Tag Archives: VWW

Valdosta WWTP manned 24/7 with backup generators before Hurricane Irma 2017-09-09

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.)

NOAA NHC Rain Prediction, Hurricane Irma, 9 Sep 2017
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 →

Valdosta has a new Utilities Director

The good news: no wastewater spills from Valdosta since January. W-Darryl-Muse 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 →

Support the Clean Water Act for our rivers and aquifer

This Fourth of July holiday, you can help promote continued independence of clean water by opposing the EPA’s attempt to repeal the Clean Water Rule and then undermine the Clean Water Act. FLoridians in the seven counties that have asked the EPA to do something about Valdosta’s wastewater: here’s your chance to make sure the EPA can still do anything. Georgians who don’t want coal ash in landfills or industrial waste in our waters: you can help save the Clean Water Act. Everybody in the Suwannee River Basin: the water we drink from the Floridan Aquifer interchanges with surface waters, and we need the EPA to help protect all those waters.

How to Comment

Continue reading →

FL Sen. Nelson to EPA about Valdosta sewage and response

Here is a letter from Florida Senator Bill Nelson to the EPA about the Valdosta wastewater situation, and the EPA’s response, which was underwhelming.

A suggestion: say what it is you’d like the EPA, GA-EPD, FDEP, etc. to actually do. And what I’d suggest is get them all to fund and implement regular, frequent, closely spaced, water quality monitoring along all the rivers in the Suwannee River Basin. That way we’d know where pollution is coming from, we’d be able to calibrate what cities including Valdosta say from their own monitoring, and we’d have baselines to compare to.

Sen. Bill Nelson to EPA

Continue reading →

Protection of the Suwannee River against Valdosta Sewage –City of Fanning Springs, FL 2017-04-11

Not just for all seven downstream Florida counties anymore: the City of Fanning Springs has also passed a resolution asking the Florida governor to help stop Valdosta wastewater spills. Maybe Valdosta will pay attention this time.

The Valdosta City Council and Mayor didn’t seem to understand when I used the Suwannee County resolution to draw attention to the part about:

“which again resulted in the Florida Department of Health issuing public health advisories warning the public of wastewater contamination in the Withlacoochee River and portions of the Historic Suwannee River, which resulted in warnings being posted at all public access areas along the rivers stating that the rivers were not safe for recreational use and every precaution should be taken to avoid any contact with the river;”

Maybe I should have tried this pithier part at the end: Continue reading →

Requesting protection of Suwannee River from Valdosta wastewater –Levy BOCC 2017-03-07

Levy BOCC passed a resolution Tuesday much like the Suwannee BOCC resolution, but adding instructions to transmit it to a wide range of Florida and U.S. elected officials and agencies.

If you’re in Valdosta today, the City Council meets at 5:30 PM; you can join us in talking to them about this, or send them email.

Thanks to Jessica Berryhill, Administrative Assistant I, Board Administration, Levy Board of County Commissioners, for the PDF.

RESOLUTION 2017-008

A RESOLUTION BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF LEVY COUNTY, FLORIDA REQUESTING THE PROTECTION OF THE HISTORIC SUWANNEE RIVER IN NORTH FLORIDA.

WHEREAS, Levy County is located in North Central Florida and is bordered by the Historic Suwannee River on its western side; and

WHEREAS. the Historic Suwannee River is one of the most widely known and recognized river system in the world; and Continue reading →

Ensure that Valdosta, Georgia eliminates the dumping of raw sewage into our rivers –Madison BOCC 2017-02-08

Apparently Madison County was the first in Florida to call for state help to resolve the Valdosta sewage situation, back on February 8, 2017.

Followed by Hamilton and Suwannee Counties, both on February 21, 2017, and the other three four downstream Florida counties seem to have it on their agendas. After all, people downstream have been complaining about this since at least 2013, and the 2009 old Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) overflow was one of the reasons for the founding of WWALS in 2012.

In the BOCC packet for the Wednesday March 8, 2017 Regular Meeting of the Madison County, Florida Board of County Commissioners, and see also PDF of just those two pages.

