I’ve added some information to Malia’s report, so you’ll know what she was looking at.

Malia Thomas, WTXL, 2025-08-05, Valdosta sewage spill renews concern after second overflow hits creek in under a month: Another sewage spill near Sugar Creek sparks urgency as Valdosta faces decades-old infrastructure strain

VALDOSTA, GA. (WTXL) — Another sewer spill in Valdosta—this time small, but still stirring concern.

Wainwright Drive sewage spill on WTXL TV 2025-08-05, into One Mile Branch, at site of many previous spills

• Monday’s spill released up to 1,000 gallons into Sugar Creek [actually, into One Mile Branch, which flows to Sugar Creek, then the Withlacoochee River to the Suwannee -jsq], which connects to the Suwannee River system.
• Since April 2024, over 409,000 gallons of raw sewage have spilled from the same Wainwright Dr. location.
• Watch the video to hear from neighbors and the city’s plan of action.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

At around 11:30 a.m. Monday, city utility crews were called out to 1212 Wainwright Drive, where stormwater from an early morning downpour overwhelmed the system—causing up to 1,000 gallons of sewage to discharge into Sugar Creek.

Crews had the situation under control within the hour, but this marks the second sewer overflow in less than a month in the same area.

She’s apparently refering to the recent sewage spill on Sugar Creek. Wainwright Drive is actually upstream of Sugar Creek on One Mile Branch.

Below she gets back to Wainwright Drive.

Spill List on WTXL, 2025-08-05

Since April 11th, 2024, this exact address has seen about 409,000 gallons of raw sewage spill due to weather and overflow.

Malia got that number by adding up the 2024 Wainwright Drive spills in this list that I gave her:
https://wwals.net/pictures/spills/2018-2024-wainwright-drive-spills.html

Spills on Wainwright Drive into One Mile Branch, 2018-12-03 through 2024 –GA-EPD Sewage Spills Reports
PDF

While city officials say the system was pushed beyond its limits due to heavy rainfall, environmental advocates say the pressure is on to act faster.

“They need to be organizing to handle big rain events. And yeah, I know it’s a difficult problem because this problem started decades ago when the city was growing very rapidly and people were, you know, the city was not taking care of the sewer system. The current people in charge were not around then.”

Sugar Creek flows into the Withlacoochee, which feeds the Suwannee River—both of which have seen contamination and advisories in past years due to larger wastewater spills.

One Mile Branch, 2025-08-05 –jsq for WWALS

This time, the impact may have been minimal—but Suwannee Riverkeeper John Quarterman says even a “small” spill is still a spill.

Suwannee Riverkeeper on WTXL, 2025-08-05

“Once again [I] applaud the hard work of the city officials but nobody’s gonna be satisfied until [there’s zero] gallons of raw sewage spilled.”

The City of Valdosta says improvements are underway, with multiple infrastructure and monitoring projects in progress.

“The Utilities Department continues to invest in the upgrading of aging infrastructure, as well as in proactive maintenance, monitoring programs, and the development of new strategies to mitigate the impacts of severe weather and I&I.”

Valdosta Utilities statement on WTXL, 2025-08-05

City leaders say they’re committed to keeping the water clean and the public safe, with any and all update being released as it comes.

In Valdosta, I’m Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.

Malia Thomas reporting for WTXL, 2025-08-05

 -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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