Daily Archives: February 28, 2015

Anti-fracking on the agenda Tuesday in Hamilton County, Florida

Chris Mericle reports an anti-fracking resolution is on the agenda for the the Hamilton County, Florida Board of Commissioners Tuesday 3 March 2015.

The agenda for the March 3rd Hamilton Co BOCC meeting is published in the Jasper News this week. Listed Item #6 reads:

RESOLUTION — SUPPORTING SB-166/HB-169-BILLS IN OPPOSITION TO FRACKING IN FLORIDA

The meeting starts at 9am, Room 112, Courthouse, 207 Northeast First Street, Jasper, FL 32052.

It is unclear whether Continue reading

Withlacoochee River sewage spills, Suwannee River Basin flooding study, and Valdosta’s funded plan to fix its problem

Someone referred to the mid-February Old Statenville Road spill in asking:

What’s happening in your watershed? This is the most recent of several sewage overflow issues I’ve been reading about.

Brief answer: this flooding issue is one of many reasons WWALS Watershed Coalition was formed; we’ve been on it since then; the City of Valdosta is being fixed the immediate problem; however there’s a much bigger problem throughout the entire Suwannee River Basin that the Army Corps of Engineers is studying.

Long answer: This has been going on for years, especially starting with the 700-year flood in 2009, which overflowed the City of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and backed up sewage out of manholes, in addition to rivers and streams running over roads and bridges; see this USGS two-pager on that.

Larry Hanson, Valdosta City Manager, presented to Continue reading