Who is the Georgia sewage spill winner?

Hint, it’s the most populous city in the Suwannee River Basin in either Georgia or Florida: Valdosta.

Details are below, in which you can see that the number of spills and the amount spilled have decreased, but Valdosta has a long way to go yet. As do less populous places, especially Ashburn, as well as Tifton, Quitman, and Rochelle.

Seven years of sewage spills, Suwannee River Basin, GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, by WWALS 2025-08-14

I hope we will all hear what Valdosta is doing this evening, when the Florida Rivers Task Force meets with Valdosta at 6 PM, at Valdosta City Hall Annex, 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. https://wwals.net/?p=68173

Totals: 2018-12-02 to 2025-08-05 in GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report for the Suwannee River Basin by WWALS Watershed Coalition; see https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills

That image is a screenshot of a table you can find on wwals.net, probably to be updated daily.
https://wwals.net/pictures/spills/latest-totals-basin.html

In addition to the well more than $100 million Valdosta has already spent on fixing its sewer system, and the $67 million in municipal bonds for water and sewer projects it floated this year, Valdosta has in its project list for Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) IX, to be voted on in November, $30 million for “construction of and improvements to water and sewer facilities, to include equipment, land acquisition, and construction of water and wastewater facilities, plants, infrastructure, materials, and capital equipment”.

Valdosta Project List, SPLOST IX
PDF

Lowndes County, which has its own sewer system, and which has not reported any spills since 2018, has in its SPLOST IX Project list $31,319,151 for “construction of and improvements to water and sewer facilities”. Which makes me wonder if the rumor is true that Lowndes County intends to build an actual wastewater treatment plant to replace its sewage lagoons and spray field.

Lowndes County Project List, SPLOST IX
PDF

Here are some recent spills, up to the most recently reported. They are online in the same place as the totals above.
https://wwals.net/pictures/spills/latest-totals-basin.html

These spill reports and the totals are reasonably accurate. There is always some chance of error, due to typos in the reports and other reasons. But they’re pretty close.

Latest to 2025-08-05 in GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report for the Suwannee River Basin by WWALS Watershed Coalition; see https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills

This data comes from the Sewage Spills Report updated each working day by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD).
https://epd.georgia.gov/watershed-protection-branch/wastewater/sewage-spills-report

WWALS retrieves each of those reports, archives it, and produces a daily update of changes, both for the Suwannee River Basin, and for the entire state of Georgia.
https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills/

The above tables of totals and individual spills start with December 2018, because that is when GA-EPD started publishing its Sewage Spills Report, after WWALS got 30 organizations in Georgia and Florida to request it.
https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills/#resolution

We do have data back earlier than that, but not in as convenient a format to process.

Already 2018, Florida was posting Public Notices of Pollution daily, with a map.
https://wwals.net/issues/vww/fl-spills/

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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