These 120 sheets of detailed 2009 Construction Plans for the Brooks County Industrial Park contain a clue to how the sewer system there is connected to Quitman.
It turns out the clue is on the 2006 maps, too, but less obvious.
Stay tuned for that connection.
To interpret these sheets, it is useful to know that Prospect Drive is what appears on googlemaps as Fritzke Drive. Aviagen’s chicken incubation plant is south of Prospect Drive, east of GA 333. Continue reading
Congratulations to Jason Barnes on being promoted to Valdosta Director of Utilities after a year as Acting Director.
He has a lot of work left for him by previous city administrations, both in drinking water quality and a planned new well site, and of course in fixing Valdosta’s chronic sewer leaks, overflows, and spills, while expanding the sewer system to accomodate new industry.
The Withlacoochee River gets the most news, because most of Valdosta’s spills have been into creeks that flow into that river. But the collapsed sewer main next to Knights Creek ends up in Mud Swamp Creek, the Alapahoochee River, and the Alapaha River. The city seems to have finally gotten a handle on that one, having replaced most of that sewer main, with the rest to be scheduled as regular repairs instead of expensive emergency fixes.
Nobody is going to be happy until there are no more spills, but I have seen fewer spills that did not last as long since Jason Barnes has been in charge.
About the first thing I heard from him once he became Acting Director was that a sewage spill had contaminated Sugar Creek, so we rerouted from a boating cleanup to an onland cleanup. Jason Barnes showed up in person at that cleanup, where we thanked him for telling us. Continue reading
Update 2024-07-05: Bad Franks Creek, unknown rivers, after much rain 2024-07-03.
The Withlacoochee River tested clean for Wednesday and Thursday, and the Santa Fe River for Monday.
Retesting upstream and downstream from the previous One Mile Branch Valdosta Williams Street anomolous results found little to no E. coli.
No sewage spills were reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.
The rivers are almost all down to good boating and fishing levels; maybe too low in some areas.
There was rain on the Withlacoochee River in several places over several days, so some contamination may have washed in.
Other than that, happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend!
![[Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers, but rain 2024-06-27]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-27--wq/many.jpg)
Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers, but rain 2024-06-27
Cindy Vedas tested three upstream Withlacoochee sites Thursday.
For Franklinville Road at Tyler Bridge, she got Continue reading
Update 2024-06-29: Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers 2024-06-27.
With no rain for a further week, the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Santa Fe Rivers tested clean for Wednesday and Thursday. There was an unusual test result for One Mile Branch at Williams Street in Valdosta for Monday.
No sewage spills were reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.
The rivers are almost all down to good boating and fishing levels.
There is some chance of rain Saturday and Sunday.
Other than that, happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend!
For this Thursday, June 20, Kim Tanner sampled Continue reading
Update 2024-07-04: Brooks County Industrial Park Maps 2009-03-03.
Update 2024-06-21: Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Santa Fe Rivers, problem on One Mile Branch 2024-06-19.
Here’s a map of the sewer system in the Brooks County Industrial Park, plus maps of the water and road systems. These maps were sent by the Brooks County Industrial Authority a couple of years ago in response to a WWALS open records request.
![[Brooks County Industrial Park, Sewer System 2006-05-09, Site Plan, Grading, Drainage, Water]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2006-05-09--brooks-county-industrial-park/fbmany.jpg)
Brooks County Industrial Park, Sewer System 2006-05-09, Site Plan, Grading, Drainage, Water
What this industrial park sewer system map does not show is: how does it connect to the rest of Quitman’s sewer system?
How Quitman’s sewer system works and where it is important, because Quitman has had quite a few reported sewage spills; see Quitman: Noncompliance, 9 effluent violations, 5 sewage spills, 11 monitoring violations, 1 reporting violation –GA-EPD Nov 2022 – Oct 2023. Quitman is upstream of the Withlacoochee River, and some of its former spills have quite likely travelled all the way down the Suwannee River to the Gulf of Mexico. Continue reading
Update 2024-06-21: Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Santa Fe Rivers, problem on One Mile Branch 2024-06-19.
With no rain for a week, four rivers tested clean, except the Santa Fe River at US 129 (Guy Lemmon) Ramp was above the one-time limit for E. coli.
No sewage spills were reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.
The rivers are mostly down to good boating and fishing levels.
There is some chance of rain Sunday.
Other than that, happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend!
Oh, and welcome back WWALS tester Cindy Vedas, and first-time tester Mark Coppage.
![[Clean Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe Rivers except at US 129 2024-06-13]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-13--wq/many.jpg)
Clean Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe Rivers except at US 129 2024-06-13
Cindy Vedas sampled Thursday at two upstream sites on the Withlacoochee River, and got zero E. coli at both.
