Calls from Atlanta and from downstream in Florida about the
three Valdosta wastewater overflows in February prompted WWALS as the local watershed organization to contact
the City of Valdosta about organizing a presentation to the interested parties.
Valdosta presented less than two weeks later, and brought their entire hierarchy related to this issue, from the mayor on down. Plus Lowndes County, which isn’t even responsible for Valdosta’s wastewater, was represented by their Chairman and a Commissioner.
In
Valdosta’s slides and the LAKE videos of that meeting of Tuesday 17 March 2015,
you can see many questions were answered, but some are still open. Continue reading
Category Archives: VWW
How many Valdosta overflows into Knights Creek and the Alapaha River watershed?
And how many into Dukes Bay Canal, which also flows into Mud Creek,
to the Alapahoochee River, to the Alapaha River, to the Suwannee River, to the Gulf?
It’s great the Valdosta City Council Thursday will
consider more fixes to wastewater problems in the Withlacoochee River watershed.
But what is Valdosta doing about problems in the Alapaha River watershed?
The three Valdosta overflows into the Alapaha River watershed in February 2015 weren’t the first. How many others have there been?
This report is from 19 March 2014: Continue reading
Valdosta spilled into Alapaha as well as Withlacoochee watersheds in February
Spilling sewage into the Withlacoochee River apparently wasn’t enough
for Valdosta: in February it also spilled three times into the
Alapaha River watershed.
At least once this was due to rains directly on Valdosta,
for which
the
levee proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers on Sugar Creek
at the Withlacoochee River wouldn’t help.
It’s time for Valdosta to move along with fixing its wastewater problems.
More transparency from Valdosta would also help.
And I, for one, would like to see that promised Corps flooding study
of the entire Suwannee River Basin.
In three different reports in February, Valdosta mentioned sewage overflows into either Knights Creek or Dukes Bay Canal, without mentioning that those flow into Mud Swamp Creek, which joins with Grand Bay Creek to form the Alapahoochee River, which joins the Alapaha River, which flows into the Suwannee River. The Florida Department of Health apparently didn’t know that, since it didn’t mention the Alapaha River in its advisories for counties downstream. But Valdosta should know, according to its own SWMP Update Phase 1 Final Report, Section 2 Methodology, 2011-01-14, that about half of Valdosta is drained by Knights Creek and Dukes Bay Canal: Continue reading
Withlacoochee River sewage spills, Suwannee River Basin flooding study, and Valdosta’s funded plan to fix its problem
Someone referred to the mid-February Old Statenville Road spill in asking:
What’s happening in your watershed? This is the most recent of several sewage overflow issues I’ve been reading about.
Brief answer: this flooding issue is one of many reasons WWALS Watershed Coalition was formed; we’ve been on it since then; the City of Valdosta is being fixed the immediate problem; however there’s a much bigger problem throughout the entire Suwannee River Basin that the Army Corps of Engineers is studying.
Long answer:
This has been going on for years, especially starting with the
700-year flood in 2009, which overflowed the City of Valdosta’s
Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and backed up sewage
out of manholes, in addition to rivers and streams running over
roads and bridges; see this
USGS two-pager on that.
Larry Hanson, Valdosta City Manager, presented to Continue reading
Valdosta famous into Florida again for wastewater spill
As two of the Suwannee Democrat’s commentors ask:
Why does Valdosta keep having these spills?
Hasn’t this happened like 3 times now?
Why yes, yes it has. For example, Valdosta became famous for this all the way to the Gulf 3 March 2013, and there were two more spills in 2013 to add to the big one in 2009. However, the City of Valdosta has promised to use SPLOST and other funding to fix it within a few years. As AP reported Friday:
The city of Valdosta says it is making improvements to the Withlacoochee Water Pollution Control Plant to prevent future problems.
Staff, Suwannee Democrat, 28 February 2014, Florida Department of Health advises of possible wastewater contamination: Wastewater overflow from Valdosta, Ga. may impact Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers
Live Oak — The Florida Department of Health (DOH) today issued an advisory to residents in counties surrounding the Withlacoochee and Suwannee rivers. The City of Valdosta has reported a spill, made up of a combination of storm water and partially treated sewage, that has overflowed into the Withlacoochee River. The Withlacoochee flows south and connects with the Suwannee River.
Until further information Continue reading
Request participation in watershed planning –WWALS to Corps
Unanimously approved 10 July 2013 by the WWALS board (PDF).
From:
WWALS Watershed Coalition
3338 Country Club Road #L336
Valdosta, GA 31605
wwalswatershed@gmail.com
www.wwals.net
10 July 2013
To:
Jeffrey S Morris
Savannah District
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
100 W Oglethorpe Ave
Savannah, GA 31401
Jeffrey.S.Morris@usace.army.mil
Cc:
Mayor John Gayle
City of Valdosta
P.O. Box 1125
216 E. Central Ave.
Valdosta, GA 31603-1125
jgayle@valdostacity.comGreetings from the pocosin swamps and blackwater river floodplains of central south Georgia! Continue reading
Watershed meeting organized by Army Corps of Engineers
The
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) didn’t know there was
a large water problem hereabouts, but now they do, and they want
to take a watershed-wide approach, from the headwaters to the Gulf of
Mexico, including both surface water and aquifer issues,
perhaps starting with redrawing FEMA’s flood maps,
and maybe even including once again funding the state water council.
Thursday 11 April 2013 there was a rather large governmental meeting
organized by USACE in response to
the City of Valdosta’s request of 11 March 2103.
Yesterday,
Valdosta City Council District 5 Tim Carroll sent the appended
list of attendees, augmented by a conversation with him on the phone just now.
We know little else, because no media or private citizens were invited.
- USACE Savannah office: Jeff Morris, Georgia Silver Jackets Coordinator and Beth Williams, Hydraulic Engineer
- USACE Jacksonville office: David Apple, Chief, Watershed and Restoration Planning Section
- GADNR: Christopher Hill and Tom Shillock, GAEPD Floodplain Management Unit
- GEMA: Dee Langley, Planning Program Manager and Terry Lunn, Director, Hazard Mitigation Division
- GEMA: Gary Rice – Regional Field Coordinator
- USGS: Brian McCallum, Supv. Hydrologist/ADir and Keith McFadden, Physical Scientist
- FEMA Region 4: Susan Wilson, CFM, Floodplain Management and Insurance Branch Chief and Janice Mitchell, Insurance Specialist and Lender Compliance
Those state and national agencies were brought by:
Continue readingReservoirs for control of stormwater –Tim Carroll
Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll spoke about the need for watershed-wide
planning to reduce flooding and provide water for agriculture with
distributed flood containment reservoirs.
He
referred to
the
materials he sent in advance
as well as to some additional data about water quality measurements
upstream and downstream of selected points.
And he sent an update the next day.
Tim Carroll noted that one thing that was clear from the
Valdosta City Manager Larry Hanson’s 2010 presentation to the
Suwannee-Satilla Water Council about the 2009 flood was that the
drainage basin study proposed by that Council (which completed
its report and disbanded) still needs to be completed.
For that purpose, Hanson had just sent
a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers requesting assistance.
Apparently they have
partial answer,
and they’re also talking the state.
Carroll said that with the renewed attention to flooding problems Continue reading