Tag Archives: air quality permit

Arglass GA-EPD air permit application for a second facility to produce glass containers 2023-07-17

The Arglass glass container manufacturing plant off of Rocky Ford Road southwest of Valdosta, Georgia, has filed an air quality permit application for a second furnace. This is the phase 2 that was in the plans since at least 2016.

Maps, Arglass air permit application 2023-07-17

What they want to do is more pithily summarized in a local variance Arglass already got from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) on June 6, 2023:

VAR-2023-13- All or part of Tax Map 0059-Parcel 094 and a part of Tax Map 0063- Parcel 012. A request from Arglass for a Variance to Table 4.01.02 (E) of the ULDC as it pertains to standards for building location. The subject property is located at 1 Arglass Road, Valdosta, Georgia in a M-2 (Heavy Manufacturing) zoning district.

In the minutes, Trinni Amiot explains for Lowndes County, “Arglass needs a second furnace. The only way for the bank lending officer, to support that is for it to be on its own parcel. What they’re suggesting is to create a second parcel, put the furnace on that with zero lot lines, and then it’ll meet the requirements of the lending company. What they’re suggesting is to create a second parcel, put the furnace on that with zero lot lines, and then it’ll meet the requirements of the lending company. It’s on M-2 surrounded by E-A. Those black lines are the current parcel lines. Now, those will be reconfigured. The expansion of the Arglass will more than double the footprint of the existing facility and includes the second furnace. The lending agent requires that the furnace is on the side of the parcel. To maintain efficient operations, the new expansion must be connected to the existing facility and the variance request is for zero lot lines between the two tra[cts].”

There was apparently a map of the proposed new plant area in the ZBOA packet, which I have requested from Lowndes County.

Lowndes County parcel 0059-094 is the current site of the plant in 80.93 acres owned by the Valdosta-Lowndes Industrial Authority. Parcel 0063-012 is the much larger parcel owned by LANGDALE CAPITAL ASSETS INC from which the plant parcel was split out in 2016. Continue reading →

Spectrum Energy wood pellet plant a health hazard far beyond Adel –WWALS to GA-EPD 2022-05-02

Here is the WWALS comment letter to GA-EPD about the second wood pellet plant permit application for Adel, Georgia.

Both pages

The Letter

Comment period to GA-EPD about second Adel wood pellet plant 2022-04-01

Please send comments to GA-EPD by May 2, 2022, about the proposed air quality permit for the second Adel wood pellet mill, Spectrum Energy Georgia, LLC, 801 Cook St, Adel, 31620, Application No: 28143. WWALS will be sending in comments, to:

epdcomments@dnr.ga.gov (include “Air permit application” in the subject line)
Or postal mail to:
Air Permit Manager, 4244 International Parkway, Suite 120, Atlanta, Georgia 30354.

Cook Street is marked by the red ellipse in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Remember, this plant would draw wood from as far away as Tallahassee and the Okefenokee Swamp, on top of the wood used by the other Adel pellet plant and the one in Waycross. More clearcutting still means more runoff, more contaminants in the waterways, and more flooding. Continue reading →

Please deny second Adel wood pellet plant –WWALS to GA-EPD 2021-11-19

Let one pellet plant in, and another follows. WWALS asked GA-EPD to stop that second one in Adel, Georgia, on the divide between the Little and Withlacoochee River Basins, between Morrison Creek of the Little River and Bear Creek of the Withlacoochee River. Any contaminant spills could end up in one or the other. Deforestation could affect water flows and increase flooding.

Tree cutting radius, plant location, letter

WWALS Public Comments on Air Permit Application No. 28143 for Spectrum Energy Georgia, LLC

See also the PDF, and the permit application. Continue reading →

Permit application, pellet mill, Spectrum Energy Georgia, Adel, GA 2021-10-22

Eric Cornwell of GA-EPD says “they have yet to submit the toxic impact assessment modeling demonstration. If you are familiar with Adel, the proposed plant site is the former SierraPine engineered wood plant (I think that old plant used to make particleboard or MDF )”. Thanks to Eric for a speedy response to my open records request about this wood pellet plant proposed by Spectrum Energy Georgia LLC on a site owned by Green Tree Biomass LLC.

