After the recent storms, water is standing on Sabal Trail’s
exotic invasive planted grasses, and sometimes on bare dirt,
some of it apparently eroded, in Colquitt County, Georgia
west of Moultrie towards Mitchell County.
Remember, that 3-foot fracked methane pipe is only 3 feet under the surface.
It wouldn’t take much erosion to expose it, increasing likelihood of corrosion,
leak, break, explosion, etc.
These pictures were taken Continue reading
The city of Moultrie also had a small wastewater spill Sunday during the storm, but it was tiny compared to Valdosta’s, and Moultrie’s WTP is on the Ochlockonee River, not in the Suwannee River Basin.
Like
Tifton,
Moultrie’s wastewater operator is not listed on Moultrie’s city website,
because its Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) is operated by the same private contractor,
ESG Operations, Inc.
That arrangement was announced in June 2015,
shortly before major Moultrie WWTF improvements by RTD Construction were announced in September 2015.
Pretty quickly I got through to Bryan Roland, Project Manager, who said yes, Continue reading
Valdosta wasn’t the only city to spill sewage in the recent storms, but Tifton’s spill was tiny by comparison.
Following up a rumor, I called the city of Tifton and eventually got
to Tommy Coker, Wastewater Superintendent, Tifton Regional Waste Water Treatment Complex (TRE).
You won’t find him listed on
Tifton’s website, because he works for the private
contractor that runs TRE:
ESG Operations, Inc.
That arrangement was announced in November 2012.
Anyway, Tommy Coker says they did have a spill, of 9,500 gallons, into a storm drain inside the TRE site, that goes into the New River. It started Sunday January 22nd and stopped about midnight Monday January 23rd, 2017.
The TRE is located at 80 Old Brookfield Rd W, Tifton, GA 31794, which is east of Tifton on US 82 towards Alapaha and Willacoochee, GA.
The New River flows into the Withlacoochee River east of Adel and south of Nashville, between Cook and Berrien Counties, GA. The Withlacoochee forms the rest of the border of those two counties, then flows through Lowndes County past Valdosta and its WWTP, then forms the border of Brooks and Lowndes County, Georgia, and Madison and Hamilton County, Florida, until it joins the Suwannee River, which runs on along Suwannee County and others down to the Gulf.
So Valdosta was not the only city to have a spill during the recent storms, but Valdosta’s 2.2 million gallon leak was more than 230 times bigger than Tifton’s spill.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2017-01-30:
Valdosta also didn’t tell the public all day after the spill stopped, and then posted something that’s flat not true.
I just called Valdosta WWTP Superintendent John Waite,
as it says to do on the city’s PR posted
Wednesday, January 25, 2017 5:09:00 PM,
Withlacoochee Plant Warranty Repairs Underway,
which says “The plant is under warranty and the repairs will be complete by end
of day Jan. 25 at no cost to the city.”
Meanwhile, the Valdosta Daily Times posted yesterday evening
City sewage spill stopped.
I asked Superintendent Waite when the spill stopped.
Answer: Continue reading
After I posted about the three manhole spills, I discovered Valdosta also announced a spill at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).
I just called Scott Fowler at Valdosta Utilities, and he explained:
The leak is from the jet mix pipe that comes back from the influence and pushes back to the EQ [Equalization Tank]. When they put the pipe in with its industrial strength rubber seal, they pressure tested it, and it held. But the seal blew this weekend. They have cameras there to watch it.
Fowler said they also going to have a camera at Wainwright Drive, where one of the other three spills, the ones from manhole covers, happened.
I pointed out to Fowler that the Valdosta PR about the WWTP spill says they detected it Sunday January 22nd, yet it wasn’t published on the city’s website until Tuesday January 24th after 6PM. He said that’s due to Continue reading
Update 2017-01-25: And also a spill at the WWTP.
Nobody likes sewer spills, but no, these are not the same as before Valdosta’s
recent wastewater system improvements:
nothing this time came from the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant,
and the amounts were small compared to previous years (10-62%)
and in far fewer locations.
That didn’t stop WTXL from using this title: Amber Lewis, WTXL, 24 January 2017, Major Sewage Spill Reported in Valdosta,
The City of Valdosta has reported that a large amount of untreated sewage has spilled in the area.
The Florida Department of Health reports that Continue reading
Just north of GA 122 in Brooks County, GA
More here.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Update 2026-04-13: Stagger SRWMD and SJRWMD Board meetings –Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson 2027-01-17.
The playwright could have added a bit more suspense.
After listening to almost two dozen public comments, many recommending tabling the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP) or a moratorium on new water withdrawal permits,
the boards of the Suwannee River Water Management District and the
St Johns River Water Management District each voted unanimously to approve.
Here are WWALS videos of each of the speakers, with a few notes, followed by video playlist of the whole thing. Continue reading
Standing room only last night for
two hours of how to oppose Sabal Trail and help the sun rise on Florida and the southeast,
7 PM, Thursday, January 12, 2017
at The Woman’s Club of Live Oak,
called by Suwannee Riverkeeper.
Here are links to each of the videos, with a few notes, followed by a video playlist. Please share widely, and you can reuse any of these videos; just cite the source, WWALS Watershed Coalition. Continue reading
SRWMD did post responses to comments from WWALS and others on the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP). A week before the planned NFRWSP adoption, same as for the agenda for the joint SRWMD-SJRWMD meeting next Tuesday in Alachua. After OSFR and WWALS posted critical blog posts, SRWMD Executive Director Noah Valenstein sent us and others an offer to meet this Friday in Live Oak to discuss. While many (including me), thanked him for his collegial offer, nobody took him up on it. See you in Alachua Tuesday (facebook event).
Below are Noah Valenstein’s letter and my response. Continue reading