Tag Archives: Bear Creek

No water quality test results this week; Adel sewage spill two weeks ago 2023-09-14

Update 2023-09-29: Mostly Clean Rivers 2023-09-28.

We have no WWALS test results for this week, because there has been no rain, we’re very short-handed, and other tasks took up the time.

If you want to get trained to be a WWALS water quality tester, please fill out the form:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084

The most recent Valdosta results we have are for last Friday upstream (very bad) and the Friday before that downstream (not bad).

Adel, Georgia, reported two small sewage spills that happened during Hurricane Idalia (see below). Any effect of those on the Withlacoochee River is long gone by now. Those were the only sewage spills reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida

So we have no data to back it up, but the rivers should be clean by now. I’d still avoid the Withlacoochee River upstream from the Little River Confluence, but other than that, the rivers are probably OK.

Happy boating, fishing, and swimming this weekend!

[Adel Spills in GA-EPD Sewer Spills Report, and on WLRWT Map]
Adel Spills in GA-EPD Sewer Spills Report, and on WLRWT Map

And by this Monday, get your tickets for the WWALS River Revue, to be held 6-10 PM, Friday, September 22, 2023, at the Turner Arts Center, Valdosta, Georgia:
https://www.betterunite.com/WWALS-wwalsriverrevue2023/ Continue reading →

Spectrum Energy wood pellet plant a health hazard far beyond Adel –WWALS to GA-EPD 2022-05-02

Here is the WWALS comment letter to GA-EPD about the second wood pellet plant permit application for Adel, Georgia.

[Both pages]
Both pages

The Letter

See also PDF.

May 2, 2022

By Electronic Mail to: Continue reading →

Comment period to GA-EPD about second Adel wood pellet plant 2022-04-01

Please send comments to GA-EPD by May 2, 2022, about the proposed air quality permit for the second Adel wood pellet mill, Spectrum Energy Georgia, LLC, 801 Cook St, Adel, 31620, Application No: 28143. WWALS will be sending in comments, to:

epdcomments@dnr.ga.gov (include “Air permit application” in the subject line)

Or postal mail to:
Air Permit Manager, 4244 International Parkway, Suite 120, Atlanta, Georgia 30354.

[In WLRWT Map]
Cook Street is marked by the red ellipse in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Remember, this plant would draw wood from as far away as Tallahassee and the Okefenokee Swamp, on top of the wood used by the other Adel pellet plant and the one in Waycross. More clearcutting still means more runoff, more contaminants in the waterways, and more flooding. Continue reading →

Please deny second Adel wood pellet plant –WWALS to GA-EPD 2021-11-19

Let one pellet plant in, and another follows. WWALS asked GA-EPD to stop that second one in Adel, Georgia, on the divide between the Little and Withlacoochee River Basins, between Morrison Creek of the Little River and Bear Creek of the Withlacoochee River. Any contaminant spills could end up in one or the other. Deforestation could affect water flows and increase flooding.

[Tree cutting radius, plant location, letter]
Tree cutting radius, plant location, letter

WWALS Public Comments on Air Permit Application No. 28143 for Spectrum Energy Georgia, LLC

See also the PDF, and the permit application. Continue reading →

Permit application, pellet mill, Spectrum Energy Georgia, Adel, GA 2021-10-22

Eric Cornwell of GA-EPD says “they have yet to submit the toxic impact assessment modeling demonstration. If you are familiar with Adel, the proposed plant site is the former SierraPine engineered wood plant (I think that old plant used to make particleboard or MDF )”. Thanks to Eric for a speedy response to my open records request about this wood pellet plant proposed by Spectrum Energy Georgia LLC on a site owned by Green Tree Biomass LLC.

[Location, Title, Boundary, Plan]
Location, Title, Boundary, Plan

The permit application files are on the WWALS website:
https://wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-22–spectrum-energy-pellet-plant-adel

Why would WWALS, a water organization be concerned about an air quality permit application? Well, this plant sits on the divide between the Little and Withlacoochee River Basins, between Morrison Creek of the Little River and Bear Creek of the Withlacoochee River. Any contaminant spills could end up in one or the other. Continue reading →

Adel spilled ten days ago; did not show up in downstream water quality data 2020-10-10

Update 2020-10-23: Clean Withlacoochee River Thursday for WWALS Boomerang Saturday 2020-10-22.

