Merry Christmas - 2013 Year in Review

Jackson County Commission Work Session, December 16, 2013

 

Jackson County Commission Work Session featuring a briefing by Dus Rogers, CEO Jackson County EDA in this session.

 

AGENDA

 

VIDEO

 

ScottsboroCity Council Work Session and Regular Session December 16, 2013 - Last Council Meeting of 2013

The next City Council meeting will be January 6, 2013. (photo by Garry Morgan)

 

AGENDA

 

VIDEO

Jackson County Commission at Scottsboro, Alabama - Regular Session & Public Hearing About TVA's Request to Vacate County Road 96 - 4 Part Video

 

The Jackson County Commission held its Regular Session and Public Hearing in Court Room 3. The video presentation because of length will be in 4 parts. Part 1 is the Regular Session; Parts 3-4 is the Public Hearing portion. There will be a commentary in Thursday's Daily Sentinel concerning TVA's request to close County Road 96 (CR 96)

 

Health Care Authority Board Appointments: Jimmy Bergman, Harold Brookshire, Bob Matthews, Jr.

See Regular Session Video, Part 1 below.

 

A concerned citizen who lives in the area near TVA's Widows Creek says he will be adversely affected by the closure of CR 96. His concerns were expressed to the County Commission and the TVA, quote: "The TVA has not been a good neighbor."

 

Clarions report on this issue: http://www.theclarion.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7271:tva-requests-closure-of-a-portion-of-county-road-96&catid=42:clarion-rotation-stories&Itemid=142

 

During the Public Hearing TVA was asked if the TVA's  coal ash and gypsum waste disposal remediation plan was available from TVA; TVA's comment was the plan is available. However, after the public hearing I asked where I could find TVA's plan. It was revealed that there is no single plan, but there are several documents. The plan for the coal ash/gypsum waste remediation has not been approved by ADEM, Alabama Department of Environmental Management. As of this writing, there are no approved  plan describing TVA's coal ash and gypsum waste remediation program concerning the Widows Creek Coal Fired Facility; nor a single source document describing TVA's specific /summary with an estimated time line and costs concerning the Widows Creek closure and coal ash/gypsum remediation plans. How much will it cost to maintain a one unit operating plant? The TVA should wait until ADEM has approved their plan before requesting the vacation (closing) of CR 96. The TVA revealed they will not be utilizing the bridge across the North portion of Widows Creek on CR 96, they will be building a new road to carry the heavy truck traffic across 600 acres of property TVA purchased north of CR 96. The question must be asked, why is TVA wanting to close CR 96 since they are going to build a new road to handle the truck traffic from the hauling area on the property recently purchased?

 

John Kammeyer, TVA Vice President of Civil Construction, stated to me there is no date to close the Widows Creek Coal fired facility as the TVA Board has not approved the closure of Unit 7 at Widows Creek. Unit 8 will close sometime in 2014; Units 1-6 are already closed. Widows Creek is the 2nd oldest coal fired plant in the TVA system and has received several pollution fines from the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency. 

 

TVA Information Sheet on Conversion of wet ash and gypsum to dry storage.

http://www.tva.gov/news/kingston/dry_ash.pdf

 

Contractor Report on Widows Creek, Stantec Review, amount of coal ash and gypsum waste:  http://www.tva.com/power/stantec/al/rpt_005_appndx_c_wcf_171468118.pdf

 

Hazards: http://www.tva.gov/power/stantec2/Oct%202010%20presentation.pdf  

 

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/surveys2/tva_bullrun_response.pdf

 

Source Watch about TVA & Coal

http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tennessee_Valley_Authority

 

Previous article with video of CR 96 and Widows Creek

 http://arklite.blogspot.com/2013/12/widows-creek-public-hearing-tva.html

 

COMMISSION AGENDA

 

VIDEO, PART 1-Regular Session

 

VIDEO PART 2, Public Hearing, TVA and County Engineer Report



VIDEO PART 3, Public Hearing, Citizen Concerns



VIDEO PART 4, Public Hearing, Citizen Concerns-TVA provides excuses and double-talk for not having a single source document plan/summary for the Widows Creek Plant Shutdown/Decommission and Coal Ash/Gypsum Remediation. TVA claims there are a series of separate plans & documents. Part is in Montgomery awaiting approval, claims TVA.

Scottsboro City Council Meeting December 9, 2013

 

Scottsboro High School elected City Council representatives, left to right, Place 1 - Ms. Madeline Tucker; Place 2 - Ms. Andalyn Parrish.

