Valdosta indeed didn’t have the worst water treatment violations in Lowndes County, Georgia, but it was worse than any nearby city in Georgia or Florida (and Lowndes County was worse than any nearby county). Once again, the Valdosta Daily Times said (twice) that Valdosta “is now in full compliance”. This is about drinking water treatment; sewage is another story. But in both cases, if Valdosta doesn’t want the local newspaper to treat the city as the villain of the piece, maybe it should stop reacting like one.

The above screenshot from Threats on Tap: Widespread Violations Highlight Need for Investment in Water Infrastructure and Protections shows Georgia has been pretty bad, but Florida was much worse.

Let’s look at the area around Valdosta.

That map says “VALDOSTA” in big letters, but we’ve >already seen that most of the violations in Lowndes County were from subdivision water treatment systems, not from the city of Valdosta.

Yet let’s look in more detail. I’ve summarized the map information for several counties in tables. As is pretty obvious from the map, the tables also show no other county in the Suwannee River Basin had as many violations as Lowndes, and no other city had as many as Valdosta.

Lowndes County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
VALDOSTA	GA1850002	51,691	5	2	DBP; Coliform
PINERIDGE SUBDIVISION	GA1850025	208	6	1	DBP
GREENBRIAR ESTATES	GA1850055	81	2	1	Coliform
LOWNDES CO.- ALAPAHA PLANTATION S/D	GA1850274	213	16	1	DBP
LOWNDES CO.- SPRING CREEK S/D	GA1850297	2,306	4	1	DBP
Lowndes County	Total	54499	33	2	DBP; Coliform

Brooks County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
QUITMAN	GA0270002	4,942	1	1	Colifors
Brooks County	Total	4942	1	1	Colifors

Berrien County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
NASHVILLE	GA0190002	4,896	1	1	Coliform
Berrien County	Total	4896	1	1	Coliform

Atkinson County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
WILLACOOCHEE	GA0030001	1,940	1	1	Coliform
Atkinson County	Total	1940	1	1	Coliform

Columbia County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
LAKE CITY WTP	FL2120630	17,775	1	1	Coliform
FORT WHITE, TOWN OF	FL2124399	750	2	1	DBP
Columbia County	Total	18525	3	2	Coliform; DBP

Gilchrist County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
LANCASTER CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE	FL2210647	1,175	1	1	Coliform
Gilchrist County	Total	1175	1	1	Coliform

Let’s look farther afield in Georgia. Grady County has an arsenic problem. Yet it and the city of Cairo had fewer violations than Lowndes County and Valdosta, and ditto for Chatham County and Savannah (which had none), and Liberty County.

Grady County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
CAIRO	GA1310000	9,703	3	1	Arsenic
HILLSIDE PARK	GA1310022	309	3	1	Arsenic
Grady County	Total	10012	6	1	Arsenic

Chatham County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
POOLER	GA0510001	21,187	1	1	Coliform
BELLAIRE VILLAGE SUBDIVISION	GA0510114	57	1	1	Coliform
CROSBY MOBILE ESTATES II	GA0510223	65	1	1	LCR
Chatham County	Total	21309	3	2	LCR; Coliform

Liberty County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
USA-FORT STEWART MAIN	GA1790024	27,573	2	1	Coliform
C.R.STANFORD APARTMENTS	GA1790048	52	2	1	Coliform
Liberty County	Total	27625	4	1	Coliform

Now let’s look nearby in Florida. We have a winner! High Springs in Alachua County had 6 violations, more than Valdosta’s 5. But even more populous Alachua and Duval Counties had fewer violations than Lowndes County, and bigger cities Gainesville and Jacksonville had none. Duval County water treatment systems did violate more types of rules than any of these counties; a very dubious distinction.

