Category Archives: Quality

Waterkeeper Alliance supports Clean Water Act

Suwannee Riverkeeper is among the signatories on the comments Waterkeeper Alliance sent in the rulemaking on redefining Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS). Protecting feeder streams and wetlands is important also to prevent floods such as we had in 2009 and 2013, which caused massive sewage overflows.

Waterkeeper Alliance, PR, 28 September 2017, Proposed Revisions to WOTUS Reduce Clean Water Protections: EPA and the Corps’ attempts to revoke Clean Water Act protections from waters is an illegal effort that puts drinking water and public health at risk

WKA logo

Waterkeeper Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Turtle Island Restoration Network, and 115 Waterkeeper Organizations and Affiliates submitted comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) urging Continue reading →

Irma sewage spills from Lowndes County 2017-09-12

Received 28 September 2017 from Lowndes County Utilities Director Steve Stalvey:

Google Map by WWALS.net,
See interactive google map.

John,

This is the information I sent to the State concerning the spills related to Irma on Tuesday 9-12-17. Continue reading →

SWIM Plan Meeting, Live Oak 2017-10-03

Nitrates, agriculture, and silviculture were already in, and sewage, phosphate mines, and the Floridan Aquifer got added yesterday afternoon in Live Oak in public comments on updates to SRWMD’s SWIM Plans, plus new SRWMD E.D. Hugh Thomas spoke.

Audience with back of Hugh Thomas, Coastal Rivers Basin Presentation

Thanks to presenter Tom Singleton, the slides presented are on the WWALS website. Here are a few notes and pictures.

Floridan Aquifer

Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson of Sierra Club Florida noted Continue reading →

Florida Public Notice of Pollution

While Alabama is thinking about it (actually, Alabama already does it) and Georgia requires an open records request with slow response (since 2018-12-21 Georgia now posts spills),

Florida has already required and is publishing timely notices of spills, and more recently a map of the most recent 30 days of spills!

Among them, surprisingly few in the Suwannee River Basin from Hurricane Irma: three in Baker and Bradford Counties from The Chemours Company, and two from Camp Blanding.

Florida, FDEP
Follow this link for the interactive google map.

Daniel H. Thompson, Lexology, 4 May 2017, Florida Legislature Passes “Public Notice of Pollution Act” Continue reading →

Alabama stricter sewage spill regulations and notification

Here’s an idea for Georgia and Florida!

Dennis Pillion, AL.com, 27 September 2017, Alabama cracks down on E. coli bacteria in rivers with revised standards,

Alabama sanitary sewer overflow
A sanitary sewer overflows into Opossom Creek in Hueytown, Ala.(Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper)

Existing five-year permits are valid until they expire, but all new or renewed permits issued by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management going forward will include the new standards.

E. coli bacteria are commonly found in Continue reading →

Quitman, GA, WPCP spill 2017-09-11

Quitman, Georgia also spilled sewage during Tropical Storm Irma, next to Okapilco Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River, then the Suwannee River.

Quitman WPCP, South of US 84

According to John Thursby with Quitman Utilities, the lift station at Quitman’s main wastewater treatment plant lost power, and Continue reading →

Lowndes County Force Main Spill 2017-09-23

Lowndes County (not Valdosta) spilled sewage Saturday that may have reached the Withlacoochee River. The county also had “several” lift station spills during Tropical Storm Irma.

Google Map, Val Tech Road
Google map, Val Tech Road.

After tonight’s Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, I asked Utilities Director Steve Stalvey whether the county had spilled any sewage this month. He said yes, Saturday (September 23, 2017), about 25,000 gallons from the force main on Val Tech Road. He said it was due to Continue reading →

GA DNR responds about Sabal Trail at Okapilco Creek 2017-09-21

Not the answer I was looking for, but GA-EPD is still by far the most responsive agency regarding Sabal Trail.

West to sinkhole, Coffee Road, near Okapilco Creek

Lisa Myler of GA-DNR called back Friday about 7PM saying Tom Fowler had been to the Okapilco Creek Sabal Trail sinkhole site I reported.

I called her back Monday, and after DNR’s web server came back up she forwarded Tom Fowler’s report today: Continue reading →

Public meeting, Live Oak, Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) 2017-10-03

When: 1:30PM to 4:30PM, Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Where: SRWMD Office, 9225 County Road 49, Live Oak, Florida

Event: Suwannee River SWIM Plan public meeting

Received this morning:

Suwannee River and Coastal Rivers SWIM Plan interested parties:

In 2016, the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) received funds from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to develop consolidated updates to the Continue reading →

Cow House Branch Lift Station Spill in Tifton, GA 2019 2017-09-11

Tifton spilled 277 times more sewage than Valdosta. Tifton Gazette, 20 September 2017, Power outage cause 250,000 gallon wastewater spill,

Street View, Golden Road Lift Station

TIFTON — There were 250,000 gallons of wastewater spillage due to the power outage cause by Hurricane Irma, according to Thomas Coker, water and wastewater superintendent.

The spillage occurred at Continue reading →