 

THE SCOTTSORO CITY  COUNCIL, CITY CLERK AND SCOTTSBORO HIGH SCHOOL CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES

 

REGULAR SESSION AGENDA

1) Lakeview Grocery, Alcoholic Beverage Sales Public Hearing-approved; 2) Library Board member appointed, Ms. Kathy Henderson approved, term expires 2017; 3) Severe Weather No Sales Tax weekend Feb 21-23; 4) Abatement of house discussed at 510 Tupelo Pike.

 

VIDEO

 

The Nuclear Deception - A Continuing Saga

 

The following is a series of my Face Book informational articles about the "Nuclear Deception - A Continuing Saga of the Atoms for Peace Propaganda Policy.

 

"DARK INFLATION"
The massive cost overruns of the civilian nuclear power and defense corporate complex - "“Dark inflation” is just one possible name for the mysterious part of the cost increases that occur when high-vaulting technical ambitions – nuclear, in this case – collide with inchoate industrial, economic, and social decline."
http://lasg.org/wordpress/2013/04/03/dark-inflation/

 

THE SECRET RADIATION EXPERIMENTS

“It is desired that no document be released which refers to experiments with humans and might have adverse effect on public opinion or result in legal suits."

Col. O.G. Haywood, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

 

"This year marks the 20th anniversary of the declassification of top secret studies, done over a period of 60 years, in which the US conducted 2,000 radiation experiments on as many as 20,000 vulnerable US citizens...civilians, prison inmates, federal workers, hospital patients, pregnant women, infants, developmentally disabled children and military personnel — most of them powerless, poor, sick, elderly or terminally ill...The program employed industry and academic scientists who used their hapless patients or wards to... see the immediate and short-term effects of radioactive contamination — with everything from plutonium to radioactive arsenic...In one Vanderbilt U. study, 829 pregnant women were unknowingly fed radioactive iron. In another, 188 children were given radioactive iron-laced lemonade."

"In a rare public condemnation, Clinton Administration Energy Sec. Hazel O’Leary confessed being aghast at the conduct of the scientists. She told Newsweek in 1994: “I said, ‘Who were these people and why did this happen?’ The only thing I could think of was Nazi Germany.”
http://truth-out.org/news/item/15857-contaminated-nation-inhuman-radiation-experiments#a4 http://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/oralhistories/doeeh4064.pdf

Some of these same scientists and their protégés are participating in radiation contamination studies surrounding select U.S. nuclear facilities. The question must be asked, can these people ever be trusted? Can the nuclear power industry ever be trusted?

 

FALLACIES AND DECEIT OF THE ATOMS FOR PEACE PROGRAM.

Insanity, deceit, ignorance and nuclear power=the Obama administration supporting nuclear weapon proliferation.

Allowing Iran the possession of nuclear fuel for a nuclear reactor, then saying: "we will not allow them to have fissionable material for a nuclear weapon" is deceitful to say the least and a prelude to war. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303332904579228214211545256

Every commercial nuclear reactor produces the materials to produce a nuclear weapon as it produces highly enriched uranium and plutonium as its waste. The Obama administration is supporting nuclear proliferation by their actions.

1968 - “Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons” (NPT) clearly indicates that, even though the word “enrichment” is not used in the text, all signers have the right to the “peaceful applications of nuclear technology.” That is another deceitful statement in the form of a treaty. The possession of a nuclear reactor enables a warring nation with a reactor to produce a nuclear weapon. http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/05/iran-and-the-non-proliferation-treaty/

 

 

STUDIES LINK CANCER TO NUCLEAR FACILITIES

Radiation expert and independent researcher for Green Audit Dr Chris Busby found that children in Chepstow, south Wales, were 11 times more likely to develop myeloid leukaemia than the national average.
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-42066/New-study-links-nuclear-sites-cancer.html#ixzz2muV8sQRX

Childhood Leukemia in the Vicinity of Nuclear Power Plants in Germany - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696975/... 
 IJC - Childhood leukemia around French nuclear power plants—The geocap study, 2002–2007 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/.../10.../ijc.27425/abstract
Reasonable Doubt: Children living near nuclear facilities face an increased risk of cancer. http://www.globalresearch.ca/reasonable-doubt.../8785

 

ATOMS FOR PEACE = TYRANNY

 http://enenews.com/japan-official-this-is-the-way-the-reign-of-terror-begins-lawmaker-physically-restrained-as-secrets-bill-rammed-through-final-passage-expected-in-hours-photos

Tyranny brought to you by nuclear power. In Japan it seems the nuclear power disaster at Fukushima Daiichi has become a "state secret." The multi-national nuclear power industry will do most anything to keep secret the negative side of nuclear power - it sickens and kills.

