Toccoa must get not the lead, but the phosophorous out

 

By Robin Dake | WNEG Radio Special to the Independent-Mail

TOCCOA, Ga. — With new environmental rules coming, Toccoa city officials are trying to make sure their pipes are phosphorus-free.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division is implementing new standards about how much phosphorus can be in the wastewater the city puts back into streams, said Don Dye, Toccoa water/wastewater director.

“We have never had a phosphorus limit before, but our new limit is now one part per million,” said Dye. “What we typically discharge on a normal discharge day is probably close to three parts per million. We need to implement some kind of system that would remove the phosphorus from the wastewater.”

Phosphorus comes from industrial sources and in certain amounts is unhealthy for stream life. The EPD is now mandating that municipalities must meet certain limits of the element in the water they return to streams after it has been cleaned in a wastewater treatment plant.

The City of Toccoa recently completed a study to determine the best way to meet these limits and found a certain chemical should be added to the process.

“We are going to add alum to it, which will bind up the phosphorus” Dye said. “Plus, we are going to raise the pH, which will make it inherently more able to precipitate the phosphorus out. It is a two-pronged approach to fix the phosphorus problem.”

The cost to put the new system is estimated to be $68,000. City officials are hoping to use a grant to pay for the work.

Plan for sonar range off Georgia/Florida in dispute as endangering whales

 

By Steve Patterson | The Times-Union

A Navy plan to build a training range for sonar exercises off Jacksonville’s coast is worrying Florida and Georgia environmental agencies.  Officials in both states have told the Navy that ship traffic from the training range could harm endangered right whales, which spend the winter offshore raising their young.

“The waters offshore of Georgia and northeast Florida are the only known calving ground for the species. Protection of the right whale calving habitat is critical for population recovery,” Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Noel Holcomb wrote in a response to a draft Navy report on the project.

Today is the start of the whales’ calving season, which lasts until April 15. There are about 350 remaining right whales.

Training less during calving season is the best way to avoid harming them, said recommendations from Holcomb’s agency and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Federal rules protecting right whales treat the area close to Jacksonville’s shoreline as “critical habitat” for the giant mammals. The training range would be about 50 miles offshore, outside that critical zone.

But agencies in both states argued that whales are found throughout the area, not just near the beach. One whale fitted with an electronic monitor in 2005 traveled 73 miles east of shore, the Conservation Commission noted.

The Navy named Jacksonville in September as its top choice for a training site, after weighing four Atlantic coast locations. Ships, submarines, planes and helicopters would train there for anti-submarine warfare.

The 500-square-mile range would be fitted with underwater sensors to track vessels’ movements. That’s supposed to help trainers critique the crews’ performance quickly so they learn more from each exercise. Without such a system, training critiques are sometimes filed weeks later, after reviewers piece together data recorded on each vessel.

Read on here.

Georgia court sides with marina developer

 

UPI

ATLANTA, Nov. 17  — The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of a developer who wants to build the state’s largest marina complex on the Gulf Coast.

 

The 5-2 decision found that the Coastal Marshlands Protection Committee, which issues permits for marinas, does not have the authority to regulate development on the adjacent mainland, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The proposed marina would be near the Cumberland Island National Seashore. The developer is Land Resource LLC.

State law does not show “any intent on the part of the General Assembly to establish the committee as the ’super regulator’ of any and all development in the coastal areas of the state,” Justice P. Harris Hines wrote for the court’s majority.

Environmental groups, including the Center for a Sustainable Coast and the Southern Environmental Law Center, are opposed to the project. They said the Coastal Marshlands Protection Act gave the state the responsibility to protect the tidal marshes from damaging storm water runoff created by developing the adjacent land.

Land Resource received the state permit to build the marinas and docks in 2005, but because of the legal challenges, the work has not been done.

To read the opinion, click here.

‘We are the pay toilet of the nation’

 

by JOHN MONK and SAMMY FRETWELL | The State

Three years ago, Tom Wood, a widower, former teacher and Navy veteran, moved to a remote spot in Marlboro County, hoping to live out his days in peace.

Now, he’s smack in the middle of a fight over what would be one of the state’s largest landfills ever — just a few miles from his home.

“This is a crying shame. It’ll hurt property values and stink things up,” said Wood, 68. The retiree is one of hundreds of people across the state fighting a little-noticed trend: the creation of giant landfills for household waste, much of it from other states.  Huge landfills are on the rise in South Carolina. The nation’s three largest garbage haulers — Waste Management Inc., Republic Services and Allied Waste Industries — have moved in, often under other names.

The Legislature never approved a policy allowing the state to become a garbage mecca.

But, with the approval of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, South Carolina has become an East Coast destination dump.

The state buries far more garbage than it produces and is reserving space for even more.

South Carolina last year buried 4.8 million tons of its own garbage and an additional 1.7 million tons of out-of-state garbage. It could have buried more: DHEC has authorized state landfills to accept 9.9 million tons per year.

But if garbage landfills were to grow to the maximum allowed by law, they could bury 42 million tons per year — almost nine times what South Carolinians now put in the ground.

The state doesn’t earmark specific space for S.C. garbage. But landfill representatives say their excess capacity, authorized by DHEC, is for the state’s future.

The companies’ futures also are assured. They make millions importing other states’ household garbage. And if built, three landfills proposed in the past two years — in Marlboro, Williamsburg and Cherokee counties — could considerably increase what South Carolina buries.

Read on here.

Georgia marina community’s developer files Chapter 11

 

By STACY SHELTON | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The developer of a controversial marina community on the Georgia coast near Cumberland Island National Seashore has filed for bankruptcy.

Land Resource LLC, which was headquartered in Atlanta until last year, filed under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code in Orlando, where it is now located. Company owner J. Robert Ward is seeking “breathing room” to sell its assets, valued at about $115.2 million, the filing says.  In the filing dated Oct. 30, the company lists liabilities of $214.8 million. Among the creditors are the Atlanta Braves, owed $50,000, and a former employee who is owed $787,000, according to Land Resource.

Ward said his company fell victim to the real estate downturn, fueled by the credit crisis and low consumer confidence. He was not making enough money on sales to complete the promised projects.

“The banks stopped making loans to our customers,” Ward said in an e-mail. “It just doesn’t seem fair that the banks can put us into bankruptcy because of their failure to lend and then get a federal bailout, but then chase me personally and ruin a very good company and put 250 people out of work and affect thousands of property owners and leave them with uncompleted lots.”

Ward, who is 60, said he will start over.

The company’s assets include 128 unsold lots in Cumberland Harbour in St. Marys, where the largest marina complex on the Georgia coast has been proposed. According to Land Resource, 936 lots have been sold.

Read on here.