Kenneth Lowe, Assistant Plant Superintendent of the Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, explained that plant’s that recent spill to the organizational meeting of the WWALS Water Quality Testing Committee.
Tom Potter, Kenneth Lowe, Ronnie Thomas, Erica McLelland, Shirley Kokidko, student
He apologized profusely several times for the spill. Continue reading
Valdosta sewage discussed yesterday morning in Madison, and in the evening on TV and in the WWALS Water Quality Testing Committee meeting in Valdosta, and again this evening at the Madison BOCC. Emma Wheeler, WCTV Eyewitness News, 21 August 2018, Sewage spills prompt concern over Withlacoochee River safety,
MADISON, Fla. (WCTV) — A North Florida community is fighting for cleaner water.
Community members in Madison are pushing for safer waterways. It stems from concerns over sewage spills at Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Treatment Plant. The most recent of the spills happened in June.
Many of those concerned said their goal is to have no sewage spill into the river.
“These are public resources, they belong to us,” said Thomas Potter with the WWALS Watershed Coalition. “It’s our duty and our responsibility to make sure that they remain clean.”…
Emma Wheeler shot some footage Continue reading
Valdosta spilled again, and again bigger than any recently from Albany or Tifton. This news was first seen on WALB TV out of Albany 5:10 PM last night. Valdosta sent email to WWALS at 10:17 PM.
Should Suwannee Riverkeeper have to watch WALB in Albany to learn first about a wastewater spill in Valdosta, the biggest city in the Suwannee River Basin?
More importantly, if “Spills of any nature are unacceptable,” why do you keep having them, Valdosta? Especially with only 1.5 inches of rain? What will you do in another tropical storm or hurricane? And how and when will we know?
Krista Monk, WALB TV, 5:10 PM, 14 August 2018, City of Valdosta reports 135K gallon sewage spill, Continue reading
Once again the Lowndes County Commission considers replacing a lift station pump at Bevel Creek. The agenda sheet says:
The Bevel Creek lift station is a triplex lift station on our main trunk line that delivers over 60% of our wastewater flow to the LAS. This station is currently running on two pumps. We have a quote from AAG Inc. to repair the pump that is out of service for $13,971.04. Staff recommends the pump be repaired for $13,971.04.
Replacing that pump sounds like a good idea. LAS is Land Application Site, as in spray field, a few thousand feet from the GA-FL state line and slightly upstream from the Withlacoochee River. Lowndes County does not have a wastewater treatment plant, and nobody wants sewage leaking at Bevel Creek or at the LAS.
Lowndes County Utilities Director Steve Stalvey,
8 May 2018.
I do wonder, though, why we’re needing to replace a pump at Bevel Creek again, after just replacing Continue reading
Tropical Storm Alberto already caused two sewage spills from Tifton, the biggest of 36,000 gallons, both into the New River upstream from the Withlacoochee, and Valdosta spilled 300,000 gallons last month, uphill from the Withlacoochee River, without even a tropical storm to blame. So preparing for a hurricane or tropical storm seems like a good idea. Maybe the various utility managers would like to say a few words about how they’re not going to be asleep at the wheel.
When: 6-8PM, Thursday, July 26, 2018
Where: 250 Douglas St, Valdosta, GA 31601-5029
Event: facebook
Join local emergency responders and Meteorologist Kerri Copello, News Manager for WFXL/Fox 31, for a tour of the EOC and an informational session on the 2018 Hurricane Season to include preparedness information.
Lowndes County EOC facebook event cover picture
More in a LAKE blog post.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Gretchen got a rainbarrel from the City of Valdosta, I got some concrete blocks, we set the barrel on the blocks and connected it to a PVC pipe from a raingutter. In about 20 minutes of rain, the 50-gallon rainbarrel was full. We don’t even live in Valdosta, but rainbarrels are also about preventing sewage spills; read on.
Photograph: John S. Quarterman
at Okra Paradise Farms, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Within an hour we had a hose hooked up and we used some of the water in transplanting trees.
Video, more pictures, and more links to materials from the city of Valdosta and the state of Georgia on a separate LAKE blog post.
Part of Valdosta’s incentive for this Stormwater Education Outreach can be inferred from Continue reading
See if you can do it without spilling into One Mile Branch, Valdosta. Also, despite the date on the PR on the city’s website (see below), WWALS got it via email a day later at 4:01 PM 11 July 2018, the day before the work started this morning.
Ashlyn Becton, Valdosta, Press Release, 4:17 PM, 10 July 2018, Sewer Main Repair / Road Repair at 1522 N Oak St starting Thursday July 12,
The City of Valdosta Utilities Department will be closing Continue reading
For a year and a half, Valdosta had no major sewage spills. Until yesterday. The 300,000 gallons Valdosta spilled uphill from the Withlacoochee River is far more than the 90,000 gallons Albany spilled into the Flint River a month ago, and far more than the 36,000 + 5,400 gallons Tifton spilled into the New River a few weeks ago. It’s even more than the 250,000 gallons Tifton spilled into the Little River last September during Hurricane Irma.
Sure, 300,000 is less than the millions of gallons Valdosta spilled in January 2017. And sure, Valdosta has spent tens of millions of dollars building a whole new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) uphill out of the flood plain, and a force main, and mamy other improvements. Sure, the situation is better than it used to be, as I’ve been bragging about on the radio and in this blog recently.
But it was that same new WWTP that spilled yesterday. Sure, what spilled was mostly rainwater.
But people in the seven Florida counties downstream (or in Lowndes and Brooks Counties, Georgia downstream) are not Continue reading
This morning I was on The Morning Drive with Steve Nichols on 105.9 FM WVGA, Valdosta, Georgia, which Steve says reaches 100,000 people. We talked about all the things we said we would: Troupville cleanup, water trails, paddle race, film festival, songwriting contest, outings, and more.
Here’s the video extracted from WVGA’s facebook live.
Suwannee Riverkeeper on Steve Nichols Drive-time Radio 2018-04-24
Video by Black Crow Media for WVGA 105.9 FM, Valdosta, GA
I don’t know why the video is mirror-flipped, but below are a few stills right-way around.
If you want to see the whole morning’s video, it’s on the show’s website. This interview runs about -23:40 to -1:20.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Troupville cleanup, Interview
Hi, Helen, Interview
Tires and a boat, Interview
Metal signs, Interview
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, Interview
BIG Little River Paddle Race, Reed Bingham SP, 2018-04-28, Interview
Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, Cedar Key, 2018-06-23, Interview
Wild & Scenic Film Festival, Valdosta, 2018-05-31, Interview
Newsletter: Tannin Times, Interview
It could use some markers to keep people on it and off private property, and maybe some loaner kayak wheels, but there is public access to the Withlacoochee River off of Gornto Road in Valdosta.
Tea-colored water, 16:22:37,, Withlacoochee River 30.8623900, -83.3224600
And a very nice blackwater river it is. Continue reading