In the U.S. the number of nuclear energy workers sick and dead approaches 100,000 costing American tax-payers over $10 billion dollars. http://www.dol.gov/owcp/energy/regs/compliance/weeklystats.htm

Can't happen in the U.S. you say, think again; Whistle-Blowers lives have been threatened and retired NRC chief investigator tells of a corrupted regulator. http://bestmatrrdangers.blogspot.com/

 

WAR ON CITIZENS BY GOVERNMENT AND ITS CONTRACTORS - SPYING AND INFILTRATING NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS-GOVERNMENT SUPPORTING CORPORATIONS, NOT OUR CONSTITUTION 

BEST/MATRR member computers have been hacked and their systems destroyed.
 

Holland: And have you found instances where they actually infiltrated these groups, where they posed as activists themselves to get on the inside?

Ruskin: We ...found that that was the most common form of espionage, where a company would hire an intelligence person, who would then either pose as a volunteer or as a journalist and then vacuum up a lot of information.

Holland: And you mention in the report that a lot of these companies had employed former NSA, CIA and other types of former intelligence officers.

After 9/11, we saw a huge expansion of our intelligence budgets and I think most people may not realize that a large share of that expansion wasn’t done through government agencies directly, but through outside security contractors.
http://billmoyers.com/2013/11/25/revealed-how-corporate-spooks-spy-on-nonprofit-activist-groups/

 

 

WIDOWS CREEK - Public Hearing-TVA Requests Closure of County Road 96-VIDEO-No Comprehensive Plan on TVA's Proposed Action

 

WIDOWS CREEK VIDEO - CR 96

The TVA has submitted a request to the Jackson County Commission to vacate a section of Jackson County Rd. 96 from the bridge over Widows Creek to 1/4 mile south west of Al. Hwy 277 intersection. TVA has purchased property north of CR 96; thus, TVA owns the property on both sides of CR96. There will be a public hearing at the Jackson County Courthouse in Scottsboro, Al. on Tuesday Dec. 10, 2013 at 5PM, courtroom 1.

 

What will become of the water lines? Will the bridge support up to 15,000 heavy trucks continuously?  Is TVA going to destroy the landscape to bury coal ash? What exactly is TVA's plan in this major action which they have not fully disclosed?

 

MAP of TVA's Proposed Action- VACATE CR 96

 

 

TVA'S REQUEST TO THE JACKSON COUNTY COMMISSION

 

TVA CR96 HOUSE DEMOLITION-

NEPA NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT???

There is a significant impact when considering the full project; TVA appears to be treating citizens like mushrooms, keeping them in the dark and feeding them crap.

 

MEDIA COVERAGE of TVA's PROPOSED ACTIONS TO SHUTDOWN WIDOWS CREEK

TVA directors voted today to shut down the newest unit at Widows Creek Fossil Plant in northeast Alabama, all five units at the Colbert plant in Northwest Alabama and units 1 and 2 at the Paradise plant in western Kentucky. http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/nov/14/tva-shifts-more-gas-less-goal/

 

Earlier, TVA said that about 170 would be cut at the Stevenson plant but later clarified that the exact number of cuts had not yet been determined. TVA has not yet announced the closure dates for the Colbert plant but the unit set for retirement at Widows Creek is planned for late 2014. http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/11/tva_to_cut_more_than_300_emplo.html

The retirement of Unit 8 is scheduled for late 2014. http://www.theclarion.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7150:widows-creeks-unit-8-added-to-closure-list&catid=42:clarion-rotation-stories&Itemid=142

TVA 2009 Environmental Assessment for Removal of Gypsum Products http://www.tva.gov/environment/reports/widows_creek/widows_creek_fea_.pdf

BURNING WOOD? Association of Tennessee Valley Governments: TVA is considering building natural gas-powered generators at its Allen Fossil Plant near Memphis. Colbert Fossil plant already has the ability to burn wood waste for powering some boilers, which could allow it to become a biomass-fueled plant. http://www.atvg.org/forms/news/dec10/NewWorkIdledPlants.pdf

WIDOWS CREEK STATS http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Widows_Creek_Fossil_Plant

WIDOWS CREEK & MESOTHELIOMA http://www.mesothelioma.com/asbestos-exposure/jobsites/power-plants/widows-creek-power-plant.htm

WIDOWS CREEK-The Smoke Stack Effect http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/smokestack/polluter/18453

WIDOWS CREEK TOXIC EMISSIONS-TVA: http://www.tva.com/environment/air/widcreek.htm

Jackson County Commission, Executive Session but No Agenda Published Before Budget Hearing - Afternoon Work Session

Jackson County Courthouse South Side

The Jackson County Commission held budget hearings on Monday December 2, 2013 at 11AM. Prior to the budget hearing there was an Executive Session; but, there was no agenda published.

At 3PM there was a work session; agenda and video below.

Budget concerns were discussed along with bank loan rates.

VIDEO SEGMENTS - Budget Hearing

                                     Work Session Agenda

Work Session Video