Details here.
-jsq
Update 2016-04-05: Actually, force main and new WWTP on line by May.
Frances Adams asked:
I just want to know when will this be fixed, I can’t even drink my water for it having ecoli in it. Someone needs to do something now!!!
The two biggest pieces are scheduled to be finished this summer and next summer:
the force main project in July 2016, and the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant relocated uphill by August 2017.
Valdosta is spending upwards of $300 million to fix the problem.
As I point out every time I post about new spills, there are still open questions and, as your Waterkeeper® Affiliate for the upper Suwannee River and the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers, WWALS Watershed Coalition will keep after Valdosta until we get the answers. See also the slides and videos from the meeting Valdosta held for us a year ago about this.
Here’s what Valdosta’s Sewer System Improvements web page says today: Continue reading
Sent this morning to the Suwannee Board of County Commissioners. They meet 6PM tonight, 5 April 2016, at the Suwannee County Judicial Annex, 218 Parshley St. SW, Live Oak, FL, and Sabal Trail is on the agenda.
Dear Chairman Bashaw and Commissioners,
Thank you for coming to see with your own eyes at Suwannee River State Park and Falmouth Spring some of what Sabal Trail did not tell FERC. As you know, after that site visit, the Hamilton Board of County Commissioners sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inviting them to come see for themselves, as well.
Despite what Sabal Trail and FPL will tell you, pipelines are not inevitable.
As you may be aware, Continue reading
Sent 5 April 20156. PDF.
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Continue readingWondering why Valdosta is having an overflow problem? It was rain on Valdosta, and north of Valdosta.
Not so much northwest on the Little River, nor even west on Okapilco Creek: Continue reading
Once again, Suwannee County follows Hamilton County’s lead.
Carl McKinney, Suwannee Democrat, 1 April 2016, Suwannee County Commission to discuss Sabal Trail sinkholes,
At its next meeting, the commission will consider sending a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which must issue a permit for the pipeline project.
The letter would mimic one Hamilton County recently voted to send, said Suwannee County Commissioner Wesley Wainwright.
Wainwright asked Continue reading
Who thought it was a good idea for stormwater to go into Valdosta’s sanitary sewer system?
Whoever it was, the current Valdosta Utilities, Engineering, and especially Stormwater Director have to deal with it, frequently.
Maybe some of the upwards of $300 million Valdosta is spending on force main, new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant, etc., will help with this problem.
But none of that will stop rain from falling on Valdosta,
and little of it is directed at the Alapaha River watershed in Valdosta,
where one of this week’s three spills went.
Come see for yourself where Sugar Creek flows into the Withlacoochee River, this Sunday morning, April 3rd, on the extra WWALS Outing from Langdale Park to the Little River Boat Ramp. And come paddle with us on the Alapaha River Saturday morning April 23rd, from Hotchkiss Road in Lanier County to Mayday in Echols County, upstream from where Knights Creek flows into Mud Swamp Creek, which joins Grand Bay Creek to form the Alapahoochee River, which joins the Alapaha River in Florida. And of course both the Withlacoochee and the Alapaha join the Suwannee River. Valdosta says there’s no significant vestige of its wastewater that far downstream. It would be good to have some independent water quality monitoring to be sure.
I notice Section 5 Mud Swamp Creek Basin of Valdosta’s Master Stormwater Management Plan says: Continue reading
Update 2016-03-31: Rescheduled for Ray’s Mill Pond, due to flood stage on the Withlacoochee River.
Back on the Withlacoochee River in Valdosta,
by popular demand from last weekend’s outing!
We’ll continue next weekend on the next leg down the Withlacoochee River
on the
Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.
When: 9AM Sunday April 3rd 2016
Put in: Continue reading
Many of us may have thought of this, but VSU art professor Dominick Gheesling actually did it:
way down the Suwannee River from Fargo below the swamp all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
All of the preparation that could be done was done. My ever-patient wife had given me permission to fall off the grid for a while. My friend Todd Bertolaet helped me load up all of the gear and took me to Fargo, Georgia where I launched on a twenty-nine day expedition, traveling the length of the Suwannee River, via canoe, to the terminus at the Gulf of Mexico. Photographing the length of this historic, iconic, southern river connected me to life and the earth in a manner that I had been missing for a long time.
I am more convinced than ever that Continue reading