Tag Archives: Georgia Environmental Protection Division

Two Georgia House bills introduced to protect the Okefenokee Swamp 2025-02-20

Update 2025-02-27: Okefenokee Bills, city and county resolutions, GA House Committee 2025-02-26.

Bipartisan sponsors have introduced two Georgia House bills to protect the Okefenokee Swamp:

These bills will not stop the current mining application before the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD). But they can stop further applications for expansion, which will make the current application much less valuable. And they can stop other mining applications, including by other companies using other mining methods.

The focus of these bills is Trail Ridge east of the Okefenokee Swamp, which is in the St. Marys River Basin. But there is no dam in the Swamp between that Basin and the watershed of the Suwannee River, which drains about 85% of the Swamp.

Please contact your Georgia House Representative and ask them to support these bills.
https://wwals.net/about/elected-officials/georgia-house/

Floridians, please urge your Georgia friends and family to do so. And you can call or write the Georgia State Representatives yourself. Remember: this is all upstream from Florida.

[Two Georgia House bills introduced to protect the Okefenokee Swamp, February 20, 2025]
Two Georgia House bills introduced to protect the Okefenokee Swamp, February 20, 2025

The experienced mining company Chemours spilled 230,000 gallons of process water into the Suwannee River Basin in Florida a week ago.

The company that proposes to strip mine too near the Okefenokee Swamp for titanium dioxide, which is primarily used for white paint, is still under a Florida Consent Order for violations it caused when it was processing tailings at one of Chemours’ Florida mines.

So please ask your Georgia State Representatives to support these bills, and other methods of preventing mining near the Okefenokee Swamp. Continue reading →

Ashburn Spill 2025-02-14, Chemours Mine Spill 2025-02-16, Bad Little River 2025-02-17, Bad Withlacoochee River 2025-02-19

Update 2025-02-28: Clean Franks Creek 2025-02-26 and Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-02-27.

We do not have any updates on Sugar Creek, but the recent rains probably washed more contamination into it.

Valdosta Utilities got too high E. coli downstream on the Withlacoochee River at GA 133 for Wednesday. But OK results farther down at US 84.

Upstream on the Little River at US 82 west of Tifton, WWALS got too high for Monday.

Ashburn had yet another small sewage spill Friday a week ago, at the usual location of Rockhouse Road and Sylvia Drive, into Hat Creek, which goes to the Alapaha River.

“On Sunday, February 16, 2025 at approximately 6 PM,” Chemours spilled approximately 230,000 gallons of process water from its Trail Ridge South Mine east of Starke, Florida, upstream of the Santa Fe River. Stay tuned for a separate report.

The Withlacoochee River is in Action Stage at and above Valdosta and at Pinetta.

If you’ve got a power boat and stay below the Little River Confluence, the volume of rainwater probably makes the Withlacoochee River relatively clean. I wouldn’t recommend kayaks or canoes unless there’s more than one of you and you really know what you’re doing.

Paddling or fishing or swimming (if you like cold) would be better on other rivers this weekend. At least the weather prediction is sunny and warmer than it has been recently.

[Bad Little River 2025-02-17, Bad Withlacoochee River 2025-02-19, Ashburn Spill 2025-02-14, Chemours Mine Spill 2025-02-16]
Bad Little River 2025-02-17, Bad Withlacoochee River 2025-02-19, Ashburn Spill 2025-02-14, Chemours Mine Spill 2025-02-16

Little River

WWALS Internet and Tester Samantha Carr sampled the Little River at US 82 west of Tifton on Monday. We’re going with Suzy Hall’s interpretation of Samantha’s slides: 8+7+13 * 100 / 3 = 933 cfu/100 mL. That’s higher than the 410 one-time test limit. Continue reading →

Valdosta Sewage Spill Reports: Jackson Drive, not Street, and Sugar Creek 2025-02-17

Update 2025-02-22: Ashburn Spill 2025-02-14, Chemours Mine Spill 2025-02-16, Bad Little River 2025-02-17, Bad Withlacoochee River 2025-02-19 2025-02-19.

Valdosta reported the January 14, 2025, sewage spill in the wrong place. It was actually on Jackson Drive, near the Lowndes County Jail, not on Jackson Street, in downtown Valdosta.

[Jackson Drive, not Street, Dukes Bay Canal, Valdosta, GA Sewage Spills, and Sugar Creek]
Jackson Drive, not Street, Dukes Bay Canal, Valdosta, GA Sewage Spills, and Sugar Creek

Thanks to a tip, I asked Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes, who told me they reported the correct GPS coordinates. But GA-EPD does not publish GPS coordinates.

