Tag Archives: Anetra Riley

Valdosta Parking Lots 2022-04-04

This map shows the big parking lots in the city of Valdosta, Georgia, along with some other impervious surface.

[Impervious surface, Valdosta, GA 2024-04-04, Parking Lots & Streams, SGRC, VALORGIS]
Impervious surface, Valdosta, GA 2024-04-04, Parking Lots & Streams, SGRC, VALORGIS

For example, you can see the parking lot on St. Augustine Road next to Hightower Creek that has featured in many previous WWALS posts about trash. Continue reading →

No spills yet from rain on Valdosta 2024-07-28

Update 2024-08-02: Three more Ashburn sewage spills reported more than a week late 2024-07-20.

Pictures of flooding in Valdosta are circulating on social media.

[Flooding in Valdosta, Three inches of rain 2024-07-28, No sewage spills yet. Other contaminants?]
Flooding in Valdosta, Three inches of rain 2024-07-28, No sewage spills yet. Other contaminants?

As usual, people are commenting that Valdosta must be spilling wastewater.

So I called Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes. He says there have been no spills from this rain.

Sometimes WWALS members spot them first. So if you see or smell a spill, please let us know.
https://wwals.net/report/

The Valdosta Utilities Director didn’t mention, because he’s not in charge of this: there may be E. coli from other sources, such as pets, livestock, and wildlife.

And of course there will be trash washed into creeks and rivers, especially from all the parking lots that do not yet have trash cans. Much of that trash converges onto Sugar Creek, along with any sewage spills, because something like 80% of Valdosta drains into that creek.

I commend Anetra Riley and Valdosta City Marshalls for Continue reading →

Trash traps, detention ponds, and parking lots: Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, Valdosta, GA 2024-05-07

For years WWALS has been promoting work by Russell Allen McBride and others to clean up Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River.

[Trash traps, detention ponds, and parking lots, Valdosta, GA, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River]
Trash traps, detention ponds, and parking lots, Valdosta, GA, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River

Russell’s net full of trash is the top graphic on the WWALS trash issue page:
https://wwals.net/issues/trash/ Continue reading →

Valdosta city trash, parking lots, ordinances, WaterGoat, and cleanups –WTXL TV 2023-12-18

Update 2024-03-06: WTXL TV report and Pictures: Valdosta WWTP water quality lab ribbon cutting 2024-03-05.

Valdosta is the main waterway trash problem in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida. Which gives the City government an opportunity to fix that problem.

[Valdosta trash is not like other cities]
Valdosta trash is not like other cities

Malia Thomas, WTXL, December 18, 2023, Area group pushes code enforcement for dealing with Valdosta’s trash,

WWALS Watershed Coalition is pushing the City of Valdosta to strictly enforce ordinances as a means of keeping the streets clean.

The video starts with WTXL Reporter Malia Thomas pointing at trash in a parking lot. Continue reading →

Videos: Valdosta trash tour again 2023-05-23

Malia Thomas, reporter for the Valdosta Daily Times, and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman toured many of the same Valdosta trash locations we visited three months earlier. Most of them did not seem what you might call fixed.

[Valdosta Trash Examples 2023-05-23]
Valdosta Trash Examples 2023-05-23

Plus one added stop was most definitely not fixed. Apparently 84 days of $100 a day fines were not enough.

There is some progress on Valdosta’s chronic trash problem, such as the three trash traps (thanks, City Engineer Ben O’Dowd and Stormwater Manager Angela Bray) and the notices sent to parking lot owners by City Marshalls (thanks, Community Protections Manager Anetra Riley), but there is also much more room for improvement. Apparently some of those notices have not had much effect yet, and more trash traps are needed, as well as other measures. See:
https://wwals.net/issues/trash/

Needless to say, WWALS and the usual citizens are still watching and speaking up. Continue reading →

Good trash can news from Valdosta City Marshalls

Update 2023-05-14: Pictures: turtle rescue 2023-04-24.

Valdosta Community Protections Manager Anetra Riley yesterday told WWALS that City Marshalls have sent notices to all parking lot owners in Valdosta that they must follow city ordinances and place trash cans in their parking lots. Not just under the roofs at the store entrances: strategically placed, as the ordinance says.

[Community Protections Manager Anetra Riley and trash cans in parking lot]
Community Protections Manager Anetra Riley and trash cans in parking lot

Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman and Two Mile Branch neighbor Katherine Ball were pleased to hear this new ordinance enforcement initiative. This ordinance enforcement is one of many levels WWALS continues to advocate to fix the trash problem.

Anetra Riley also told us that something long promised by the Mayor on his radio show has finally happened: Continue reading →

Still there: Two acres of trash on Valdosta City land at VLPRA HQ, above One Mile Branch 2022-03-09

Update 2022-04-13: Floating trash in cypress swamp below VLPRA HQ in Valdosta 2022-04-13.

As previously mentioned, there are two acres of trash on land owned by the City of Valdosta, just south of VLPRA headquarters, at the corner of Barack Obama Blvd. and Ricardo Street, Behind the Pepsi Adopt-A-Spot sign, near the top of One Mile Branch.

In Valdosta’s own Seeclickfix map, you can see the site just across Barack Obama Blvd. from a drainage canal that runs into One Mile Branch just upstream from Vallotton Park.

[Map: Seeclickfix VLPRA HQ, One Mile Branch, Vallotton Park https://seeclickfix.com/issues/12055148]
Map: Seeclickfix VLPRA HQ, One Mile Branch, Vallotton Park https://seeclickfix.com/issues/12055148

This water quality and public health problem was first reported through Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app on March 9, 2022, it got some acknowledgement after another report on March 21st, but no cleanup seems to have happened.

Some of the city officials named in these comments are scheduled to be at a meeting with WWALS this afternoon. Maybe they’re waiting on that meeting to schedule a cleanup. We shall see.

Meanwhile, notice the variety of commenters who do not work for the city. First, all the comments from the March 21st report: Continue reading →

Valdosta Stormwater cleanup on Threemile Branch 2022-03-04

Thanks to Valdosta Stormwater for cleaning up that trash on Threemile Branch at Country Club Road. Thanks even more for modifying the Click ‘n’ Fix procedures for litter tickets.

Maybe more of this trash can get cleaned up and upstream problems fixed before the WWALS paddle Langdale Park, Sugar Creek, Troupville Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2022-05-07. If not, the Mayor and others will be paddling through trash rafts. Everyone please use Click ‘n’ Fix to report trash problems to help Valdosta clean them up.

[Trash, Where, Cleanup]
Trash, Where, Cleanup

That trash got submitted to Valdosta as Click ‘n’ Fix as Issue ID 11870600 on February 13, 2022.

A long chain of responses followed. Continue reading →