What crosses Lee Street and Gornton Road heading to the
Withlacoochee River? 
One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek, but you wouldn’t know that
from Valdosta’s press releases.
Valdosta PR 27 October 2015, Grease Blockage Causes Small Sanitary Sewer Spill in City,
At approximately 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 26, 2015, the City of Valdosta Utilities Department responded to a grease blockage that caused Continue reading
Thanks, Emily and Henry, and to the City of Valdosta for all your efforts. But could somebody please update the schedule on Valdosta’s website?
Subject: COV Sanitary Sewer System Improvement Update
Good afternoon Chris,
Thank you for reaching out to me today for an update on the sewer improvements that the City has underway. We have continued to make substantial progress since our meeting back in March that you attended. As discussed then, the city has two major projects underway. One is a $36 million dollar Force Main project and the other is a $23 million dollar Plant Relocation. As of today, the Force Main project is 5 months ahead of the July 2016 schedule and the Plant Relocation is 16 months ahead of schedule. Both projects are tracking a timeline to be complete and online around February 2016. Please note that we have not had any overflow or major permit violations at the wastewater treatment plant since making the emergency repairs in February 2014.
Below is a quick summary of an update I recently received in reference to the sewer manhole overflows: Continue reading
Valdosta can’t blame this one on rain upstream: it fell directly
on Valdosta, and once again
the same Meadowbrook Drive neighborhood
that’s been getting doused in sewage since 2009 saw it surging out
of a manhole, after three other streets got it.
Valdosta says it reported all this to GA-EPD, but good luck finding it
(or anything else) on EPD’s website.
Once again Valdosta on its own website didn’t even say
which river Sugar Creek dumps into,
but Florida figured it out, and ain’t happy.
The Florida Department of Health advisory is findable, and news media
and SRWMD picked that up.
Maybe Valdosta’s ongoing force main project will fix these overflows:
bids were requested earlier that same month for more parts of that project.
Maybe Valdosta could try to explain itself better in its own press releases?
Valdosta News, 29 August 2015, Update: Overflows Stopped, Continue reading
Spilling sewage into the Withlacoochee River apparently wasn’t enough
for Valdosta: in February it also spilled three times into the
Alapaha River watershed.
At least once this was due to rains directly on Valdosta,
for which
the
levee proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers on Sugar Creek
at the Withlacoochee River wouldn’t help.
It’s time for Valdosta to move along with fixing its wastewater problems.
More transparency from Valdosta would also help.
And I, for one, would like to see that promised Corps flooding study
of the entire Suwannee River Basin.
In three different reports in February, Valdosta mentioned sewage overflows into either Knights Creek or Dukes Bay Canal, without mentioning that those flow into Mud Swamp Creek, which joins with Grand Bay Creek to form the Alapahoochee River, which joins the Alapaha River, which flows into the Suwannee River. The Florida Department of Health apparently didn’t know that, since it didn’t mention the Alapaha River in its advisories for counties downstream. But Valdosta should know, according to its own SWMP Update Phase 1 Final Report, Section 2 Methodology, 2011-01-14, that about half of Valdosta is drained by Knights Creek and Dukes Bay Canal: Continue reading
Gretchen sent this letter to the Valdosta City Council last Thursday, and is going to read it to them tonight at their Regular Session (PDF. -jsq
Dear Valdosta City Council Members,
WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. would like to draw your attention to some issues related to rezoning VA-2014-07 Brooks Turner LLC at the corner of Baytree and Azalea Drive. As you are aware, flooding in Sugar Creek has been a problem for many years. The proposed development of lots between Baytree and Pinetree will result in the removal of approximately seventy (70) mature pine trees, increase paving percentage (the lots are mostly grass with clearly less than 50% covered by rooftops and hard paved surfaces), and most dramatically replace Continue reading