Tag Archives: Alapaha River

Valdosta force main and new WWTP are online and working

The recent rains caused little wastewater overflow, according to Valdosta City Council Tim Carroll, who forwarded cryptic Valdosta press release yesterday and then explained on the telephone what it meant: Map the two biggest pieces of Valdosta’s wastewater and sewer fixes are operational already.

The press release referred to “the new force main” as if it were already in operation, yet nothing on Valdosta’s website says it is. So I called Tim Carroll and he confirmed that yes, the force main is online. Not only that, but 5 million gallons less water than usual for such rains entered the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).

Wait, does that mean the new, uphill, out-of-the-floodplain WWTP is also online? Yes, confirmed Carroll. And the less inflow was due to less INI.

What’s INI, I asked, ignorantly? Continue reading →

We have a right to expect waterways and groundwater to be clean –Dennis J. Price

Another letter against Sabal Trail and for the rivers and the aquifer in the paper Suwannee Democrat, May 5th 2016.

In response to Jason Bashaw’s, Chairman of the Suwannee County Commission, article in the Suwannee Valley Times, I have this to say. Why is it that if people are concerned about the environment they live in, they are automatically placed into this environmental left category? Like many, many people in our surrounding counties, I hunt, fish, hike and paddle our local rivers. I use the environment as do we all.

I use the environment as do we all. So, for working and paying taxes all my life — as a Vietnam Veteran, as a person who chose to live in this rural part of Florida and raise his kid, as a person who is not now nor ever will be wealthy — I count our public lands, our woods and rivers as a reward for doing the right thing. I do not mind my tax dollars going towards public lands. Mr. Bashaw uses the environmental left in a derogatory manner as a means of denigrating them, and he is including me in it and I resent it. I resent it for my friend’s in WWALS and others who show concern for the pipeline route. I have not met an environmental lefty among them.

WWALS is, Continue reading →

Drowning at Pafford’s Landing on the Alapaha River 2016-05-07

One version of the Saturday drowning on the Alapaha River near Lakeland is being carried all over the country, Lanier Parks, Inc. Parcel 030 0038B from Richmond to Texas, and there is another version.

Terry Richards, valdosta Daily Times, 9 May 2016, UPDATE: Father dies saving Lanier child from drowning,

A small child wandered away from a group of adults and into the Alapaha River at Pafford’s Landing, he said. When the father noticed what had happened he jumped in, swam to his daughter who was struggling to keep her head above water and held her up until someone took her from him, Norton said. The father never resurfaced.

Pafford’s Landing is at Continue reading →

Alapaha River Boat Ramp

These are the maps Lowndes County Engineer Mike Fletcher presented at the Naylor Town Hall 2016-04-14. Roads and parking lot Bret Huntley asked him to send them, and he did.

These have more detail than Continue reading →

Map of American Rivers by Nelson Minar

Here’s a map of all rivers in the U.S. by Nelson Minar. Lower 48 U.S. It actually covers the lower 48 states and is pretty impressive at that scale. Plus you can zoom in.

Gulf and south Atlantic

Here you can see rivers running to the Gulf start all the way up Continue reading →

A wonderful Paddle on the Alapaha 2016-04-23

HWY 84 to Mayday.

What a great day for a paddle! The current was moving us along nicely, about 12 miles in just under 4 hours. It is a very beautiful stretch of river, very wild, many birds could be heard in the forest canopy.

cjm

This was the Hotchkiss Road to Mayday Outing.

More from Chris’s details in the Outings spreadsheet:

Hotchkiss road was washed out, put in at Naylor park property. Cut about .5 mile off of the trip.

Water level 85 on the Statenville gage. Was in the banks and moving quick. Would not recommend paddling at levels much higher than this.

Features: canopy over much of the river.

Flora: Tupelo, birch, oaks, pine, wild azalea. No invasive species seen.

Fauna: wood ducks, great egrets, kingfisher, heard- barred owls, hooded warblers, and many other birds.

Assessment: Very nice paddle. Very beautiful stretch of river

And a bit more from Chris:

Water level was high, much higher would not be recommended. Looking at the water level in comparison with the Safe Water Level criteria, Item 3 stood out. It became very apparent why it is important that you should be able to paddle against the current for a short distance. One of our paddlers needed a rescue and the only way to reach her was to paddle upstream.

-jsq

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

Earth Day 2016, at VSU, on the Alapaha River, and worldwide

Noon to 3PM today, WWALS will be on the VSU front lawn with VSU Front Lawn Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.), celebrating Earth Day, recommending along with Waterkeeper Alliance: Keep it in the Ground, especially fracking for pipelines including Sabal Trail, and congratulating Lowndes County on progress on the new Naylor Boatramp and Valdosta on finally almost just about pretty soon finishing its fixes to stop spilling sewage into our rivers.

Tomorrow at 8AM, come paddle with WWALS from Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County to Mayday in Echols County, past the new park and boat ramp Lowndes County is building just north of US 84. Next month at Reed Bingham State Park between Adel and Moultrie, GA, it’s the BIG Little River Paddle Race, registration 8-9AM Saturday May 21, 2016. And in June come paddle on the Withlacoochee River from Florida Campsites Ramp to Suwannee River State Park, Saturday June 4, 2016. Before then we hope to invite everybody downstream from Valdosta’s sewage spills to attend the end-of-May signing ceremony for the new Valdosta force main and uphill Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant!

If you fall in on one of these outings, you could win Continue reading →

No new sewer spills from Valdosta or Lowndes County 2016-04-14

Nothing new since April 4th is good news today from Utilities at both local governments, since the Valdosta spills into both the Withlacoochee and Alapaha watersheds of April 2nd and 3rd, and the Lowndes County spill into the Withlacoochee River of Aprll 4th. So Suwannee River people at the moment only have those spills, arriving downstream about now, to look forward to for the moment.

Valdosta is sometimes a little slow posting a report, and Lowndes County never posted one on its website last time, so I called both of them just now. Tuesday I asked Lowndes County to post such reports on its website and send them through their agenda alert system. It’s possible they may start doing that.

-jsq

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

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 →