Category Archives: Transparency

Lowndes County sewer spill may contaminate Suwannee River

WCTV went downstream to Suwannee County, Florida, to see further effects after the Valdosta PR that revealed what happened with the Lowndes County sewer leak. One of their interviewees recommends escalating this ongoing problem (first Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant flooded, and now this) to the state governors’ level.

Eames Yates wrote for WCTV 27 April 2013, Suwannee River Could be Contaminated After Lowndes Sewer Spill,

Travis Luttrell also vacations in Suwannee County. He said “it’s a pretty big administrative challenge between the two governors. And is something that needs to be worked out between state to state and hopefully we can overcome the administrative challenges it might take to fix these kinds of problems.”

The Florida Department of Health also issued the advisory for Hamilton, Levy, Lafayette and Madison counties.

Here’s the WCTV video:

-jsq

Lowndes County (sort of) takes responsibility for sewer spill

Lowndes County notified the VDT that it was actually their sewer line (not Valdosta’s) that broke this week, but there’s still nothing on the Lowndes County website, not on the front page, not under Utilities, and not under County Clerk. So the Lowndes County government did sort of come clean about its sewer problem, but you have to know where to look to see them washing. And they actually fixed the problem by dumping county sewage into Valdosta’s sewer main, which presumably means it ends up in the same Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant that the county has seemed to mostly regard as the city’s problem and not theirs.

In the VDT 26 April 2013, Lowndes County Notification of Sewer Spill, Lowndes County Commission,

Continue reading →

Valdosta blamed in Florida for Lowndes County sewage spill

Lowndes County Public Information Officer Paige Dukes Maybe Lowndes County should come clean about its sewage spill so Florida will stop blaming Valdosta.

Gainesville.com staff report today, Health dept. urges public to avoid Suwannee, Withlacoochee rivers,

This is the second time in two months that state health officials have had to warn residents of North Central Florida to avoid contact with the water flowing in the Suwannee — and both instances involve sewage contamination involving a spill in Valdosta.

Or maybe it’s normal for GA EPD to be more responsive than our local elected government. What do you think?

-jsq

GA EPD on Lowndes County Waste Water Spill

Lowndes County: voice mail. GA EPD: written response within minutes about that wastewater spill into the Withlacoochee River that turns out to be from a Lowndes County sewer line (not Valdosta’s).

After I called Lowndes County and got referred to voice mail, I filed an open records request with the county. I then called GA EPD in Albany and talked to Mary Sheffield. She said that compliance issues are handled from the Atlanta Office and provided the number.

I called GA EPD in Atlanta and asked for the Lowndes County Compliance Officer. She kindly told me that there had been some confusion about what government was responsible for the spill, because Valdosta called first but then Lowndes County did call and take responsibility for the spill.

She said that the spill had been 1.32 Million Gallons and that so far they had had a verbal report from the county and that the county has 5 days to make a written report.

Further, she said she would e-mail me any information that she had at this time, although the verbal reports are not “official”. And before I finished typing this up, she sent this response:

Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:34:19 -0400
From: Kim Hembree
Subject: Lowndes County Spill

Ms. Quarterman,

The Lowndes County spill was originally reported to the Environmental Protection Division by the City of Valdosta on 4/25/2013. After responding to the spill, the City of Valdosta determined that the spill was coming from a portion of sanitary sewer collection system that belonged to Lowndes County. Lowndes County (County) responded to the spill on 4/25/2013. This morning, the County reported that the spill was approximately 1.32 million and entered the Withlacoochee River.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

To which I replied:

Thank you.

If I understand correctly, Lowndes County now has 5 days to file a complete spill report. I’ll be interested in that when it is available.

Gretchen

Also, has Lowndes County put up a sign at the spill site to replace the Valdosta spill sign?