So WWALS sent an open records request asking for, “All sewage spill reports sent from the City of Valdosta to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) from December 4, 2024, through February 17, 2025, as well as any and all related correspondence between the City and GA-EPD.”

As usual, we got no correspondence, but we did get the report, which erroneously says Jackson Street, but it does have the GPS coordinates: 30.81102673, -83.27182962. Continue reading →

Filthy Sugar Creek, Clean Withlacoochee River at State Line 2025-02-14

Update 2025-02-21: Valdosta Sewage Spill Reports: Jackson Drive, not Street, and Sugar Creek 2025-02-17.

Valdosta’s Sugar Creek tested even worse Friday after the Thursday rains, as expected.

The Withlacoochee River downstream at State Line tested pretty clean, with the volume of river water diluting the creek contamination. Also, apparently nothing washed from Quitman out of Okapilco Creek, or it was diluted or had not yet reached the GA-FL line.

[Filthy Sugar Creek, Friday, February 14, 2025, Clean Withlacoochee River at State Line]
Filthy Sugar Creek, Friday, February 14, 2025, Clean Withlacoochee River at State Line

Sugar Creek

WWALS tester Suzy Hall for Friday got 1,800 cfu/100 mL E. coli at the WaterGoat below Berta’s Kitchen parking lot. That’s well above the 1,000 alert limit, and almost four times her Wednesday result of 466, which was above the one-time test limit of 410.

So something is still washing out of Sugar Creek during rains such as the inch or more that fell on Valdosta Thursday. Probably it is just residual sewage sludge from the months-long Sugar Creek sewage spill. The Valdosta Utilities bypass is still in place, and we can hope that was the only leak on Sugar Creek.

More rain is falling today (Sunday), so best to continue avoiding Sugar Creek.

Join us Sunday, February 23, for another chainsaw cleanup, assuming the Withlacoochee River has gone back down enough by then:
https://wwals.net/?p=66972

Continue reading →

Dirty Sugar Creek, clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-02-13

Update 2025-02-16: Filthy Sugar Creek, Clean Withlacoochee River at State Line 2025-02-14.

Sugar Creek wasn’t as horrible this week as last, but it still tested too high in E. coli at Gornto Road and downstream for Wednesday.

That was before an inch or two of rain Thursday, which most likely washed more contamination into Sugar Creek and on into the Withlacoochee River.

[Dirty Sugar Creek & Clean Withlacoochee 2025-02-12, Clean Alapaha River 2025-02-13, Before the rains]
Dirty Sugar Creek & Clean Withlacoochee 2025-02-12, Clean Alapaha River 2025-02-13, Before the rains

But Valdosta Utilities got good results for the Withlacoochee River both upstream and downstream of Sugar Creek.

And WWALS got excellent results for the Alapaha River at Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach.

One new sewage spill was reported in the last week in Georgia, by Ashburn, into Hat Creek upstream on the Alapaha River. See other post:
https://wwals.net/?p=66982

None were reported in Florida.

Saturday is supposed to be partly sunny, with thunderstorms Sunday.

So other than near Sugar Creek, happy fishing, swimming, paddling, and boating this weekend, before the rain!

We did cancel the chainsaw cleanup tomorrow, due to high water level and Sugar Creek contamination.

But there’s another one on Sunday, February 23:
https://wwals.net/?p=66972

Continue reading →

Hahira wastewater treatment plant permit reissuance request NPDES GA0037974 2024-10-16

Last October, after a public comment period that apparently had few if any comments, GA-EPD reissued Hahira’s wastewater permit, with eight major changes, all tightening or updating effluent limits.

[Collage Hahira wastewater treatment plant permit reissuance request NPDES GA0037974 2025-10-16]
Collage Hahira wastewater treatment plant permit reissuance request NPDES GA0037974 2025-10-16

The re-issued permit is on the WWALS website.

