Tag Archives: Hightower Creek

Clean rivers 2023-02-16

Update 2023-02-25: Clean Withlacoochee River 2023-02-23.

According to WWALS results for Thursday, happy boating, swimming, and fishing in our rivers this weekend!

Provided you like high water and are prepared to deal with overhanging limbs and getting lost in the floodplain.

I might avoid the Alapaha River at Sasser Landing, due to Valdosta’s Wednesday February 15th probably major spill into Knights Creek.

Valdosta’s other two sewage spills this month, Wednesday, February 8th into Hightower Creek above Sugar Creek and Saturday, February 11th into Cherry Creek probably were too small to have any significant effect on the Withlacoochee River. The WWALS Sunday tests on Cherry Creek and the river appear to have verified that lack of effect for that one, and regular test results after the Hightower Creek one ditto.

No other recent sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida: just Valdosta. Continue reading →

Valdosta River Street sewage spill into Hightower Creek 2023-02-08

Update 2023-02-24: Another Valdosta E. Park Ave. sewage spill, 171,750 gallons 2023-02-20

Update 2023-02-18: Clean rivers 2023-02-16.

This one showed up Tuesday, February 14th in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, reporting a Valdosta spill of the previous Wednesday, February 8, 2023.

[Spill report, manhole, map]
Spill report, manhole, map

The reason given was “Pipe failure”.

The good part is that with only 1,170 gallons spilled, there was probably little effect on Sugar Creek and none to worry about on the Withlacoochee River. Nothing unusual showed up in water quality testing by Valdosta or WWALS for that day or the next two.

Below is a map of the area, and a Google streetview of my best guess of where it was, going by Valdosta’s sloppy week-late report of “1700 block of River St”. Continue reading →

New York landfill court case illustrates right to clean water 2022-12-30

A lawsuit using New York State’s recent Environmental Rights Amendment illustrates what a Right to Clean Water constitutional amendment could do for Florida or Georgia.

Here’s what’s going on in Perinton, NY. Then Joseph Bonasia of Florida Rights of Nature Network provides examples of how Florida’s pending Right to Clean and Healthy Waters (RTCW) could be used to solve similar cases.

In Georgia, an RTCW amendment could perhaps be used to get cities to stop trash from polluting waterways, for example maybe to get Valdosta to enforce its ordinances against landowners letting trash off their property and requiring so many trash cans per number of parking places. That would keep much trash out of creeks such as Hightower Creek, Sugar Creek, and the Withlacoochee River, protecting neighborhood children, wildlife, and the river all the way to Florida.

[High Acres Landfill, Rochester, NY. Photo: Max Schulte]
High Acres Landfill, looms over a neighborhood in Perinton, near Rochester, NY. Residents claim the dump violates their state constitutional right to “clean air, clean air, and a healthful environment.”, Photo: Max Schulte

Gino Fanelli, Rochester City Newspaper, March 28, 2022, Neighbors say Perinton landfill violates their constitutional right to ‘clean air’,

The sour scent of rot hung over Perinton Parkway one early spring day.

Continue reading →

Valdosta Mayor Scott James on trash at Hightower Creek 2022-12-15

With a sudden break in his schedule, Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson drove to see the parking lot where people park, eat their lunch, and toss their trash next to a creek.

He didn’t like it, and said so. Here’s the problem and how to fix it.

You can help by reporting trash or other problems through Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix app.

[Mayor, trash, fast food, trash cans at storefronts]
Mayor, trash, fast food, trash cans at storefronts

He had not seen this mess before, on St. Augustine Road, next to Hightower Creek. Continue reading →

Parking lot litter Click ‘n’ Fix closed without cleanup 2022-11-21

Previously I promised an update on the lack of trash cans in the parking lot on St. Augustine Road at Hightower Creek that resulted in litter.

[Pictures and Actions]
Pictures and Actions

The short version is in https://seeclickfix.com/issues/13703334: Continue reading →

No trash can results in litter 2022-08-30

Update 2022-11-30: Parking lot litter Click ‘n’ Fix closed without cleanup 2022-11-21.

This happened at the bottom of the parking lot on St. Augustine Road next to Hightower Creek. The same parking lot we previously reported as a good example, upstream from Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River.