Adel, Georgia, spilled 7,500 gallons of raw sewage from its West Ninth Street lift station ten days ago, according to GA-EPD’s Sewage Spills Report today.

The spill occured on Saturday, October 10, 2020. Apparently there were no detectable effects downstream at Valdosta and below, but we’d still prefer Adel not to spill raw sewage.

[Adel spill]
Adel spill

It’s about 34 waterway miles downstream to US 41 on the Withlacoochee River, which is the first place for which we have data. On the Monday two days after the spill, Valdosta did see elevated Fecal coliform at that North Valdosta Road location, but E. coli was within limits. Those US 41 readings were actually lower than for the Friday the day before the Adel spill. Same story farther downstream at GA 133 and US 84: lower Valdosta test results Monday than Friday.

Downstream from US 84, all results by Valdosta and Madison Health into Florida were good for Monday and the rest of that week. So apparently the Adel spill had no detectable effect downstream at Valdosta and farther. See the Continue reading →

Quitman, GA, April 2020 spill cause of contamination in Withlacoochee River? 2020-04-24

The recent Georgia spills are now in the WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida water quality data.

Other than the very large December 2019 Valdosta spill, none of the spills (except one) obviously correlate with high E. coli as tested.

Which one? The April 24, 2020, Quitman spill, which may have been seen four days later at Running Springs on the Suwannee River.

[Withlacoochee, Quitman spill, Running Springs, Suwannee]
Withlacoochee, Quitman spill, Running Springs, Suwannee

Continue reading →

Sewage spills, Suwannee River Basin, Dec. 2019 – Sept. 2020

Rochelle, Ashburn, Tifton, Adel, Moody AFB, Valdosta, and Quitman all spilled sewage into the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia from December 2019 through September 2020. But only one of those spills since December is likely to explain any contamination we’ve been seeing on the Withlacoochee River.

[Little, New, Withlacoochee, Summary, Alapaha River]
Little, New, Withlacoochee, Summary, Alapaha River

Yes, there were also some spills in Florida in the Suwannee River Basin, but those are actually harder to interpret, and they were mostly small, so they will have to wait.

At least Florida lets people sign up for pollution notices by county as they happen. Georgia has no such signup. So I’ve modified the scripts WWALS uses to display changes in the Georgia Sewage Spills Report to also send me an email alert.

Here are the Georgia spills, where, what streams they went into, and how far upstream that was: Continue reading →

Adel, GA, resolution, Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail 2018-01-16

Thanks again to the City of Adel for Resolution #18-02 that they passed on January 16, 2018, in support of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

[Resolution and WLRWT Sign]
Resolution and WLRWT Sign

Also in the big image above you see a new sign for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail. More on that, later.

For now, note that the sign has the new City of Adel logo on it. That logo and the signed resolution are courtesy of City Clerk Rhonda P. Rowe.

Resolution

The text of the resolution we published at the time.

Here is a signed and executed copy. Continue reading →

Big Georgia Wastewater Permits in the Suwannee River Basin

Update 2021-03-18: Plus Moody Air Force Base.

Update 2021-03-17: Now with Ray City added 2021-03-15 and Lakeland added 2021-03-17.

Schedules of testing, with permissable levels: these are in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) wastewater permits, so we need to see those permits. You’d think they’d be on the EPA or GA-EPD website, but….

The U.S. EPA has delegated NPDES permitting to Georgia. You can get draft wastewater permits right off the GA-EPD website, but to get the actual current approved permits, you must get GA-EPD to send them to you. I found this out from Audra Dickson, Wastewater Regulatory Program Manager. I asked her for permits for half a dozen cities and one county, and the next day Alyssa Thomson, Environmental Specialist, Wastewater Regulatory Program, Municipal Permitting Unit, sent them via email.

They’re on the WWALS website now.

Instream Monitoring Requirements, Valdosta Mud Creek WPCP
Instream Monitoring Requirements, Valdosta Mud Creek WPCP

Why this list? Continue reading →