{"id":5204,"date":"2013-08-17T14:40:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T18:40:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5204"},"modified":"2013-08-17T14:42:08","modified_gmt":"2013-08-17T18:42:08","slug":"usaf-environmental-assessment-for-moody-housing-on-val-del-road-rez-2013-09-lcc-2013-08-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/usaf-environmental-assessment-for-moody-housing-on-val-del-road-rez-2013-09-lcc-2013-08-13.html","title":{"rendered":"USAF Environmental Assessment for Moody Housing on Val Del Road (REZ-2013-09) @ LCC 2013-08-13"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nNo geotechnical study was seen from the developer before\r\ndrawing the sinkhole buffers shown in the\r\n\r\nthe Air Force Draft Environmental Assessment<\/a>\r\nfor\r\n\r\nthe proposed Moody Housing on Val Del Road<\/a>,\r\njust rezoned as\r\n\r\nREZ-2013-09<\/a>, PDF\r\ncourtesy of Prof. Michael Noll of VSU.\r\nYou can see sinkholes and wetlands in its maps:\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nMost of the site area, including all of the Phase I area subject of REZ-2013-09,\r\nis colored for\r\n\r\nmedium wetland habitat quality<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nThey included\r\n\r\na soil map<\/a>.\r\nNote the same soil as under the sinkhole underlies all of Phase I except\r\nthe part that’s marked blue for water:\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nThey do have\r\n\r\ntiny buffers marked around the sinkhole and even tinier\r\nones around the wetlands<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nI wonder if that sinkhole will widen like that one\r\n\r\nthe county paid twice to fix on Snake Nation Road<\/a>,\r\neventually moving the road to get away from it?\r\nWhat will happen to all those housing units backed up against the\r\nsinkhole and wetlands?\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nMakes you wonder what’s in that\r\n\r\ngeotechnical analysis mentioned on page 4<\/a> and again on pages 4-13 and 6-2:\r\n

\r\nSoils and Geology.<\/strong> There may be a temporary increase in the potential for soil erosion during\r\nconstruction activities. However, this would be minimized through the implementation of\r\nNPDES\/Lowndes County land disturbance permit-related requirements to mitigate soil erosion impacts\r\nfrom construction activities. The primary concern at the Val Del parcel is a sinkhole covering\r\napproximately 1.16 acres in the Phase II section of the site.\r\n\r\nThe Project Owner will be required to obtain\r\na Val Del Rd phase II site geotechnical report in accordance with local and state requirements on the\r\nsuitability of the site for residential construction. Mitigation may include increased sinkhole buffer\r\ndistances, or agreed upon phase II site re-configuration based upon business and engineering inputs.\r\nThe Project Owner will make the Val Del Rd phase II site geotechnical report available to the Air Force\r\nand the Project Owner will comply with the recommendations included in such report.<\/span> In order to begin\r\nPhase I, the developer would initially mitigate risk at the nearby Phase II area by establishing a 75-foot\r\nbuffer around the sinkhole with a fence to prevent access to the area. Site designs would need to\r\nconsider the development restrictions associated with poorly drained soils susceptible to wetness and\r\nflooding.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nPage 4-14 makes it clear the sinkhole buffers shown in the maps\r\nwere drawn before the Air Force saw any geotechnical study from the developer:\r\n

\r\nIn order to begin Phase I, the developer would initially mitigate risk at the\r\nnearby Phase II area by establishing a 75-foot buffer around the sinkhole with a fence to\r\nprevent access to the area.\r\nThis buffer was established through a literature review that\r\nconsidered how municipal and county governments typically mitigate risks associated\r\nwith sinkholes prior to geotechnical study<\/strong>.<\/span> The minimum recommended buffer\r\nidentified in the text is 15 meters (approximately 50 feet) (Zhou & Beck, 2008). An\r\nadditional 25 feet was added to the buffer based on visual inspection in order to\r\nenhance safety precautions until the sinkhole site has been assessed as described above.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nYou may wonder as I do what our County Commission is doing rezoning\r\nfor a development next to a sinkhole before seeing such a geotechnical study.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No geotechnical study was seen from the developer before drawing the sinkhole buffers shown in the the Air Force Draft Environmental Assessment for the proposed Moody Housing on Val Del Road, just rezoned as REZ-2013-09, PDF courtesy of Prof. Michael Noll of VSU. You can see sinkholes and wetlands in its maps: Most of the […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[2,88,570,571,73,6114,3,134,55],"tags":[6795,6813,6828,8701,6833,8764,8699,10,8702,91,12,7,8734,703,8783,8784,4,6810,8731,208,8700,6,8743,8727,90],"class_list":["post-5204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-military","category-moody-afb","category-safety","category-sinkhole-2","category-transparency","category-vsu","category-water","tag-12-august-2013","tag-13-august-2013","tag-environmental-assessment","tag-georgia","tag-geotechnical-study","tag-glpc","tag-government","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lcc","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-michael-noll","tag-military","tag-moody-afb","tag-regular-session","tag-rez-2013-09","tag-safety","tag-sinkhole","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-vsu","tag-water","tag-work-session"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1lW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5204"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5207,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5204\/revisions\/5207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}