Please Note The Following Changes to the Proposed NPDES Permit From The Existing Permit:

Part I.B — Effluent Limitations and Monitoring Requirements — Stream Discharge:

  • Decreased the monthly average biochemical oxygen Demand (BODs) limit from 30 mg/L to 20 mg/L to be protective of the instream Water Quality standards (WQS) for Dissolved Oxygen (DO).
  • Decreased the monthly average ammonia limit from 10 mg/L to 1.0 mg/L to be protective of the instream WQS for DO and address toxicity impairment.
  • Added a daily minimum dissolved oxygen limit of 5.0 mg/L to be protective of the instream WQS for DO.
  • Added monthly total nitrogen (TN) limit of 20 mg/L to meet Florida’s instream nutrient criteria at the State line.
  • Added total phosphorus (TP) limit of 3.6 mg/L to meet Florida’s instream nutrient criteria at the state line
  • Replaced monthly average fecal coliform effluent limit of 200 counts/100 mL with monthly average Escherichia coli (E. coli) of 126 counts/100 mL to reflect the recently approved bacterial indicator for freshwater. The proposed limit is in accordance with EPD’s Bacteria Equivalency Strategy for Using the Optimal Indicator Organisms for WQS and NPDES Permitting, 2022.
  • Converted mass loading limits from kg/day to lbs/day to be consistent with other NPDES permits in Georgia.
  • Added effluent data monitoring testing requirements for future permit renewal.

The settling ponds are at 598 Hall St, Hahira, GA 31632.

What the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) calls the “unnamed tributary to Franks Creek”, we call Hahira LAS Pond Branch on the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail. Continue reading →

Cleaner but still dirty Sugar Creek 2025-01-24

Update 2025-01-31: Clean New, Withlacoochee, Alapaha Rivers; Sugar Creek finally OK 2025-01-29.

As Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes promised Friday, results from the Valdosta water quality samples that day are on the city’s website.

There’s good news and bad news.

[Cleaner but still dirty, Sugar Creek 2025-01-24, Baytree Road bad, Gornto Road worse]
Cleaner but still dirty, Sugar Creek 2025-01-24, Baytree Road bad, Gornto Road worse

The good news is: E. coli counts at Gornto Road are down to 2,500 from 8,900 cfu/100 mL a week before. Continue reading →

Sugar Creek still filthy Saturday in Valdosta test results 2025-01-11

Update 2025-01-17: OK Little and Withlacoochee Rivers, Dirty New River, Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-01-15.

GA-EPD has updated the Valdosta Sugar Creek spill to 15,000 gallons. That’s more than 10,000 gallons, which is a major spill. Valdosta’s state-required reporting after it shows Sugar Creek still filthy for Saturday.

[Sugar Creek still filthy in Valdosta testing 2025-01-11, follow-up after Major Sewage Spill]
Sugar Creek still filthy in Valdosta testing 2025-01-11, follow-up after Major Sewage Spill

Valdosta’s new web page on 2025 Sugar Creek Spill Testing shows 5,300 Fecal coliform and 5,500 cfu/100 mL E. coli at Gornto Road for Saturday. That’s 5.5 times the 1,000 alert limit. Continue reading →

Valdosta sewage spill reports to GA-EPD from November 7 through December 3, 2024

Update 2024-12-13: Filthy Sugar Creek, dirty Franks Creek, bad upstream Withlacoochee River, clean downstream 2024-12-12.

I got part of what I asked for in an open records request to the City of Valdosta: “All sewage spill reports sent to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) on or after November 6, 2024, through December 2, 2024”. Those provide some extra detail, and some hints of fixes being planed for these problems.

[Valdosta sewage spill reports to GA-EPD, from November 7 through December 3, 2024]
Valdosta sewage spill reports to GA-EPD, from November 7 through December 3, 2024

I did not get the rest of it: “together with all associated correspondence between the City of Valdosta, GA-EPD, and other parties including state agencies in Georgia and Florida and relevant landowners.”

The December Meadowbrook Drive spill into Two Mile Branch

Let’s look at the most recent spill in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, and compare that to what Valdosta Utilities sent to GA-EPD. Continue reading →

Ashburn sewage spills, October and November 2024 in GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report 2024-10-14

Ashburn still needs to get a grip on its sewage spills. More timely reporting would also be good. One of them showed up in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report a month late, and the other a week after the spill.

I missed seeing these Ashburn spills when they first appeared, due to a glitch in network access for the WWALS software that retrieves and interprets these reports daily.

[Ashburn sewage spills, October and November 2024, in GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report 2024-11-13]
Ashburn sewage spills, October and November 2024

It’s not clear why it says “Wet weather” for October 14, since the only rain records I can find for Ashburn, Georgia, say it was clear and sunny that day and the day before. There was a fatal car wreck on I-75 in Ashburn on October 14, but the news report says nothing about wet weather.

Of course, Ashburn could have had its own flash flood event.

The November 7 Ashburn spill coincides with the Valdosta flash flood, and some of that rain did extend farther north. Continue reading →