Update 2019-05-02: Pictures.
After the BIG Little River Paddle Race this Saturday morning, also at Reed Bingham State Park, you can get trained to do water quality testing, at 2PM Saturday afternoon. This is both chemical and bacterial training.
When: 2PM, Saturday, April 27, 2019
Where: Shelter #3, Reed Bingham State Park, 542 Reed Bingham Rd, Adel, GA 31620
Sign up: Please use the google form to sign up so we’ll know how many are coming, Continue reading
All of Valdosta’s water quality sampling stations were below the Georgia state limit for E. coli for the first week of April. Valdosta no longer samples weekly, only once a month. It also no longer samples at the state line.
We got this monthly Valdosta WQ data via open records request, as usual. As I said at the April 10, 2019 meeting between Valdosta and the dozen Florida counties, I also filed the next day open records requests for Valdosta’s permit-required spill-followup test data, and for the engineering study they said they had related to how big the new catch basin needs to be. Yesterday I got the latest monthly data a day late, but only a “working on it” about the other two requests. I will now Continue reading
Update 2019-04-13: Added Task Force Resolution.
Everyone in the dozen downstream Florida counties wants to help Valdosta finish fixing its sewage problems, and all were impressed with the thoroughness of the presentations by Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse. There was even an offer to contact federal representatives and agencies from the elephant in the room, Ken Cornell of Alachua County, which contains half the population of the dozen Task Force Counties (and twice the population of Valdosta and Lowndes County),
![[Ken Cornell, Alachua County, offers assistance]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-10--vcc-fl-rivers-task-force/wshot0005.jpg)
Ken Cornell, Alachua County, offers assistance
Mayor John Gayle said “Valdosta is privileged to be a regional city”, serving eighteen counties and benefitting from sales taxes of all those who shop in Valdosta, and later offered assurances that Valdosta was doing everything it could.
They could answer the question from Beth Burnham of Hamilton County about reporting times: less than 24 hours to the state of Georgia.
![[Hamilton County Commission District 1 Beth Burnham]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-10--vcc-fl-rivers-task-force/intro-shot0016.jpg)
Hamilton County Commission District 1 Beth Burnham
Nonetheless Continue reading
Last Wednesday, I invited the Live Oak Woman’s Club to the meeting in Valdosta this Wednesday evening between elected officials of the dozen downstream Florida counties and Valdosta.
![[FL Counties Rivers Task Force in Valdosta 2019-04-10]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-05--suw-rk-live-oak/shot0020.jpg)
FL Counties Rivers Task Force in Valdosta 2019-04-10
I talked about all the items on the alides, plus some topics raised by questions from the audience.
For example, they were horrified to hear that (according to GA-PSC), AGL did not follow its own corporate procedures to investigate the Homerville, GA pipeline gas explosion. Eileen Box mentioned that the source of AGL’s gas, Southern Natural Gas, also has a pipeline that runs through her property in Suwannee County.
Most of the attendees at the Live Oak Woman’s Club had not heard that Sabal Trail leaked gas at its Hildreth Compressor Station in Suwannee County in September 2018, and they were not pleased to learn Sabal Trail took a week to get around to telling FDEP about that.
They wanted to know about liquid natural gas (LNG), and they were again horrified to learn that Continue reading
A Florida Senate Committee has scheduled a Workshop on Valdosta Sewage Spills.
The same session this Wednesday afternoon will hear three water bills, SB 1100 about funding water well testing, which is relevant to the recent detection of E. coli in for example Hamilton County wells, SB 1758, which includes some changes to Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) requirements and requirements for wastewater treatment plants to notify customers of unlawful discharges, and SB 1552 about Red Tide mitigation.
When
I went by
Senator Bill Montford’s office last Wednesday,
his staffer said they would be scheduling this workshop,
with public input. They have done so.
Senator Montford is the Chair of the
Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
His District 3 includes
Hamilton, Madison, and Taylor Counties,
all of which are members of the
twelve-county Florida
Rivers Task Force
and signatories on its
Resolution asking for assistance from Florida and Georgia about Valdosta sewage spills.
The Withlacoochee River, into which much of Valdosta’s raw sewage spills have gone,
is the border between Madison and Hamilton Counties, and the Alapaha River,
into which basin other Valdosta spills have gone, runs through Hamilton County.