About Staten Road, she wrote, Continue reading
Update 2024-06-15: Brooks County Industrial Park: Site Plan, Grading, Drainage, Water, Sewer 2006-05-09.
These are some sewer and water system maps obtained from the City of Quitman in January 2022 in response to a WWALS open records request.
The March 1986 map by Smith and Gillespie Engineers, Inc. is the easiest to read. Unfortunately, most of the numbers of the lift stations seem to have changed since then.
![[Lift Station Scan March 1986]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-01-03--quitman-utility-map/Lift-Station-Scan-1986-0001.jpg)
Lift Station Scan March 1986
PDF
The most informative map is dated March 28, 2019, by Tindall Enterprises, Inc. It has updated numbers for the lift stations that may be current. This matters for determining where reported sewage spills are, and what watersheds they drain into. Continue reading
You can help ask your members of Congress to protect military servicemembers, the surrounding community, agriculture, industry, and wildlife.
Numerous military bases in recent years have reported contamination of waterways and groundwater by PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals that do not degrade over time, and can cause a variety of diseases.
![[Map: military sites with known or suspected PFAS discharges --EWG]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-07--ewg-pfas-ndaa-letter/2024-06-10--map-ewg-pfas-military.jpg)
Map: military sites with known or suspected PFAS discharges –EWG
Right now is an opportunity to get a couple of amendments into the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to require the Department of Defense to tell everyone about PFAS contamination, to test to see how far it has spread, including private wells, and to provide alternate water supplies if necessary.
That PFAS work will also bring federal dollars to the districts.
You can sign on to a request letter here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeg8c_Stwv5iuXcEEgsYXIx9vIZRQy_lg4RoHIymcR7ZsYNYw/viewform
Or write your own, or call or meet with your Representative.
Affected bases include: Continue reading
Update 2024-06-14: Clean Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Ichetucknee, Santa Fe Rivers except @ US 129 2024-06-13.
With little rain, the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers tested clean for Wednesday. But Franks Creek west of Hahira was quite filthy. Why is a mystery, unless the Hahira sewer pipe crossing the creek was leaking.
![[Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha River, Filthy Franks Creek 2024-06-05]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-05--wq/many.jpg)
Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha River, Filthy Franks Creek 2024-06-05
One sewage spill was reported in the past week, a big one from Ashburn, far upstream from the Alapaha River.
The weather prediction for the weekend is sunny and hot.
The Alapaha is still high, but other than that, happy boating, swimming, and fishing!
Maybe join us tomorrow,
Sullivan Launch to Madison Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River, 2024-06-08.
https://wwals.net/?p=64848 Continue reading
Update 2024-06-17: GA-EPD has said why they did not return followup water quality testing results.
Update 2024-06-11: Quitman, GA, utility maps 2022-01-03.
Update 2024-06-07: Filthy Franks Creek, clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers, despite Ashburn spill 2024-06-05.
Back on December 27, 2023, I sent what I thought was a routine request to the city of Quitman, Georgia, for state-required followup testing after a major sewage spill.
After four requests to Quitman and two to GA-EPD, I finally got a response from GA-EPD this Wednesday, five months later.
This foot-dragging was quite surprising, since previously I had sent such requests to Quitman and they had their former sewer system contractor send the test results within the statutory three days of the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA).
The GA-EPD response still did not contain the followup test results, but it did show GA-EPD had already taken action for that an other Quitman sewage spills, effluent violations, monitoring violations, and a reporting violation.
Update 2024-06-17: GORArequest.Water@dnr.ga.gov answered on June 7, 2024 my followup questions of that same day:
John,
The LON was sent November 7, 2023. The spill report indicates 5,000 gallons spilled into a drainage ditch. The volume did not exceed 10,000 gallons, so stream monitoring would not be required. EPD’s database has been updated to revise the volume from 12,000 gallons to 5,000 gallons.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Thanks
This is the subject sewage spill, according to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD)’s Sewage Spills Report of July 21, 2023. Continue reading
![[Construction Plans, Brooks County Industrial Park 2009-03-03, DeVane PlanEng, Brooks County Industrial Authority]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2009-03-03--brookscoda-maps/fbmany.jpg)
![[Jason Barnes, Valdosta, Utilities Director 2024-07-01, Water and sewer systems, Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-07-01--vld-utilities-public-works/fbmany.jpg)
![[Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Santa Fe River 2024-06-20; Problem on One Mile Branch @ Williams Street 2024-06-17]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-19--wq/many.jpg)
![[Quitman, GA, Noncompliant for Nov 2022 - Oct 2023 --GA-EPD, 9 effluent, 5 spills,, 11 monitoring, 1 reporting]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-06-05--quitman-gora-wq/fbmany.jpg)