PLACE Forum

UPDATE:

ADDITIONAL EVENT
TODAY, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, 9:00 AM — LEE-RUSSELL COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS (LRCOG) www.lrcog.com
Held in the LRCOG conference room, 2207 Gateway Drive, Opelika. Open to the public.  Ph: 334-749-5264
Agenda: LRCOG regular board meeting.
Board members:  Mayor H.S. “Sonny” Coulter/City of Phenix City; Commissioner Mervin Dudley/Russell County Commission; Probate Judge Bill English/Lee County Commission; Mayor Gary Fuller/City of Opelika; Councilman Larry Gray/City of Opelika; Mayor Bill Ham, Jr./ City of Auburn; Commissioner Johnny Lawrence/Lee County Commission; Commissioner Peggy Martin/Russell County Commission; Councilman Max E. Wilkes/City of Phenix City; Councilman Tom Worden/City of Auburn.

ADDITIONAL AGENDA DETAILS
THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 6:30 PM – SAVE OUR SAUGAHATCHEE (SOS)
Held in AU’s Comer Hall, 2nd floor, auditorium. Open to all.
Agenda: 6:30 – social / 7:30 – Eric Reutebuch will present an update on SWaMP.
Additional agenda item: Discussion of next Monday’s very important ADEM Triennial Review of Alabama’s Water Quality Standards (see details below, June 29). This review was one of the steps taken to improve the Use Criteria for the Saugahatchee when SOS first began in 1997.  Please consider attending the SOS meeting and the ADEM meeting to hear more.

ADDITIONAL EVENT
ORGANIC LOCAL BLUEBERRIES FOR SALE/ PROCEEDS BENEFIT HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 7:00 – 9:00 AM and SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 8:00 – 10:00 AM
Held at the parking lot of Walgreens, Magnolia Ave at Dean Road, Auburn.
Organic local blueberries for sale again this year by the WeHelp Coalition, with a donation on each quart going to Habitat for Humanity. The sale dates originally planned for June 19 and 20 were rescheduled for this Friday and Saturday. And as local blueberry harvests come in, they will also be sold from 7 to 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the same location. More info: Mike Kosolapoff 334-821-4859.

ADDITIONAL EVENT
FRIDAY, JUNE 26 – SUNDAY, JUNE 28 —- AU THEATRE:  STILL LIFE WITH IRIS
Held at AU’s Telfair Peet Theatre.  Tickets: Call 334-844-4154 or order online www.auburnuniversitytheatre.org.
Performances:  Friday 7:00 pm; Saturday 2:30 & 7:00 pm;  Sunday 2:30 pm.
This play is suitable for children aged 8 and up.
Join young Iris as she journeys from the joyous world of Nocturno to picture-perfect Great Island, where she discovers Mozart and Annabel Lee but loses her family, only to embark on many adventures in her quest to return home. Steven Dietz’s play stars adventurous children, kind-hearted adults, unhappy discards, and people blinded by their obsession with perfection. In a world in which self-interested adults are frequently encouraged to turn a blind eye to cruelty, Iris and her young cohorts show the value of compassion, adventure, family, and friendship.

ADDITIONAL UPCOMING EVENT —     MONDAY, JUNE 29, 10:00 AM — PUBLIC HEARING / TRIENNIAL REVIEW OF ALABAMA’S WATER QUALITY STANDARDS Held at the Public Hearing Room,  ADEM, 1400 Coliseum Blvd., Montgomery. Open to all.
Take the day off, grab a buddy and carpool to Montgomery for ADEM’s triennial review of the water quality and permitting for Alabama.  The triennial review happens only once every three years.
NOTE: This triennial review is one of the steps taken to improve the Use Criteria for the Saugahatchee when Save Our Saugahatchee/SOS first began in 1997.
Call to Action:  The Alabama Rivers Alliance (ARA, www.alabamarivers.org) and other concerned groups encourage you to speak at the hearing, and to write and submit individual comments.  You are also encouraged to sign on and support ARA’s comments.  The Alabama Rivers Alliance will be sending out our public comments later this week.  Further questions may be directed to Mitch Reid, the ARA Program Coordinator, at mreid@alabamarivers.org.

ADDITIONAL EVENT
THROUGH JULY 18  – ALABAMA WATERWAYS PHOTO EXHIBIT
Held at the new Lite Box Gallery at Pepper Place, 2825 2nd Ave South, Birmingham.
Gallery hours: Thursday and Friday, 12:00 – 5:00 pm,  Saturday 8:00 am – noon (Sat.hours coincide with the Farmers’ Market)
Info and photos from the exhibit online at: www.alabamarivers.org/alabama-waterways-photo-exhibit
Alabama Waterways – A Photographic Exhibit was designed to aid the Alabama Rivers Alliance in its mission to protect and restore Alabama waterways.
A local note:  Among the ten photographers showcased in this exhibit is Alabama Water Watch student employee Hunter Nichols (hunterious@yahoo.com). View his photography and videography at http://www.alabamarivers.org/alabama-waterways-photo-exhibit/hunter-nichols and  http://hunternichols.tripod.com/.

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Info courtesy of CONSERVATION ALABAMA FOUNDATION www.conservationalabamafoundation.org

Coal ash sparks debate / Alabama’s municipal solid waste landfills
Recently, the Conservation Alabama Foundation completed a study of Alabama’s municipal solid waste landfills and found that:
• Currently, there is more than 51,000 tons per day capacity at Alabama’s municipal landfills. Of that 51,000 tons, more than 24,000 tons per day are permitted to flow from out-of-state;

• Alabamians produced more than 12,600 tons per day of trash in 2007; and
• Therefore, there is more than four times the capacity at Alabama landfills than what Alabamians produce or need.

Alabama’s landfill permitting practices have made us a mecca for out-of-state waste, such as the 3.9 million tons of toxic coal ash slated to be transported 300 miles from TVA’s Kingston, Tenn. December spill to a landfill in impoverished Perry County.
Alabama does not need to expand existing landfills or permit new ones until the state’s permitting practices are reviewed and revised.
See the rest of CAF’s summary at http://www.conservationalabamafoundation.org/index.asp?Type=B_PR&SEC={168F6B8F-1C8F-49A5-944A-D07F61594308}&DE={D19A8D1B-8860-4A44-8068-EB0BCD3C01D9}.

Energy bills carry the day
In late May we learned that Governor Bob Riley signed Conservation Alabama-endorsed energy legislation into law. Collectively, the laws will:
• Allow for a state “green fleet” by creating a committee to oversee a program of procuring state motor vehicles that are energy efficient and reduce carbon emissions;
• Eliminate certain regulations on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of ethyl alcohol when used as an alternative fuel for motor vehicles;

• Provide for the procurement of state property using life cycle costing as part of the procedure; and,
• Provide for the use of life cycle costing in the procurement of state motor vehicles.

You can see all the bills that Conservation Alabama followed this session through our Conservation Hot List year-in-review on our website. http://www.conservationalabama.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={1A19EA3D-F17E-42A3-8015-AF4BC7453D2E}

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Thanks for your interest and support.

PLACE Forum
Email: placeforum@gmail.com
Web: http://placeforum.org/blog/
June 24, 2009

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