Valdosta’s Withlacoochee WWTP catch basin is overflowing again, into Spring Branch to the Withlacoochee River.

Seems like the catch basin is not big enough.

Overflowing Catch Basin, at Valdosta Withlacoochee, Wastewater Treatment Plant, Sunday, August 25, 2025

Received 9:30 PM, Sunday, August 24, 2025, and currently on Valdosta’s website. We also got the same release at 9:10 PM, Sunday, August 24, 2025.

Sanitary Sewer overflow at the Withlacoochee WWTP

On Sunday, August 24, 2025, the City of Valdosta Utilities Department and City Management were notified that the secondary Equalization (EQ) Basin at the Withlacoochee Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) had begun to overflow.

The Utilities Department immediately mobilized the appropriate divisions to assess and respond. The overflow was determined to be the result of excessive Infiltration and Inflow (I&I), which caused a hydraulic overload of the sanitary sewer collection system. This condition followed a significant weather event in which the City of Valdosta received more than eight inches of rainfall within a 48-hour period.

WPCP operators have worked tirelessly to minimize the impact of the overflow while maintaining hydraulic control under difficult operating conditions.

The Withlacoochee WPCP is currently under review for expedited upgrades as part of the City’s long-term commitment to infrastructure resilience. The City of Valdosta remains dedicated to protecting public health and safeguarding the environment through continued investment in upgrading aging infrastructure, implementing proactive maintenance and monitoring programs, and developing innovative strategies to reduce the impacts of I&I and severe weather events.

For more information on these initiatives or to learn how you can help protect local waterways, please contact the City of Valdosta Utilities Department, Environmental Division, a (229) 259-3592.

The overflowing water goes into Spring Branch.

Spring Branch, 2024:04:14 18:24:57, –jsq for WWALS 30.8204800, -83.3598860

Which goes into the Withlacoochee River.

Closeup Spring Branch, 2024-11-23, 13:52:43,, –jsq for WWALS 30.8283200, -83.3848350

It goes by a landfill and a golf course on the way.

Map: Valdosta WWTP and Spring Branch, 2024-04-15 –WWALS WLRWT

Back in April 2019, at a Florida Rivers Task Force meeting with Valdosta, I reminded the city that four years before that some of us same people in the room had met upstairs in the same building and were convinced then that the new WWTP would stop most of the spills.

New WWTP, 2025-08-14 –Slides by Jason Barnes

Then Mayor John Gayle said what I’d heard from other sources, that back then they built the new WWTP to handle the same amount of water they’d gotten in 2009. Obviously they got more in 2018.

Movie: What is your inflow model? –John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper

I asked what is their model that convinces them that another 8 million gallons or 16 million gallons of catch basins will be enough? The Utilities Director (Daryl Muse) said they had a hydraulic study by Parsons Engineering that they used.

So I filed an open records request, got the Parsons report, and it did not address the question. I never saw any document from Valdosta that did address the question of how big did the catch basins need to be for how much incoming water, especially for how much rainfall.

It’s getting a little tiresome to see “wet weather” as an excuse for a sewage spill.

Sign and WWTP, 2024:04:14 18:30:52, –jsq for WWALS 30.8206292, -83.3595903

In this rain event, we’ve already seen the Wainwright Drive One Mile Branch sewage spill.

Don’t be surprised if you hear about more 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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