RESOLUTION 2017-02-08

A RESOLUTION BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF MADISON COUNTY, FLORIDA ASKING FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE HISTORIC SUWANNEE RIVER AND THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER IN NORTH FLORIDA.

WHEREAS, Madison County is located in North Central Florida and is bordered by the State of Georgia to the North and the Withlacoochee River and Historic Suwannee River to the East; and

WHEREAS, the Withlacoochee River starts its journey in Valdosta, Continue reading →

Ask Florida governor to intervene about Valdosta wastewater –Suwannee BOCC 2017-02-21

The Suwannee County BOCC resolution is even more explicit than the Hamilton County one.

Thanks to Eric Musgrove, Clerk, Suwannee BOCC, for the PDF.

RESOLUTION 2017-26

A RESOLUTION BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SUWANNEE COUNTY, FLORIDA REQUESTING THE PROTECTION OF THE HISTORIC SUWANNEE RIVER IN NORTH FLORIDA.

REQUESTING THE PROTECTION OF THE HISTORIC SUWANNEE RIVER IN NORTH FLORIDA WHEREAS, Suwannee County is located in North Central Florida and is bordered for 100 miles by the Historic Suwannee River on its north, west and south sides; and

WHEREAS. the Historic Suwannee River is one of the most widely known and recognized river system in the world; and

WHEREAS, the Withlacoochee River (North) begins at its headwaters in South Georgia, and flows into the Historic Suwannee River at Suwannee County’s northwestern border area; and

WHEREAS, Suwannee County and each Continue reading →

Hamilton County Florida Valdosta wastewater resolution asks Georgia and Florida governors to step in 2017-02-21

Hamilton County, Florida is not pleased with Valdosta’s sewage, and has asked the states of Georgia and Florida to step in.

Thanks to Kristy Morgan, Chief Deputy Clerk/Administrative Assistant, Hamilton County Clerk’s Office, for the PDF.

RESOLUTION 2017-01

A RESOLUTION BY THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF HAMILTON COUNTY, FLORIDA DEMANDING PROTECTION OF THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER, THE ALAPAHOOCHEE RIVER, THE ALAPAHA RIVER AND THE SUWANNEE RIVER FROM THE ILLEGAL DISCHARGE OF RAW SEWAGE BY THE CITY OF VALDOSTA, GEORGIA

WHEREAS, WHEREAS, the Withlacoochee River forms the Western boundary of Hamilton County, Florida from the Florida/Georgia state line until its juncture with the Suwannee River; and

WHEREAS, the Withlacoochee River provides recreational and economic benefits to the citizens of Hamilton County and others; and

WHEREAS, citizens of Hamilton County depend on clean water from the Withlacoochee River watershed for activities of daily life as well as for agricultural, business, and recreational purposes; and

WHEREAS, the health and welfare of many Hamilton County citizens is directly harmed by any degradation of the quality of water in the Withlacoochee River and its watershed; and

WHEREAS, the City of Valdosta, Georgia over the past several years has Continue reading →

Only Valdosta and Tifton spilled sewage in Georgia in Suwannee River Basin in January 2017

GA-EPD’s Atlanta office sent their entire sewage spill database for January 2017 in response to an open records request from WWALS. For the Suwannee River Basin, I see only the known ones by Valdosta, plus a spill from Moultrie’s Carlton Woods Lift Station into the Ocholockonee River, with 36000 gallons, which matches the amount we got directly from Moultrie. That Ochlockonee spill is still not in the Suwannee River Basin.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) Southwest office in Albany handles the other sewage treatment operations in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, and that Albany office already told us by telephone that they had no reported spills other than the Tifton spill into the New River which I had gotten directly from Tifton. So I think we can conclude there were no other sewage spills into the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia in January 2017 other than the ones from Valdosta and Tifton.

Interestingly, Valdosta with its 2.2 million gallon Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) leak (and three manhole spills) was not the winner. Continue reading →