Come learn about coal ash and
bills in the Georgia legislature right now.
Rev. Deacon Leeann Culbreath
of
Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL)
has organized two meetings,
in Tifton and Valdosta.
WWALS will be speaking at each of these meetings.
Tag Archives: quality
Concrete around Sabal Trail pipe on Sand Mine Road 2017-02-07, 2017-02-21
In what document did FERC permit concrete wrapped around Sabal Trail pipe?
And why was concreted pipe still being trucked in yesterday,
two weeks after these aerials?
Pictures by Jim Tatum from Southwings flight for WWALS 7 Feb 2017
Sabal Trail down Sand Mine Road 28.3105110, -81.6738150
Continue readingSouth Georgia state legislators and coal ash bills
Update 2017-02-23: Added contact information
Bills are before the Georgia legislature right now about disposing of
leaking pools of toxic coal ash,
and two members of the relevant committee are in south Georgia.
Five landfills in south Georgia already received coal ash from TVA
several years ago, including the landfill in Lowndes County, which also
received coal ash from Florida.
In south Georgia,
- Rep. Sam Watson District 172, 404.656.0213, sam.watson@house.ga.gov, is Vice Chair of the Natural Resources & Environment Committee (HNRE).
- Rep. John Corbett District 174, 404-656-0213, john.corbett@house.ga.gov, is a member of HNRE.
As you can see by this interactive map, Sam Watson’s District 172 includes the Tifton-Omega/Eldorado Rd landfill in Tift County, which is also in the Georgia Senate District 13 of Greg Kirk. Sen. Kirk’s district also has Crisp Co-US 41S Site 2 (Ph 4&5) MSWL (Crisp County) and Plant Crisp (Crisp County Power Commission) – Ash Pond, Warwick, Crisp County.
In Rep. Corbett’s District 174 are two landfills: Camden Co-SR110 MSWL (Camden County), and Chesser Island Road Landfill, Inc. MSWL (Charlton County). The Chesser Island Road Landfill is one of only six in the state that had told GA-EPD two weeks ago that it does plan to accept coal ash.
The Camden County landfill is also in GA Senate District 3, William T. Ligon, Jr. (Brunswick). The Charlton County landfill is also in GA Senate District 7, Tyler Harper, who also in his district Atkinson Co – SR 50 MSWL (Atkinson County) and Fitzgerald, Kiochee Church Rd, Ph.2 (Ben Hill County).
Rep. Corbett also represents the southeast part of Lowndes County, in which just outside Corbett’s district in Amy Carter’s District 175 is Advanced Disposal Services’ Evergreen Landfill, Inc., the one that has accepted coal ash before from TVA and JEA. That Lowndes County landfill is also in GA Senate District 8, Ellis Black. Sen. Black’s district also includes the Cook County Taylor Road landfill, which is also in House District 170, Penny Houston.
Only three landfills (and no coal ash ponds) are actually in WWALS watersheds (the Suwannee River Basin) in Georgia. They are: the Tifton-Omega/Eldorado Rd landfill in Tift County, Cook County Taylor Road landfill, and Advanced Disposal Services’ Evergreen Landfill, Inc. in Lowndes County. However, legislative districting leaves the same state legislators responsible for those landfills also responsible for others.
Here is contact information for all Georgia state legislators in the Suwannee River Basin:
The Bills
Three bills have been introduced this session to protect our communities from coal waste pollution:- HB 387 requires utilities to get the proper permits before discharging coal ash wastewater into Georgia’s waterways;
- HB 388 ensures that landfills receiving coal ash have a good plan and take adequate precautions to prevent coal ash contamination;
- SB 165 ensures that anyone who produces coal ash remains liable for that ash forever and that Georgians can take action against out of state producers if their water and communities are polluted
In order for these bills to pass this year, they must make it out of their respective chambers (House for HB 387/HB 388 and Senate for SB 165) by Crossover Day, March 3.
Disposing of Coal Ash
For why coal ash is a problem, see this fact sheet by Georgia Water Coalition (GWC).
It is the position of GWC, of which WWALS is a member, that these bills are what is needed. WWALS is a partner of GWC and agrees that these bills are better than the current situation. WWALS has the further position that we’d prefer no more coal ash in any landfills in our watersheds, and that those companies that produced this toxic waste be responsible for disposing of it safely on their own land at their own expense.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Only Valdosta and Tifton spilled sewage in Georgia in Suwannee River Basin in January 2017
GA-EPD’s Atlanta office sent
their entire sewage spill database for January 2017 in response to an open records request from WWALS.
For the Suwannee River Basin,
I see only the known ones by Valdosta, plus a spill from Moultrie’s
Carlton Woods Lift Station into the Ocholockonee River,
with 36000 gallons, which matches
the amount we got directly from Moultrie.
That Ochlockonee spill is still not in the Suwannee River Basin.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) Southwest office in Albany handles the other sewage treatment operations in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, and that Albany office already told us by telephone that they had no reported spills other than the Tifton spill into the New River which I had gotten directly from Tifton. So I think we can conclude there were no other sewage spills into the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia in January 2017 other than the ones from Valdosta and Tifton.
Interestingly, Valdosta with its 2.2 million gallon Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) leak (and three manhole spills) was not the winner. Continue reading
FL House Rep. Elizabeth Porter asks EPA to Valdosta wastewater
There’s been an outcry for the EPA to intervene, from people
downstream of Valdosta on the Withlacoochee and
Suwannee Rivers.
