Developing Stories--Conecuh County Landfill and BP Contract $$ to Senator Trip Pittman

"No Opposition"?

Conecuh County, Town of Repton--The controversial mega landfill planned for Conecuh County saga is heating up again with the owners of the landfill (Conecuh Woods, LLC) filing for a dismissal of the case citing there is "no opposition" to the landfill.

March 11, 2011:

With more than 400 people seated in the auditorium and hundreds more in line at the start of the hearing, five county commissioners listened as Stone and his attorney took about 30 minutes to defend the Conecuh Woods LLC project that would be built on a 5,100-acre tract.

During several hours of the hearing, with people allotted five minutes to speak, six supported the landfill, while hundreds opposed it.

A hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday, September 21 @ 11:00 am in the Conecuh County Courthouse.

Opposition to the landfill is fierce and lawsuits have been filed to stop the project. "No opposition" is a non-starter of an argument, but that never stopped crafty lawyers from obfuscating the reality of an issue with propaganda before. It will be interesting to see how the court rules in the motion to dismiss.

The "Republican tractor" Senator Pittman

Baldwin County, Alabama--According to a report in today's Baldwin County Now, Grand Jury subpoenas have been served on Fairhope Mayor Tim Kant, City Administrator Greg Mims, Purchasing Manger Dan Ames and Information Technology Director Jason Colee "in that probe of the $635,000 contract to Pittman Trucking Company of Daphne in 2010" for post BP spill cleanup services.

Senator Pittman defended himself by feigning ignorance because he had not yet had the ethics training mandated by the state when the 'sweeping ethics reform package" was passed by the Alabama legislature in December 2010.

The Pittman Trucking Co. is owned by Senator Trip Pittman-R and Bob James of the Baldwin County Commission. Former Alabama Governor Bob Riley put Senator Pittman in charge (along with Rep. Steve McMillan-R) of $1.2 million dollars allotted to Baldwin County from BP to administer at his discretion:

The issue has grown out of Pittman Tractor Co. winning a bid from Fairhope to provide booms around the city and the Grand Hotel in the wake of the oil disaster. Citizen activists have filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission saying Pittman’s company should never have even bid for the job, much less received it, because not only is he a state senator, but he also had been chosen by Gov. Bob Riley to help oversee BP funds coming into Baldwin County.

The Alabama Ethics Commission answered the complaints by refusing to investigate Pittman and James. Have the feds finally taken notice of the huge impropriety of the senator's (and the former governor's) actions?

More on the back-story here
*Updated Monday PM--David Ferrara Mobile Press Register story on Pittman inquiry

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Why Colonial Pipeline "isn't concerned with the effects" of WRQs quarry

Because their history is one of not being concerned......

Colonial Pipeline Company Civil Settlement
Seven Oil Spills Forming Basis of Penalty

Overview: On April 1, 2003, the United States announced a settlement with Colonial Pipeline Company resolving violations of the Clean Water Act arising from spills from the company’s pipeline in several states.

Under the consent decree, Colonial will upgrade environmental protection on the pipeline at an estimated cost of at least $30 million, and pay $34 million, the largest civil penalty a company has paid in EPA history.

The United States filed a complaint on Nov. 28, 2000, in the Northern District of Georgia. The Clean Water Act authorizes penalties up to $1,100 per barrel discharged, and up to $3,300 per barrel discharged for violations that are the result of gross negligence.
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/cases/civil/cwa/colonialfs.pdf

The EPA document regarding the history of this company, belies the intent of the Colonial Pipeline Company letter to White Rock Quarries that "they are not concerned with the nearby quarry's effects on their pipelines."

NTSB PDF file on South Carolina 1996 rupture in the Reedy River :

http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/1998/PAR9801.pdf 

Read the Conclusions section to learn how often and habitually this company has operated in a negligent manner. There is no precedent for us to believe anything in the letter from Colonial Pipeline presented to our Council.

An interesting question is why did Plantation Pipeline not respond to queries from WRQ and their representatives regarding their own concern for their line from the effects of the WRQ quarry?

WRQ Geologist, Robert Wood, "answered for them" in his March 2010 Memorandum to the Vincent Planning Commission; in his clients' interest of course.

Environmental Group Places Coosa River Among Nation's Endangered, June 2010

#10 Coosa River Alabama

 Threat: Hydropower dams

 The Coosa River is a cultural icon of the South and home to an astounding variety of rare and unique fish, snails, and mussels. The construction of seven large hydropower dams in the mid 1900’s turned the river into a series of reservoirs and caused the largest mass extinction of aquatic species in U.S. history.

