Tag Archives: Suwannee River

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, USGS Streamer 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!

Tifton wastewater spill into the New River

Valdosta wasn’t the only city to spill sewage in the recent storms, but Tifton’s spill was tiny by comparison.

Downstream from Tifton Regional Wastewater Treatment Complex (TRE) Following up a rumor, I called the city of Tifton and eventually got to Tommy Coker, Wastewater Superintendent, Tifton Regional Waste Water Treatment Complex (TRE). You won’t find him listed on Tifton’s website, because he works for the private contractor that runs TRE: ESG Operations, Inc. That arrangement was announced in November 2012.

Anyway, Tommy Coker says they did have a spill, of 9,500 gallons, into a storm drain inside the TRE site, that goes into the New River. It started Sunday January 22nd and stopped about midnight Monday January 23rd, 2017.

The TRE is located at 80 Old Brookfield Rd W, Tifton, GA 31794, which is east of Tifton on US 82 towards Alapaha and Willacoochee, GA.

The New River flows into the Withlacoochee River east of Adel and south of Nashville, between Cook and Berrien Counties, GA. The Withlacoochee forms the rest of the border of those two counties, then flows through Lowndes County past Valdosta and its WWTP, then forms the border of Brooks and Lowndes County, Georgia, and Madison and Hamilton County, Florida, until it joins the Suwannee River, which runs on along Suwannee County and others down to the Gulf.

So Valdosta was not the only city to have a spill during the recent storms, but Valdosta’s 2.2 million gallon leak was more than 230 times bigger than Tifton’s spill.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Valdosta WWTP spilled millions of gallons and didn’t tell the public for days 2017-01-25

Update 2017-01-30:

Valdosta also didn’t tell the public all day after the spill stopped, and then posted something that’s flat not true.

I just called Valdosta WWTP Superintendent John Waite, as it says to do on the city’s PR posted Wednesday, January 25, 2017 5:09:00 PM, Withlacoochee Plant Warranty Repairs Underway, which says “The plant is under warranty and the repairs will be complete by end of day Jan. 25 at no cost to the city.” Meanwhile, the Valdosta Daily Times posted yesterday evening City sewage spill stopped.

I asked Superintendent Waite when the spill stopped.

Answer: Continue reading →

Walk for Water, Speak for the Springs 2017-01-28

With speakers from the far south of Florida (Tim Canova from Miami) and north (Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman) and everywhere between, you can come to Dunnellon, Florida, and walk to Rainbow Springs to hear and speak about the destruction the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline is wreaking right now less than half a mile from Dunnellon High School before it gouges under the other Withlacoochee (south) River from Marion County into Citrus County down to Crystal River, in addition to its main path down past Orlando which with Florida Southeast Connection sends bomb trucks and trains to Miami and Jacksonville.

When: 10:30 AM, Saturday, January 28, 2017

Where: 11012 Williams St, Dunnellon, FL 34432-8319

Event: facebook 11012 Williams St, Dunnellon, FL 34432-8319

Please sign Tim Canova’s peition to Continue reading →

International coverage of Sabal Trail opposition and Suwannee River water protectors –The Guardian 2017-01-24

For once a news story gives the last word to local water protectors, and it plays up our land and our water.

Richard Luscombe, The Guardian, 24 January 2017, Why a protest camp in Florida is being called the next Standing Rock: At first glance the quiet town of Live Oak seems an unlikely venue for a stand against Big Energy. But in recent weeks it’s become a centre of opposition,

A north Florida river that attracted the state’s first tourists a century before Walt Disney’s famous cartoon mouse is emerging at the centre of a fight against a contentious 515-mile natural gas pipeline that many are calling America’s next Standing Rock.

One section of the so-called Sabal Trail pipeline is being laid beneath the crystal waters of the Suwannee river, whose pure mineral springs were once fabled to cure anything from marital strife to gout.

The story quotes Continue reading →

Suwannee Riverkeeper Vessel 2017-01-14

Heading downstream On the Suwannee River on a fine Saturday afternoon, advocating for our rivers and the Floridan Aquifer and against the Sabal “Sinkhole” Trail fracked methane pipeline. The Waterkeeper Alliance requires each member to have a vessel. Here’s the Suwannee RIVERKEEPER® vessel.