Location, Title, Boundary, Plan

The permit application files are on the WWALS website:
https://wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-22–spectrum-energy-pellet-plant-adel

Why would WWALS, a water organization be concerned about an air quality permit application? Well, this plant sits on the divide between the Little and Withlacoochee River Basins, between Morrison Creek of the Little River and Bear Creek of the Withlacoochee River. Any contaminant spills could end up in one or the other. Continue reading →

Biomass plant air quality permit application, Adel, Cook County, GA 2021-10-20

Not the same company or location as Renewable Biomass: another proposed pellet plant in Cook County, Georgia.

In yesterday’s routine weekly GA-EPD public advisory of air quality permit applications were two in the Suwannee River Basin: one probably a good idea, the other not so good.

The OK one is by Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) of Clyattville for “Replacement of the tall oil reactor.” Proactive maintenance sounds like a good idea.

The bad one is an application for “The construction and operation of a new pellet mill.” The advisory doesn’t say what kind of pellet mill, but the application is by “Spectrum Energy Georgia, LLC”, so it sure sounds like another wood pellet plant for export to Europe to burn south Georgia trees.

I have sent GA-EPD a request for the complete permit application.

Green Tree Biomass LLC

The address given in the advisory for the pellet plant is “801 Cook Street, Adel, 31620”. The Cook County Tax Assessors map doesn’t know that address, but the only thing located on Cook Street is four parcels owned by Green Tree Biomass LLC.

The Georgia Secretary of State does not list Continue reading →

Wood pellet plant: speakers and documents @ Adel City Council 2020-09-08

Update 2020-09-11: fixed document and map links and added form for comments.

The Adel City Council had no questions after their Public Hearing on annexation and rezoning for a wood pellet plant, Tuesday, September 9, 2020, after thirty minutes of speakers for and against.

That was just the first reading. The second reading will be 5:30 PM, Monday, September 21, 2020, at Adel City Hall.

Maps and speakers, wood pellet plant, Adel City Council 2020-09-08

After the meeting I asked the City Manager, the City Clerk, and a couple of City Council members what maps and plans they had looked at. They all said they hadn’t seen any, and maybe I should talk to Economic Development. So I asked her, and she didn’t seem to indicate she’d seen any.

Yet there are maps and plans in the air permit application to GA-EPD, and others reviewed by the Planning Commission, which, as the City Manager pointed out during the meeting, issued a Public Notice of its public hearing on July 6, 2020. I don’t know why these state and county agencies have not published these documents, nor why the City of Adel has not. But those are public documents, so here they are (see Air Quality Permit maps and Planning Commission maps).

Below are videos by Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE) of the pellet plant part of the Adel City Council meeting. See also the agenda and the WWALS letter to the Adel City Council. See also some helpful documents by the Dogwood Alliance

And this handy Dogwood Alliance form to send a comment to the Adel City Counci l.

By the way, this kind of work does take time and effort, so feel free to contribute to WWALS. . Continue reading →

Stop the Sinkhole Trail Pipeline tonight in Albany, GA: Public Hearing, Sabal Trail Compressor Air Quality Permit, GA-EPD 2015-11-05

FERC requires state permits, including an air quality permit from GA-EPD: no permit, no pipeline. You can help stop Spectra Energy’s the Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail pipeline 6:30 PM tonight, 5 November 2015 at Albany Technical College, Kirkland Conference Center, 1704 S. Slappey Boulevard, Albany, GA 31701. There will be a press conference by the opposition about 5:45.

Gretchen Quarterman, WWALS Watershed Coalition and Gordon Rogers, Flint Riverkeeper, last night with the banner he had made for the occasion.

Here are Press release and other details.

You can oppose this unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipeline in many other ways, including supporting WWALS opposition to an FDEP permit to drill under the Suwannee River in Florida.

-jsq

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Albany Public Hearing, Sabal Trail Compressor Air Quality Permit –GA-EPD 2015-11-05

At Albany Technical College, 6:30 PM 5 November 2015. Here’s the GA-EPD Press Release, with links to the Public Notice, a Narrative, and the Draft Air Quality Permit. Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.