Lowndes County spills sewage into Withlacoochee River 2016-04-05

Lowndes County spilled sewage this time, a day after Valdosta fixed all its spills from last weekend. EPA MyWaters Mapper Downstream it ends up in the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers, where people are already hopping mad because of Valdosta, and not making a lot of distinctions among local governments up here.

The County Clerk told the VDT the “county does not forsee this as a reocurring event”, which is odd, since it happened two years ago, and that time the City of Valdosta had to tell Lowndes County about it. Just like that time, and unlike Valdosta, there’s nothing about this spill on Lowndes County’s News Flash web page, nor the County Clerk’s web page, nor the Lowndes County Utilities web page. Apparently the county only contacted selected news media, not the public directly, and definitely not WWALS, the Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the Withlacoochee River.. And the county only told the press three days after the sewer break.

Lowndes County PR, ValdostaToday.com, 7 April 2016, Pipe Break Spills 225,000 Gallons of Sewage into the Withlacoochee River, Continue reading →

Ask your federal representative to ask GAO to investigate FERC and rubberstamps like Sabal Trail

You can send a message to your member of Congress asking them to support a petition from hundreds of organizations and even more individuals asking them to:

Help secure an independent investigation by the Government Accountability Office into the abuses of power, process and law by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) when it comes to interstate natural gas pipelines and LNG export facilities. Write your congressional representative now to urge their help in securing this necessary independent review.

Abuses like Continue reading →

Florida Campsites Ramp to SRSP, Withlacoochee River Paddle 2016-06-04

A rock field, many springs, and shoals add to the beautiful landscape There is a chair on top of that concrete of one of the finest stretches of River you may ever paddle! Mostly on the Withlacoochee River, plus just after Suwanoochee Spring, we turn left up the Suwannee River to Suwannee River State Park (SRSP). Will the chair still be there, on top of the old bridge pier?

When: 7:30 AM, Saturday, June 4th 2016
facebook event, meetup.

Duration: 13.3 miles  about 7 hours

Put in: Florida Campsites Ramp
MILE 13.3, 2137 NW 47th St, Jasper, FL 32052
30.501128, -83.242411

Directions: Continue reading →

Suwannee BOCC votes 4:1 to ask Army Corps of Engineers to investigate Sabal Trail 2016-04-05

Other counties in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama can follow this example from Hamilton County, now emulated by Suwannee County. Coming on the heels of the historic 34 aye to 128 nay defeat of Sabal Trail river easements in the Georgia legislature, this invading Spectra Energy pipeline has run into some hard shoals, with sinkholes ahead.

Commissioner Wesley Wainwright proposed to send the letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Commissioner Wainwright proposes to send the letter asking them to come see for themselves and do an indepedent report, pointedly adding he still supports the pipeline, but he thinks the discrepencies revealed by the gelogical report by local Practicing Geologist Dennis Price were worth asking the Corps to investigate. Wainwright was the only Suwannee County Commissioner who did not go on the 18 Febuary 2016 hike led by Chris Mericle. Nonetheless he reiterated in the meeting, as he had told the Suwannee Democrat, that through his own investigations he had also determined there were sinkholes far closer to Sabal Trail’s proposed pipeline path than Sabal Trail had said.

Wainwright asked for only Commissioners to speak, saying he didn’t want to get into another session like the previous extensive citizen discussion, apparently referring to the December Commission meeting in which the future of energy was discussed.

Speakers Chris Mericle, Jim Tatum, Debra Johnson, Wayne Ellison

Yet Florida law requires citizens to be able to speak, and Continue reading →

Details on Valdosta overflows last weekend 2016-04-04

Force main and the new WWTP on line by May!

More extensive overflows than usual last weekend, and now more extensive information about them, in the update Tim Carroll promised, on the City of Valdosta website as City System Impacted by Severe Storms and Regional Watershed. It even starts with schedule details, which say they’re ahead of the schedule I previously posted. This report’s table of overflows has start and stop times and amounts, with the Creeks affected.

It still doesn’t say which river basin they go into. Knights Creek flows into Mud Creek, which goes into the Alapahoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers. All the others end up in the Withlacoochee and the Suwannee Rivers. And there are still some unanswered questions. But getting the force main and the new WWTP on line by May is a very good development.

The City of Valdosta is ahead of schedule and plans to bring online nearly $60 million in wastewater system improvements next month. The $35 million Force Main project and the $23 million new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) are both ahead of schedule, and bringing them both online cannot come a day too soon for the city. 

“We are pleased to be in the final stages of construction on both projects. Testing is underway now with full startup expected in late May,” according to Director of Utilities Henry Hicks. “We are also pleased that these projects and other awarded sewer collection system improvement projects underway will resolve all the areas of the city impacted by reoccurring overflows that often follow heavy rains and regional flooding.”

Continue reading →

What Valdosta is doing about its wastewater problem

Update 2016-04-05: Actually, force main and new WWTP on line by May.

Frances Adams asked:

I just want to know when will this be fixed, I can’t even drink my water for it having ecoli in it. Someone needs to do something now!!!

The two biggest pieces are scheduled to be finished this summer and next summer: the force main project in July 2016, and the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant relocated uphill by August 2017. Valdosta is spending upwards of $300 million to fix the problem.

As I point out every time I post about new spills, there are still open questions and, as your Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the upper Suwannee River and the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers, WWALS Watershed Coalition will keep after Valdosta until we get the answers. See also the slides and videos from the meeting Valdosta held for us a year ago about this.

Here’s what Valdosta’s Sewer System Improvements web page says today: Continue reading →

WWALS to SBOCC about the Corps, site visits, and independent investigation

Sent this morning to the Suwannee Board of County Commissioners. They meet 6PM tonight, 5 April 2016, at the Suwannee County Judicial Annex, 218 Parshley St. SW, Live Oak, FL, and Sabal Trail is on the agenda.

Exhibit F: Compressors and loops; Suwannee, Columbia, and Bradford Counties, Florida, in Jacksonville Expansion Project, by FGT, for SpectraBusters.org, 31 March 2015 Dear Chairman Bashaw and Commissioners,

Thank you for coming to see with your own eyes at Suwannee River State Park and Falmouth Spring some of what Sabal Trail did not tell FERC. As you know, after that site visit, the Hamilton Board of County Commissioners sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inviting them to come see for themselves, as well.

Despite what Sabal Trail and FPL will tell you, pipelines are not inevitable.

As you may be aware, Continue reading →

WWALS invites Army Corps of Engineers to inspect and investigate Sabal Trail

Sent 5 April 20156. PDF.

Transco-atlantic-sunrise.jpg

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Continue reading →