I’m amazed at how someone could dare say\nthat we’ve not informed the public.”\n<\/blockquote>\nReally? How dare she?\n

\nPeople dare to express concerns about the biomass plant because\nthey have serious concerns about health and deforestation\n(with resulting flooding) that VLCIA’s process has not answered.\n

\nInstead, VLCIA’s minimal process is promoting increasing scepticism\nand outright opposition on the part of the public, as can be seen\nin this 8 July 2010 town hall that was organized by Pastor Angela\nManning after she attended the 10 June 2010 meeting in the VLCIA office:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/07\/biomass-town-hall-8-july-2010.html<\/a>\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/07\/biomass-town-hall-part-2.html<\/a>\n

\nIn my case, when I first heard about this proposed biomass plant,\nI thought it would be clean local energy. But the more I looked\ninto it, the more questions came up. And the more I asked, the\nthe more I encountered obfuscation and lack of answers.\n

\nNow I understand that VLCIA is apparently currently tasked only\nwith finding proposals that fit with the letter of the LDR and the\nULDC and other legal limits such as air quality permits.\nIn that sense, as I have mentioned to the two of you, I know\nthat you and Col. Ricketts are simply doing your jobs.\n

\nHowever, the public does have serious questions that have not\nbeen answered, and if the answers don’t fall within the letter\nof the regulations (CO2, for example, is not regulated by EPD),\nthen it’s time for the Valdosta City Council and the Lowndes County\nCommmission to change VLCIA’s charter to address concerns such\nas health and deforestation that affect the welfare of all the people.\n

\nMeanwhile, I suggest again that Wiregrass Power LLC expand its small\nplanned solar power plant. Solar produces no direct emissions and no\nfugitive emissions from delivery trucks, and apparently the funding is\nalready in place and the permits granted. With a bit of expansion, that\nsolar plant would be big enough to qualify for venture capital funding:\n

\n\nhttp:\/\/lake.typepad.com\/on-the-lake-front\/2010\/07\/100-million-for-large-scale-solar-projects.html<\/a>\n

\nSolar: cleaner for the public, and simpler and more lucrative for\nWiregrass Power LLC.\n

\nThanks,\n

\nJohn S. Quarterman\n
\n-jsq\n

\nPS: Since your correspondence with Leigh Touchton was sent from\nyour business email address, paid for by tax dollars, and was copied\nto Leigh Touchton, who has a stated policy of never having private\nconversations with public officials, I trust you will have no\nobjections as I post that correspondence on the web for the public\nto see.\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’m quoting myself here, responding to Brad Lofton’s letter of 19 Sepember 2010. -jsq From: “John S. Quarterman” To: <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, Leigh Touchton Cc: [VDT and several elected officials; list available upon request] Subject: Re: Brad Lofton, Executive Director Industrial Authority, doesn’t want his correpondence in the Valdosta Daily Times Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:08:17 […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,202,120,141,216,48,14,16,740,41,11,88,2951,21,32,23,73,289,24,178],"tags":[193,8738,5394,1747,4129,5398,2043,8745,8753,8777,5399,5400,8704,2061,4566,188,5395,5343,1790,4131,5342,847,5396,154,3304,4020,7,8734,1809,4865,5220,8863,4530,5221,5224,8715,1365,8713,255,5314,8714,3964,1156,5397,6,8726,2900,180,8742,8749,294,4123],"class_list":["post-2624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-agriculture","category-biomass","category-co2","category-coal","category-code-enforcement","category-economy","category-environment","category-forestry","category-health-care","category-lake","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-naacp","category-planning","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-safety","category-science","category-solar","category-vlcia","tag-allan-ricketts","tag-biomass","tag-black-neighborhood","tag-brad-lofton","tag-carbon-dioxide","tag-central-valdosta-development-authority","tag-clean","tag-co2","tag-coal","tag-comprehensive-plan","tag-cvda","tag-downtown-valdosta","tag-economy","tag-electricity","tag-environmental-racism","tag-executive-director","tag-georgia-metropolitan-planning-organization","tag-global-climate-change","tag-green","tag-incinerator","tag-jill-stuckey","tag-jobs","tag-land-development-regulations","tag-landfill","tag-ldr","tag-leigh-touchton","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-mercury","tag-mpo","tag-mud-creek-wastewater-treatment-plant","tag-naacp","tag-particulates","tag-perimeter-road","tag-planning-commission","tag-pollution","tag-public-hearings","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rezoning","tag-sewage-sludge","tag-solar","tag-town-hall","tag-uldc","tag-uniform-land-development-code","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-valdosta-daily-times","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vdt","tag-vlcia","tag-wastewater","tag-wiregrass-power-llc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-Gk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}