Thanks to Tom H. Johnson, Jr. for paddling and for taking the picture. Thanks to Bret and April Huntley of Paint and Body Concepts for putting the name on the sides. Thanks to Phil Hubbard for the paddles and other assistance. And thanks to Lynne Buchanan for riding along, photographing, and helping paddle.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Heading downstream

Continue reading →

Sabal Trail red pipe going into the ground in Hamilton County, FL 2017-01-14

Sabal Trail pipe going into the ground, 30.3841030, -83.1753430 The day of action against Sabal Trail at the Suwannee River saw hundreds turn out on land, water, and in the air and got a lot of press, but Sabal Trail continued to pound pipe into the ground in Hamilton County, Florida, going under Suwannee River State Park (SRSP) and the Suwannee River.

On the WWALS website are photographs by Beth Gammie for WWALS from a Southwings flight piloted by Roy Zimmer, navigated by Can Denizman, January 14, 2017. You may reuse these pictures provided you cite the source: Beth Gammie for WWALS Watershed Coalition.

For where they were taken, see the WWALS Google Map.

Lynn Buchanan posted a facebook video taken from the woods of Suwannee River State Park.

Panorama, Sabal Trail pipe going into ground, Hamilton County, 30.4113889, -83.1652778

Continue reading →

CR 141 Sabal Trail Troy Access, Hamilton County, FL 2017-01-14

Are those two sinkholes at Sabal Trail’s Troy Access off CR 141 in Hamilton County, Florida, on the way to to under the Suwannee River? Only three Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies was light law enforcement by Saturday’s protest day standards. What about those other sinkholes just outside the pipeline easement?

NE to CR 141 Sabal Trail entrance with 3 Hamilton Co. Sheriff, 30.4164450, -83.1765850

NE to CR 141 Sabal Trail entrance with 3 Hamilton Co. Sheriff,

SE to CR 141 Sabal Trail Troy Access, 30.4171760, -83.1768130

Continue reading →

Revoke Sabal Trail Permits 2017-01-14

Water protectors encircle a sign saying “REVOKE SABAL TRAIL PERMITS” on 24th Street on Sabal Trail’s right of way leading to its Suwannee County horizontal directional drilling (HDD) site drilling under the Suwannee River and Suwannnee River State Park. So say we all.

24th Street at Sabal Trail RoW, 12:57 PM,

Photograph taken 12:57 PM, January 14, 2017 by Beth Gammie for WWALS from Southwings flight piloted by Roy Zimmer, navigated by Can Denizman. You may reuse this picture provided you cite the source: Beth Gammie for WWALS Watershed Coalition.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

Pictures and video, Suwannee River Outing and Protest 2017-01-14

Water protectors downstream, Suwannee River, Sabal Trail crossing, 30.4067260, -83.1565080 By water, land, and air hundreds gathered Saturday to protect the Suwannee River from the invading Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline. 23 people signed in at the WWALS paddle on the Suwannee River. You’ll see more pictures from others later, including from the Southwings flight for WWALS, and from the protest by others on land. Meanwhile, here are a few pictures, a few videos, a google map, plus people stuck outside Suwannee River State Park as reporters drove in, and a few pictures of red pipe going into the ground in Hamilton County, plus 15 state trooper cars. All the news stories I’ve seen thus far are also linked in, plus pictures of the two TV reporters arriving.

Sabal Trail pipe going into the ground, 30.3841030, -83.1753430 Thanks to the 23 paddlers, 5 from Georgia (1 from Hahira, 1 from Valdosta, 1 from Warner Robins, 2 from Pine Mountain) and 18 from Florida (2 from Jacksonville, 1 from Tallahassee, 2 from White Springs, 1 from Live Oak, 4 from Fort White, 4 from Alachua, 2 from Gainesville, 2 from Micanopy). That’s a range of more than 300 miles, along most of the Sabal Trail pipeline path and elsewhere. Thanks to Amy Wiegenstein for Continue reading →