Update 2025-02-22: Ashburn Spill 2025-02-14, Chemours Mine Spill 2025-02-16, Bad Little River 2025-02-17, Bad Withlacoochee River 2025-02-19 2025-02-19.

Valdosta reported the January 14, 2025, sewage spill in the wrong place. It was actually on Jackson Drive, near the Lowndes County Jail, not on Jackson Street, in downtown Valdosta.

Jackson Drive, not Street, Dukes Bay Canal, Valdosta, GA Sewage Spills, and Sugar Creek

Thanks to a tip, I asked Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes, who told me they reported the correct GPS coordinates. But GA-EPD does not publish GPS coordinates.

So WWALS sent an open records request asking for, “All sewage spill reports sent from the City of Valdosta to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) from December 4, 2024, through February 17, 2025, as well as any and all related correspondence between the City and GA-EPD.”

As usual, we got no correspondence, but we did get the report, which erroneously says Jackson Street, but it does have the GPS coordinates: 30.81102673, -83.27182962.

Jackson Drive,
PDF

Those coordinates locate the spill in the middle of Jackson Drive, near the Lowndes County Sheriff Department and associated detention facilities. That’s near Dukes Bay Canal, which runs into Mud Swamp Creek, the Alapahoochee River, and the Alapaha River.

Map: Jackson Drive Sewage Spill Lowndes County Jail in the WWALS map of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT)

As the WWALS request also noted, “The City could publish these reports on the city’s own web page and nobody would have to file GORA requests.”

Sugar Creek
PDF

The Sugar Creek report also has GPS coordinates, which are not for the actual site of the spill, rather somewhat farther downstream (north). I’m guessing they are for the manhole used for the bottom end of the bypass.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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