Taylor County is not on either of those rivers nor on the Suwannee River,
yet its economy is affected by the stigma of Valdosta’s sewage spills.
The Florida Senate, COMMITTEE MEETING NOTICE,
ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Senator Montford, Chair
Senator Albritton, Vice ChairMEETING DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 2019
TIME: 4:00—6:00 p.m.
PLACE: Mallory Horne Committee Room, 37 Senate Building [404 S. Monroe, Tallahassee, FL 32399]
AMENDMENT DEADLINE: Continue reading
Valdosta’s monthly water quality testing data shows E. coli down at three out of their six remaining stations, and up at the other three, highest at US 41 on the Withlacoochee River, upstream of most of Valdosta and its Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant. This data is for Tuesday, March 5, 2019, and was obtained as usual by an open records request from WWALS.
Even that 265 cfu/100 ml E. coli is barely above the Georgia limit of 200, and far below the alert line of 1,000.
At the next station downstream from US 41, at GA 133, the Withlacoochee River still showed Continue reading
Three of the Waterkeepers of Florida were at the Capitol in Tallahassee Wednesday, two of them for Reclaiming Florida’s Future for All, an annual event organized by ReThink Energy Florida and others. Of course Our Santa Fe River (OSFR) was prominently represented. Banning fracking was top of the long list of issues on the agenda. Water Quality and Quantity included Valdosta (and other) wastewater.
Lake Worth Waterkeeper Reinaldo Diaz advocates for the Lake Worth Lagoon and its watershed, a coastal estuary running along the eastern edge of Palm Beach County.
Scariest of all to polluters is St Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman, seen here with Continue reading
Update 2019-04-12: Videos.
Update 2019-03-14: The Valdosta City Clerk says the Valdosta City Manager says “the public will have an opportunity to speak.”
As discussed in Lake City when the dozen downstream Florida counties passed their resolution, and as foreshadowed by Emma Wheeler on WCTV, and now confirmed by Valdosta City Clerk Teresa Bolden, elected officials from Valdosta and twelve Florida counties will meet to discuss Valdosta wastewater spills and how to stop them. She also confirmed that since there will be a quorum of the Valdosta City Council there, this will be a public meeting.
When: 6PM, Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Where:
General Purpose Room,
Valdosta City Hall Annex,
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, GA 31601
Photo: Ellis, Ricket & Associates.
It’s not clear the public will be able to speak, but you can come and see for yourself. As I told the Valdosta City Clerk, this afternoon I already invited the Suwannee River Water Management District and everybody else who was in their meeting. Valdosta will probably publish an announcement soon, but so far we at least know the meeting will happen and it will be public. Y’all come.
Back on Continue reading
Update 2019-03-12: The #Trashtag Challenge: Cleanups are good, but throwaway plastic needs to be stopped.
Not bad for an idea from a few days before: a cleanup at Onemile Branch in Drexel Park during Azalea Festival.
Juan and Luisa from Colombia with the VSU English Language Institute waded into the stream, with Beatriz Potter holding the bucket and Tom Potter advising.
Sara Jay explained her WWALS water quality test kit.
Continue readingIt turns out Valdosta can schedule a workshop for elected officials to meet with the Valdosta City Council, as the the dozen downstream Florida counties previously requested.
Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 7 March 2019, Task force looks to curb Valdosta sewage spills,
VALDOSTA, Ga. (WCTV) — Communities continue to push for more prevention of spills at Valdosta’s wastewater treatment system.
Several North Florida counties down the river from Valdosta formed a task force last year to try and protect local waterways. The group is now hoping the states can step in to help.
Counties across North Florida and South Georgia are making it a priority to protect the rivers. The task force has passed a Continue reading
![[Assurances --Mayor John Gayle]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-10--vcc-fl-rivers-task-force/wshot0006.jpg)
![[Img36]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-04-05--suw-rk-live-oak/img36.png)
![[Speaking]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-03-13--wwals-tlh/20190313_105603.jpg)
![[Lisa Rinaman et al.]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-03-13--wwals-tlh/20190313_115538.jpg)
![[Beatriz assisting]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-03-10--onemile-branch-cleanup/20190310_144703.jpg)
![[Sara explaining]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-03-10--onemile-branch-cleanup/20190310_142225.jpg)