The chocolate chip cookies they provided at the meeting were very good but you had to hide them if you wanted to bring them in. That was the highlight of the meeting yesterday in Homestead. The hour and half in traffic to get there was SOOO not worth it. The icing on the cupcake:
WE are going to pay the $50 Million for fixes for FPL's Cooling Canal fiasco that is increasing salt water intrusion to our drinking water. Yes we will be shelling out the bucks for their stupid strategy!
Mike Sole droned on and on for an hour as the apologist for FPL and he got light ball questions from the panel. It was such a colossal waste of time.
The Miami Herald wrote an article. Read it.
I took Photos, Gimleteye left early.
 |
| The combined panel of State Senators and Representatives |
 |
| Apologist Mike Sol from FPL also on the Board of Directors of the Everglades Foundation (former head of DEP) |
From Jenny Staletovich of the Miami Herald:
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, who asked for the county report that revealed the radioactive tracer tritium in the bay, said the canals were “poorly conceived” when they were created in the 1970s, should be abandoned for more modern technology. Cava pointed out that canal conditions worsened after nuclear reactors were uprated to increase power output. While tritium has been detected at levels well below health standards, its presence indicates the canals also are likely leaking water tainted by high levels of ammonia and other contaminants into the bay.
The uprating project was only supposed to increase water temperatures by about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit but canal temperatures following the expansion spiked, forcing the reactors to twice power down as they approached operating limits.
University of Miami hydrologist David Chin, in a report to the county, concluded the increased power caused the problems. But FPL blamed a regional drought, along with algae and sediment collecting in the canals after they were briefly shut down during the expansion.
“The plant needs to be modernized,” Cava told lawmakers, pointing to more modern reactors which rely on cooling towers. “The technology is not revolutionary. It’s already been adopted. It’s not even cutting-edge technology.” Cava also took state environmental regulators to task for not acting faster.
Me: The DEP said they issued a violation not just a warning letter to FPL.
 |
| County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava |
 |
| Engineer Ed Swakon (a former Division Chief at DERM) and Rock Miner Steve Toricse |
 |
| What everyone was doing except those listening |
 |
| DEP Speaker Paula Cobb |
|
 |
| Rep Rene Garcia asking a softball question. |
 |
| Mayors Cindy Lerner (Pinecrest) and Philip Stoddard (South Miami) taking notes. |
 |
| Lee Hefty of Derm Speaking |
 |
| State Rep. Katy Edwards doesn't look happy to be back in Homestead. |
 |
| Not only couldn't you bring cookies and water into the meeting, you couldn't bring solar panels. Jonathan Ullman of Sierra Club tried. |
This is so typical (from the Miami Herald):
But when asked by Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, if the state had ignored an administrative law judge in February,
DEP deputy secretary Paula Cobb complained that the judge overstepped his authority.
"The department did not sidestep the findings of the administrative law judge," she said. "The administrative law judge tried to dictate the exact actions…and honestly I need every tool I can get."
34 comments:
Katie Edwards never looks happy. (Unless she has you in her cross-hairs, literally and figuratively).
The cookies rocked!
Just so you know the FPL vice president of plants allowed his staff (did he go too?) go home before the public comments.
Maybe that is what is wrong with the corporation; they don't listen the to public or even pretend to have an interest in hearing the public concerns.
Oh yah, I forgot, the public is full of uneducated people who don't understand science. Silly us! Thank goodness we have FPL spin makers and our elected state officials to keep us from drowning in our own misconceptions and stupidity!
The chocolate chip cookies were quite good. I'll give them that.
Who paid for the chocolate chip cookies? That is the big question. BTW, men were allowed to stand in the back of the room. Women were not. They had to wait outside for a seat to be found for them.
Thanks for attending and reporting. Glad I did not expand my carbon footprint by going all the way to Hudstead to hear lame responses to existential concerns.
I know, at first they made us line up on time-out outside. Then, they decided we could go in and stand. When I went in, I stood near a male friend who offered me his seat. I declined, but decided to sit on the floor next to the wall so I could hear (those graphics were hard to see anyhow).
Another state staffer, an older man, got up and came over and said his mama would be disappointed if he didn't offer me his seat. I declined, but I should have gotten his name. He was elegant!
Poor Lee Hefty! I bet he has seen that look on Katie's face more than once!
Big celebratory event afterwards at the Capri last night by the politicos. Hope they drank the water.