Alachua County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
HIGH SPRINGS WTP	FL2010201	3,750	6	1	DBP
NEWBERRY WTP	FL2010207	3,885	1	1	Coliform
MICANOPY WATER SYSTEM	FL2010749	650	6	1	DBP
Alachua County	Total	8285	13	2	DBP; Coliform

Duval County SWDA Violations

Water System	System ID	Population	Total Violations	Number of Rules Violated	Health Rules in Violation
SUNNY PINES	FL2160110	80	4	2	SOC; Coliform
ATLANTIC BEACH WATER SYSTEM	FL2160200	26,172	1	1	Coliform
N.S. MAYPORT	FL2160734	20,500	1	1	Coliform
CREEKSIDE COMMUNITY PARK MHP	FL2160906	150	2	2	Coliform; VOC
BELLE OAKS WTP	FL2164400	60	1	1	Coliform
DINSMORE CORRECTIONAL	FL2164401	150	3	2	DBP; Coliform
Duval County	Total	47112	12	4	VOC; DBP; Coliform; SOC

There’s some explanation for why big cities seem to have cleaner drinking water than smaller ones in the NRDC’s Threats on Tap: Widespread Violations Highlight Need for Investment in Water Infrastructure and Protections,

The report found that people who live in rural communities could be particularly vulnerable. Nationwide, small systems that serve 500 or fewer people account for nearly 70 percent of all violations of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

These small systems triggered a little more than half of all the health-based violations.

“We shouldn’t have a two-tiered water system in this country,” Wu said. “It shouldn’t mean just because you live in a town with fewer people that you don’t have access to as clean drinking water. They should demand that.”

Wu urged people to inquire about their water systems. The EPA’s database of violations can be found here: https://www.epa.gov/enviro/sdwis-search.

Georgia has hundreds of these small systems, found in subdivisions, mobile home parks and other communities all across the state.

And Florida apparently is even worse.

Back to the VDT story that started the present kerfluffle. Jill Nolin, Valdosta Daily Times, front page, 2017-05-10,

The City of Valdosta, with seven violations, had the most offenses of any city of its size in the state but is now in full conpliance, the group said in an email.

I haven’t looked at all the data for the entire state of Georgia (or Florida), but it seems quite possible that “The City of Valdosta … had the most offenses of any city of its size in the state”.

So Mayor John Gayle of Valdosta seems to have not been completely accurate in what he told the VDT the next day. Kimberly Cannon, Valdosta Daily Times, 10 May 2017, City celebrates water: Mayor refutes water quality report,

“This article in the paper today was totally inaccurate;”

And, as the VDT pointed out in both articles, “the city is now in full compliance”, a point on which the mayor agrees, so obviously the VDT was not completely inaccurate in what it wrote recently about local drinking water treatment quality.

And the seven downstream Florida counties (now plus a city) weren’t completely inaccurate, either, when they passed resolutions asking the state of Florida to step in about Valdosta sewage downstream. As I tried to point out to Valdosta Mayor and Council in one of their recent meetings, those downstream governments have a point that any sewage spill by Valdosta triggers Florida Department of Health advisories that make people get off the water, which is a huge problem for local economies dependant on the rivers. Laughing that off, as the mayor did, did not help.

I applaud the city of Valdosta for spending many millions of tax dollars (some of which I paid) to fix its drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment problems. Yet the city could do better in making its case.

Similarly I applaud the county of Lowndes for spending (not as) many millions of tax dollars (some of which I paid) to fix its drinking water treatment problems. I don’t applaud all the no-bid contracts the county seems to employ. And I wonder how many spills or overflows have occurred from Lowndes County’s Land Application Site (the county does not have any wastewater treatment plants), or from its closed landfill, or from the privatized open landfill with its coal ash, PCBs, and Superfund wastewater.

Anonymous informants inside the city of Valdosta say their local government is more transparent about water issues than any other around here. While that is a very low bar, such a claim may be true. I look forward to Valdosta improving its public relations so people will know it.

River and drinking water quality, which are very interrelated, since river water leaks into groundwater and comes up in wells. Once again I suggest Valdosta could help persuade Georgia and Florida to fund reqular, frequent, independent water quality monitoring on the rivers above and below Valdosta. Yes, I know Valdosta does its own water quality monitoring. But “independent” is one of the keywords.

It would also help if the VDT would quote its sources and dig deeper into these water issues.

More in later blog posts.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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-jsq

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