Yet they never put out trash cans, and this is what results.

[Litter, litterers]
Litter, litterers

Bobby Mckenzie sent these pictures August 30, 2022, with this explanation:

Obviously there is no excuse for this woman’s actions. But she walk to look for a trash can and didn’t find one. Then she threw it in the mess that was already there.

Initially the litter bug looked for a trash can.

Just as guilty of allowing this to happen are the business/property owners, the Public Works Director, Assistant City Manager and City Marshalls for failing to do their part.

The business not complying with the existing City Ordinance, the City Marshalls REFUSING to enforce that very City Ordinance

Continue reading →

Dollar Tree Trash Pile, 1801 Norman Drive, Valdosta, GA 2022-07-31

Bobby McKenzie reported yesterday, “Well again without wanting to and without trying…I found yet another mother load…”

This one is behind the Target, 1801 Norman Driver, Valdosta, GA 31601.

[Trash, drain, Hightower and Sugar Creeks]
Trash, drain, Hightower and Sugar Creeks

It drains into Hightower Creek, then Sugar Creek, then the Withlacoochee River.

Sure, the WaterGoat near the bottom of Sugar Creek, will probably catch this trash when it gets that far. We thank Valdosta again for buying that WaterGoat, and we look forward to Valdosta’s plan for cleaning it out.

And we are still looking for Valdosta to come up with a plan for education and enforcement of its quite good trash ordinances to get parking lot owners to keep trash from getting off their property and to put out trash cans and keep them emptied, as their own 2010 Stormwater Master Plan said they should do “immediately” twelve years ago.

Sure, people shouldn’t litter. But the fast food outlets sell this single-use packaging, and the parking lot owners let it get into the creeks despite the city ordinances. They should bear responsibility.

The City of Valdosta doesn’t expect volunteers to clean up sewage spills, even though city employees do not produce most of that sewage. Why should volunteers be expected to clean up Valdosta’s ongoing trash spills? Continue reading →

Fixed: storm drain next to Hightower Creek, Valdosta 2022-03-14

Congratulations, Valdosta, on getting this detention pond cleaned up and this private storm drain fixed. The fix didn’t even cost much. Yet it should keep some trash from going into Hightower Creek, Sugar Creek, and the Withlacoochee River.

Thanks to this property owner for pioneering such a fix. Other parking lot detention pond drains could probably apply similar inexpensive fixes.

You can help by reporting any trash or litter problem you see in Valdosta with Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app.

For trash or other problems elsewhere, here’s how to report: https://wwals.net/report/.

[Before and after]
Before and after

The drain fix is that bit of sawed-in-half pipe attached to the drain structure. It keeps trash from washing straight out. Instead, trash collects in the concrete block structure while water runs out the top. Inexpensive, yet should be effective. Continue reading →

KFC to Sugar Creek 2022-03-21

Here may be how that KFC trash got into the WWALS boom on Sugar Creek.

Remember, you can report trash problems through Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app. For trash or other problems elsewhere, here’s how to report: https://wwals.net/report/.

[KFC trash, creeks, boom]
KFC trash, creeks, boom

There’s a Kentucky Fried Chicken at 1300 St. Augustine Road, marked by the big red pushbutton on the map. Continue reading →

Sugar Creek Trash 2022-01-15

Trash lined both sides of Sugar Creek all the way to the Withlacoochee River Saturday.

Trash jams behind their houses probably don’t make people very happy in Wood Valley subdivision half a mile down the river.

At the proposed site of Troupville River Camp and Troupville River Park, trashjams at the Little River Confluence make those projects less viable, despite promotion by One Valdosta-Lowndes, VLPRA, Valdosta, Lowndes County, and WWALS.

Floridians do not thank Valdosta for this trash gift, which trash washes downstream into Florida and the Suwannee River, onwards to the Gulf.

[Trash down Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River]
Trash down Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River

This problem has been known to the City of Valdosta since at least 2010, when it finished its Stormwater Master Plan (SWMP). The SWMP describes and includes a photograph of the notorious Sugar Creek trashjam near the bottom of the Salty Snapper property. Continue reading →