Representing Hamilton, Suwannee, Columbia, and Baker Counties
in the Florida statehouse,
FL Rep. Elizabeth Porter [R-10]
has taken up that cry.
In the current political climate of the EPA being downsized after it already was underfunded, Continue reading
Valdosta attempts to come clean about sewage, and how you can help
People keep asking me what can be done to prevent this from happening again?
Valdosta has already built an entirely new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) uphill out of the flood plain,
and a force main to reroute sewage
around most of the manholes that previously were leaking:
see their extensive writeups on those and other improvements.
This recent event was due to equipment failure at the new WWTP,
and they have the contractors out there redoing that under warranty.
What can you do? Continue reading
Coal ash protection legislation pending in Georgia legislature
The Georgia Water Coalition (of which WWALS is a partner) notes the city of Brunswick, Georgia passed a resolution agaionst coal ash 21 September 2016, and legislation is about to appear in the Georgia House of Representatives. There is already TVA and JEA coal ash in the Pecan Row Landfill in Lowndes County, just outside Valdosta, and in WWALS watersheds other landfills likely to be targetted are in Cook, Tift, Atkinson, Ben Hill, and Crisp Counties (see GWC map), all upstream of the Withlacoochee or Alapaha Rivers, and all upstream of the Suwannee River, all above the Floridan Aquifer from which we all drink. We don’t want the utility company coal ash problem exported to our landfills. The companies that produced this toxic pollutant should be responsible for disposing of it safely at their expense without foisting it on the rest of us.
Coal Ash in Your District — Ash Ponds & Municipal Solid Waste, Published by the GA Water Coalition
See also the GWC position on coal ash.
WWALS recommends all Georgia legislators, especially those in WWALS watersheds, join in to prevent further coal ash contamination. See as an example the PR below by Rep. Jeff Jones of Brunswick, which concludes: Continue reading
SRWMD says FDEP has confirmed river contamination possibly from Valdosta sewage 2017-01-26
Enteric bacteria have been confirmed in the Withlacoochee River,
and in the Suwannee River downstream of the confluence,
say SRWMD and FDEP, while there’s
still no update on the City of Valdosta website
about
the 2.2 million gallons of sewage
Valdosta leaked into the Withlacoochee River and didn’t tell the public about for two days.
Valdosta wasn’t the only city to spill into the Withlacoochee during the recent storms. Tifton did, too, but Valdosta’s spill was more than 230 times bigger than Tifton’s. And city sewage is not the only source of contamination in the rivers: wildlife, agricultural animals, and septic tanks add to it. Baseline monitoring would help disentangle which is which. But nobody is going to believe this contamination this time came from any place but Valdosta.
SRWMD, News Flash, 2017-01-26 (no time given), Health Officials Confirm Wastewater Contamination In The Withlacoochee And Suwannee Rivers,
Madison, Fla. — The Florida Department of Health in Hamilton, Madison and Suwannee today issued a joint health advisory extending the previous advisory for the Withlacoochee River to include a portion of the Suwannee River. The health advisory is now in effect for residents and visitors on the Withlachoochee River and on a portion of the Suwannee River from the point where the two rivers meet, downstream along the border of Madison and Suwannee County to the Lafayette County line just above Dowling Park. The river waters are not safe for contact during recreational use at this time.
Test results from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection water sampling in the area have confirmed high levels of enteric bacteria possibly due to a large spill of untreated sewage reported by the City of Valdosta, Georgia.
People are urged to avoid contact with water in the Withlacoochee River and the impacted areas of the Suwannee River. Water contaminated with wastewater overflow presents several health risks to humans. Untreated human sewage with microbes can cause gastrointestinal issues, disease, infections or rashes.
Anyone who comes in contact with the river water should wash thoroughly, especially hands, and before eating and drinking. Children and older adults, as well as people with weakened immune systems, are particularly vulnerable to disease so every precaution should be taken to avoid contact with river water.
Additional sampling will take place to determine when the river water is safe for recreational use.
Individuals with questions about the spillage should contact Valdosta Environmental Manager Scott Fowler at 229-259-3592 or by email at sfowler@valdostacity.com.
Individual with questions for Florida DEP should contact wastewater coordinator Jim Mayer at the NE District office in Jacksonville at 904-256-1700.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Sabal Trail pipe and tires standing in water, Cool Springs Road, Baconton, GA 2017-01-25
And they followed her down the road, as Sabal Trail’s hardhats usually do
when they see anybody watching their trail of destruction.
This was Wednesday 25 January 2017 on Cool Springs Road, Baconton, GA,
31.306085, -84.008770.
Pictures and video by Sherry Layton Gatewood: they didn’t scare her off, and they haven’t scared off the many other people throughout Florida, Georgia, and Alabama who are watching them like hawks, looking for violations.
Kind of hard to get to your fields to do agriculture with this in the way.
Water standing on Sabal Trail RoW, Colquitt County towards Mitchell County, GA 2017-01-25
After the recent storms, water is standing on Sabal Trail’s
exotic invasive planted grasses, and sometimes on bare dirt,
some of it apparently eroded, in Colquitt County, Georgia
west of Moultrie towards Mitchell County.
Remember, that 3-foot fracked methane pipe is only 3 feet under the surface.
It wouldn’t take much erosion to expose it, increasing likelihood of corrosion,
leak, break, explosion, etc.
These pictures were taken Continue reading