-gretchen

Open Records Request – 20130426 – Waste Water

Wastewater spills open records request In addition to calling Lowndes County, I also filed this Open Records Request:

Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:56:39 -0400
To: Paige Dukes, Mike Allen, Phyllis Judge
Subject: Open Records Request – 20130426 – Waste Water

Hi,

Please find attached an open records request for the following:

1) All written reports to EPD about waste water spills for the last 3 years
2) All year long monitoring programs/results after each spill
3) published notices in legal organ of all spills for last 3 years
4) a copy of the Overflow Emergency Response Program

I would prefer electronic copies of these documents if they are available.

Thank you,

Gretchen

Gretchen Quarterman

I attached a scan of the paper Lowndes County Open Records Request form I filled out.

-gretchen

Status of (not Valdosta) Lowndes County Waste Water Spill

Mike Allen, Utilities Director, Lowndes County, Georgia After learning that Lowndes County (not Valdosta) was having a waste water spill, I called the Utilities Department and asked to speak with Director Mike Allen.

The person that answered the phone said that he was not available and perhaps she could answer my question or put me through to his voice mail. I figured that perhaps I could get some of my questions answered so I asked about the status of the current waste water spill. She said that it had been repaired as of 5am today (April 26).

I then asked if it would be possible to get a copy of the Overflow Emergency Response Program and she asked my name. When I said my name (Gretchen Quarterman) she said that I would have to talk to Paige Dukes and she would transfer me. After a long wait, she came back on the phone and said she would transfer me and I was transferred to the voice mail of Paige Dukes. I did not leave a message.

-gretchen

Monday: CDBG Citizens Advisory Committee

A new citizens committee is meeting Monday:

CDBG Citizen Advisory Committee
Date: 4/29/2013 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
Cost: FREE
Location: Valdosta City Hall Annex Multi-Purpose Room
300 N. Lee Street

The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Citizens Advisory Committee is charged with providing recommendations to the Mayor and City Council regarding the use of the federal entitlement funding received by the City of Valdosta through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

For more information, contact the Neighborhood Develoopment at (229) 671-3617.

Who’s on it? Hard to say, although Continue reading →

Videos: audit, solar, office, and more @ VLCIA 2013-04-16

Interesting stuff (audit and internal controls, many meetings, 2 megawatts of solar power, searching for and finances of a new office from a mysterious seller) in the items missing from the posted agenda yet presented anyway, while two staff were elsewhere.

Here’s the agenda with a few notes and some links to the videos. * marks items that were not in the posted agenda.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

Arsenic, Outings, and Flooding: WWALS Watershed Coalition @ VLCIA 2013-04-16

Water issues strongly affect economic development, so I talked about the new WWALS Watershed Coalition at the 16 April 2013 Board Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.

The VDT declined to speak, so I did. After apologizing for no okra today, I commended the Authority for talking about the missing agenda items and for mentioning due diligence and flood control.

Mostly I talked about the new WWALS Watershed Coalition, www.wwals.net, incorporated in June 2012, which is about watershed issues such as flooding, water quality, and invasive species related to the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, and Little River System. I mentioned arsenic in some local well water, which the Department of Health has finally said should be tested, three years after Janet McMahan discovered it was a problem. I invited VLCIA board and staff to two upcoming WWALS events: Continue reading →

A New Home! Year Six @ VLCIA 2013-04-16

The Industrial Authority was very forthcoming about everything about their new office purchase except who they were buying it from; this was at the 16 April 2013 Board Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. The seller turns out to be a household name hereabouts.

New Office –Roy Copeland

Chairman Roy Copeland talked about the at least five year process for finding “a new home” for VLCIA. 103 Roosevelt Drive He noted that before he joined the board they were considering buying a property he and his wife own. He and former Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk looked at another property near the Courthouse. VLCIA even toured the historic Lowndes County Courthouse but concluded it couldn’t be renovated for their purposes. Jerry Jennett noted the search had gone on even longer than five years. Copeland said the parameters they had set were, as far as he recalled, Continue reading →