Does Cherry Creek come from Grand Bay? This question came up about Valdosta’s Cherry Creek Lift Station Spill. No, but you weren’t alone if you didn’t know that.
Cherry Creek (lower left) and Grand Bay Creek (right)
Cherry Creek runs into the Withlacoochee River, and comes from very near Grand Bay, but not Continue reading
Valdosta had one spill at a lift station that lost power during Tropical Storm Irma, said David Frost, Interim Utilities Director, City of Valdosta, when I called him just now. I asked him if there were any others, and he said there was just that one.
He said it was a small spill. I asked how small. He said Continue reading
More Tropical Storm Irma effect. Received today, 12 September 2017:
Good morning, the meeting for the Regional Plan Workshop has been rescheduled from the 14th to:
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21st, 2017
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
SGRC Office
327 W Savannah, Ave.
Valdosta, GaSherry H. Davidson
Local Government Services Director
FullLogo
229-333-5277 ext.124
229-300-0923 cell
For suggestions from WWALS so far and more Continue reading
Update 2017-09-12: But one small lift station spill.
William “Ricky” Cornelius, Plant Superintendent, Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), said when I called him this morning there were no spills from WWTP nor from Valdosta’s Mud Creek Treatment Plant (MCWTP).
“I don’t think Mud Creek even lost power. We were on generator power here at the Withlacoochee plant, and our people had to work extra hours, but they were on top of it. We were prepared and had no spills.”
I have left a message at Valdosta Utilities about any manhole cover leaks. We shall see about those, and about other cities and counties and private wastewater facilities up and down the Suwannee River Basin.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
Don’t spill, Valdosta. Don’t leak, Sabal Trail. Hurricane Irma is bad enough already.
Valdosta announced its WWTP would be “manned around the clock”, so I called down there before 8AM this Saturday morning, and somebody did answer immediately. I told him as Suwannee Riverkeeper I was concerned for people downstream who don’t want any spills during the upcoming rains, so I was glad to see it was true they were there. I asked him if they had backup generators. He said yes. Of course, that doesn’t handle every manhole cover. We shall see. Don’t spill, Valdosta! (Or Lowndes County, or Tifton, or anybody else.)
Currently expecting somewhere between 4 and 10 inches of rain on Valdosta.
Map from National Hurricane Center, 2017-09-09 8AM.
City of Valdosta, PR, 8 September 2017, Valdosta-Lowndes County Hurricane Irma Update, Continue reading
Update 2017-10-29: Meet at VSU CORE.
A first for WWALS: an urban cleanup! One Mile Branch runs right through the heart of the biggest city in the Suwannee River Basin (Valdosta) and through the biggest educational institution in the Basin (Valdosta State University). It has some trash, and you can help WWALS come get it!
When: 10AM, Saturday, November 11, 2017
Where: One Mile Branch, through the heart of Valdosta and VSU.
Meet:
VSU CORE, 1300 Sustella Ave., Valdosta, GA
31698
(This is a WWALS event; we’re just meeting in CORE’s parking lot.)
Map: Brookdale Drive and VSU parking lot
Hosts: Scotti Jay and Dan Phillips
Contact: Continue reading
The good news: no wastewater spills from Valdosta since January.
And Valdosta has a new Utilities Director: Darryl Muse, formerly of Ocala, Marion County, Florida.
While at Ocala, Muse handled converting septic tanks to city sewer
and a wastewater plant upgrade,
both to protect springs.
Maybe he will be more sympathetic to people downstream in Florida than
certain officials still with the City of Valdosta.
Having completed the installation of the new Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant and the the force main at the Y on Gornto, Continue reading
A fine time on a hot sunny day on VSU’s front lawn at The Happening yesterday. Thanks to Scotti Jay and Sara Squires for helping!
Picture by John S. Quarterman for WWALS.
Tomorrow, with a few tens of thousands of our closest student friends, on the front lawn of Valdosta State University, it’s The Happening:
When: 12PM to 4PM, Thursday, August 24, 2017
Where: Front lawn, VSU, 1500 N Patterson St., Valdosta, Georgia 31698
What: According to VSU, The HAPPENING 2017: CELEBRATING 26 YEARS!, Continue reading
The biggest fire in the country, that started April 6, 2017 in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, has been out for about a month now, put out by rains, after massive containment efforts by fire crews from many counties and states. Apparently Lowndes County, Georgia, sent some assistance, since they have a special presentation about that fire on their agenda for this week. Their agendas never say whether such presentations are in the Work Session, which was this morning at 8:30 AM (it wasn’t) or in the Regular Session, Tuesday evening at 5:30 PM (must be then). Gretchen Quarterman was there this morning, and says they said the presenter will be someone unnamed from Charlton County. Gretchen will video the presentation for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Map:
InciWeb West Mims Fire Incident Updated 7/11/2017.
The fire within a week burned north into the Suwannee River watershed. A party of people we know, including Continue reading