But there is still an opportunity to save some of the Coosa’s remaining natural heritage for future generations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must insist on strong protections for the river’s endangered wildlife in the license that will allow Alabama Power to operate these dams for the next 50 years. The Coosa will serve as a test as to whether federal agencies are committed to environmentally sustainable hydropower operations.

PDF file link:

AmericanRivers2010MostEndangeredRivers

Contact Information:

American Rivers: Matt Rice,

(803) 771-7206,

mrice@americanrivers.org

Alabama Rivers Alliance:

Mitch Reid, (205) 322-6395

mreid@alabamarivers.org

World Wildlife Fund: Judy Takats

(615) 279-1814,

judy.takats@wwfus.org

**Thanks to the June 2, 2010 edition of the Birmingham News for publishing this. 

“The threats facing this year’s rivers are more pressing than ever, from gas drilling that could pollute the drinking water of millions of people, to the construction of costly and unnecessary new dams, to outdated flood management that threatens public safety,” said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers.

Rivers are chosen based on several factors, including a pending major decision on proposed action, the significance of the threat to communities and the degree the proposed action would exacerbate or alleviate stresses, said the release:

 Coosa named on endangered river list - Birmingham Business Journal

We would like to add quarries, pipelines, waste water treatment plants and heavy industry in Shelby County to the list of threats to the Coosa.

Shelby County is in NON COMPLIANCE STATUS on their SWM (Storm Water Management, link to the right) by EPA federal audit 2009. This has NOT BEEN RESOLVED YET according to Senior Enforcement Officer, EPA Region 4, Chris Plymale.

That should trigger an automatic moratorium on all new permits until it is remedied.

The county performs their "model of cost effective Storm Water Management" as quoted by Stephen Bradley (WRQ PR Rep) on an "annual budget of 45,000 and two part-time employees." The population of the county is over 175,000 and their are 167 heavy industries in Shelby County.

(This from BARD, who gutted the Jefferson County SWMA now also under federal scrutiny)

There are five quarries in the county, numerous cement, asphalt, lime production, building materials, etc. industries in this county. All of them have numerous violations according to the ADEM files, and some of these violations occur under storm flooding conditions. From those sites they make it into the Coosa River, it's tributaries (Buxahatchee Creek has been hit extremely hard) and into our ground water.

Our drinking water.

But let's go ahead and force a massive quarry on the residents of Vincent, less than a mile from this river. Let's give them a SWM permit (even though we cannot handle what we have) and allow more pollutants into the Coosa. While we are at it, allow the quarry to establish parameters and access to their monitoring wells.

This is not at all a "fine idea for Alabamians." 

This river cannot endure another massive assault, Governor Riley.

Neither can Vincent, lest we forget the Alabama Plating Company Superfund cleanup.

CNN News - Oil reaches Alabama beach - BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill.

Accompanying stories:

BaldwinCountyNow.com 

MississippiPressAL.Com 

From NewsBank archives, Birmingham News:
 July 31, 2006
Gulf Drilling Vote Imminent

Excerpts from article
With potentially several hundred million dollars at stake over several years, Alabama's congressional delegation, at the urging of Governor Bob Riley, has unanimously endorsed more drilling.

But there are many facets in the debate.. Some opponents question the environmental impact.

For now, Riley's office has not announced a preference, but his spokesman said the House bill would have more long term benefits to the Alabama Trust Fund, where oil and gas revenues are stashed.

"Either bill is more beneficial than the status quo." said Riley's spokesman Jeff Emerson. With fewer restrictions on where to drill, the House bill could open up waters closer to Baldwin County, but Emerson said the Governor has pledged to maintain a 15-mile buffer so the rigs are not visible from the beaches of Baldwin County. The Senate bill provides a 100-mile buffer.

Emerson said depending on the final law, Riley would consider using the new revenue on environmental restoration on the coast or hurricane evacuation routes.
end story

Another "fine idea for Alabamians" from our Governor.

Sounds to us like he would need all the money available for the environmental restoration on such a risky project, lest we forget the rig that washed into Mobile Bay a few years ago and dropped major toxins. Hurricane Katrina ripped the rig of it's moorings. Had it not been so close in.....

June 2, 2010
"The oil is going to come ashore," Riley said. "There's nothing between the oil and Dauphin Island."
But still, he has not approved the project......
RileyCGReviewHoldingUpSkimmingInMoblieBay