Some elected officials kept asking "is the salt water plum affecting anyone's drinking water today" and FPL, FDEP said no. DERM said yes for some people with wells now need to be serviced with county water. The fact is they admit the plum is moving 600' a year towards our drinking water supply 2 miles away. Do the math and in a few years it will contaminate our drinking water. The fact that the public will have to pay for the remediation, not FPL is sickening.
It is the melting of chocolate chips in the cooling canals causing the Bosco effect. It isn't salt marching westward it is that thick ozzing chocolate syrup that intruding on our water supply.
What they did say is that it was accelerating, so what if the rate goes faster than 600ft/year? Then we have move faster on the fixes.
They really glossed over the drought causing the ground water to retreat further inland allowing the salt plume to advance. I got the feeling that they were going to put a hose in the nearest canal, wet the ground and call it a wetland that would take care of the simple issue of retreating ground water. How much surface water do we need to prevent the plume from moving inland? Is the plume so deep that it doesn't matter that there are wetlands ahead of it?
so now i know why my water is brown. they should line the canals with light reflecting materials and capture the energy for power.
Why does Garcia have his finger up his nose? Is he trying to make a point or register his disdain for the group?
Anitere Flores and the corrupt right-wing legislature are the reason we have to pay $50 million to clean up the pollution from FPL! We need to beat these crooked republicans!
Clueless in the Florida HOUSE AND SENATE
It is not important if the salt has reached houses or well fields yet. This was supposed to be a closed system. The spread of tritium proves it is not. What is Tritium doing in Biscayne Bay from a closed system? Use your empty heads once in a while.
So why doesn't the FL Legislature demand that FPL's shareholders pay for the fix and cleanup? They should penalize FPL and its shareholders by lowering FPL's return on equity to compensate for the dollar cost of the fix.
I don't see any City of Homestead officials in the room. Did any decide to show up considering this is their front porch and backyard?!
Yes, Elvis Maldanado and Jon Burgess where in the audience. Neither one spoke, but they are worried. One of them wonders if their problems in the rock pit for salt water intrusion might have been enhanced by the FPL problem.
Not to be nitpicky, but Ed Swakon was never the head of DERM. He was a Division Chief that oversaw coastal and freshwater permitting and compliance.
Thanks for the correction.
Did anyone ask the obvious question "What else is in the cooling canal water?" The salinization of the Biscayne Aquifer is a serious issue. The discharge of ammonia and phosphorus into Biscayne Bay are serious issues. But what other pollutants are present in the cooling canals and what else might be contaminating our groundwater and the Bay? No one seems to be talking about this. Paula Cobb, do you or anyone at FDEP have any idea what you are actually dealing with?
Ullman of Sierra Club brings panels to meeting...,bet ya he has no panels on his own home. Useless gesture.
Sort of typical, if more people put up panels it would be harder for FPL to say they don't work in South Florida. But how many of these activists actually put up panels...I bet not many. Why should FPL put up panels if ratepayer who can afford it who would realize a 2/3 long term reduction on power costs via solar over 30 years...don't make the investment?
Plus with Tesla Wall the panels can double as a back up hurricane generator with unlimited fuel.
As long as the myth of FPL making "mistakes" is repeated we will pay the price. All of their actions are deliberate and done to keep paying investors top dollar on their investment and FPL's stock price up. We all become their best lobbyists by repeating the "mistake" phrase so they have the perfect reason to now have FPL customers pay for the remedy. FPL engineers and other professional staff are very smart and the intrusion of either salt or tritium into our drinking water is not a "mistake". Now that thev've been caught the obvious decision to make them foot the bill for their own damage should be a no brainer. But instead, a meeting is held to let them do more spinning of their lies, and everyone uses the term "mistake". I guess their professional staff are so highly paid they don't care if they are being portrayed as inept idiots.
FPL had their entire staff at the meeting. There were too many suits and well heeled women to be "the public."
Tesla discontinued its large power wall
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/225692-tesla-kills-off-its-10-kwh-powerwall-the-chemistry-wasnt-there
Great to see someone show up with the solar panels. They are a symbol of FPL's failure. FPL should be paying al of us to out solar panels on our roofs and creating safe energy for the community. Imagine if the $50 million a year they want taxpayers to pay to fix this disaster went to pay to install solar panels on our houses! South miami mayor Phil Stoddard calls FOL out in his letter:
More lies and distortion from FPL chief executive Eric Silagy who falsely stated that residential rooftop solar is expensive, and poor customers subsidize rich ones who own solar panels according to the April 29 article, Is it a lab or a parking lot? FPL, FIU partner on new solar project.
The solar array on my family’s roof cost us $1.58 per watt after the federal tax credit, while the solar parking canopy system that FPL built at FIU cost FPL customers $3.35 per watt.
At more than twice the price, how is utility solar a better deal for customers than residential rooftop solar?
Further, our rooftop solar system is actually subsidizing poor customers. How? Our west-facing roof exposure pushes extra power onto the grid during peak load time, which saves FPL customers the extra cost of buying power from peaker generators while cutting carbon emissions at the same time.
FPL is down with solar power, provided they own it and you don’t. If you want a better deal on solar than FPL is offering, check out tinyURL.com/SouthMiamiSolar2016
PHILIP K. STODDARD, MAYOR, SOUTH MIAMI
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article74791767.html#storylink=cpy
FPL should pay us to put up solar panels. Great to see someone show up FPL for their failure to embrace solar energy in an affordable way. The $50 million a year should be used to subsidize solar panel installations at all schools and public facilities to begin with. Btw that obsolete nuclear plant needs to be shut down.
Tesla link tells a different story:
In the days leading up to its introduction of the Tesla Model 3, the company is discontinuing its 10-kilowatt-hour Powerwall backup power system. The smaller 6.4-kWh Tesla Powerwall remains in the product line. Tesla said the 6.4-kWh Powerwall can take the place of its larger sibling and it generated more customer interest.
The two Powerwalls are both lithium-ion, but they use different chemistries. The larger Powerwall was intended for protection during power failures, uses nickel-cobalt chemistry, and is good for about 500 cycles. The smaller Powerwall is intended for solar power time-shifting, uses nickel-manganese, and can be cycled 5,000 times.
This WHOLE thing makes me sick: the lies, the corruption, the conscience-less human beings(?), the paid off politicians and shills. They will make us all sick or dead and they will not care one iota. At least they can "drive 8 hours" and get the hell out of here!
Just shut the whole thing down NOW!
Put in 4 cooling towers and 2 new reactors. Fill the canals with limestone. We all need electricity.
All this harm to theTurkey Point Wetland just to produce a small
percentage of FPL's energy at tremendous profit. Corporate audacity and
intrancegance holding Floida as an energy hostage. If this is the best FPL can do
The State should find other energy suppliers. FPL should be investigated
under the RICO laws. Collusion, corruption, influence peddling, economic
strong arming, obfuscation, double dealing. false fronts. Really nice folks.
Waiting for NRC ASLB decision by mid-June on CASE's petition.
From Singapore.
Barry J White, President
Citizens Alied for Safe Energy, Inc.
Miami
Can you please pay attention to your friends in NMB?
The city hired the Durectir of utilities, who was inserted by an engineering firm.
The engineering firm is providing staff to the city now and is doing millions of dollars of consulting work.
Now the new director convinced the city officials to privatize the Utilities Department to help his consultant friends at that firm (Mark my words).
The consultants are heavenly intertaining the director and his wife with lavish dinner parties
Are the mayor and council members really aware of what is going on?
Is the city manager aware of this?
Please look into these and expose the truth.
Just wondering if any of our U.S. Congress candidates were there, Joe Garcia or Annette Taddeo.
All you hear about is tritium and salt. Tritium is radioactive water that is extremely dangerous. It gets into your body just like a water molecule, only radioactive. It gets in your cells and DNA.
What about all of the rest of the radioactive isotopes that a nuclear power plant creates? What about the plutonium, cesium, strontium, uranium, the list goes on and on. Is anyone testing for any of them? I guanantee that they are not being tested for, not by FPL, DERM, FDEP or NRC. NO ONE HAS SAID A WORD ABOUT THEM! ITS ONLY SALT AND TRITIUM they talk about.
Tritium is a tracer. If tritium is there you must test for more. If you don't test for more you won't find it.
BTW, the whole area should have monitors for radioactive elements of the water, land and air. THEY SHOULD NOT BE UNDER THE CONTROL OF FPL! Ideally, the monitors should be controlled and reviewed by INDEPENDENT THIRD PARTIES.
I have never had so much distrust and hate for FPL!
Post a Comment