Category Archives: Valdosta City Council

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

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

Major Spills: What to Do –GA DNR

Georgia: 14 River Basins Apparently whoever is responsible for a major spill into Georgia waters needs to immediately tell GA EPD DNR and the local health department and post a sign, and the sewage leak at GA 133 into the Withlacoochee River qualifies as a major spill. The City of Valdosta reported it as such, but it’s not clear it was their spill (update: it was Lowndes County’s spill). Excerpts below from GA DNR’s guidelines. -jsq

Water Quality: A Guide for Municipal Compliance by Mick Smith, Environmental Engineer.

Spills and Major Spills

Spill

  • Any discharge of raw sewage < 10,000 gallons to waters of the state

Major Spill

  • Any discharge of raw sewage > 10,000 gallons to waters of the state
  • BOD5 or TSS = 1.5 x weekly avg. permit limit
  • Any discharge resulting in a water quality violation
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Raw sewage into the Withlacoochee River again

Spilling Sewage Pictures by Gabe Fisher 3:30 PM 24 March 2013 Valdosta (update: it was Lowndes County’s spill) is famous in Florida again for sewage in our rivers.

Last month it was flooding at the Withlacoochee Wastwater Treatment Plant. This month it’s a broken sewer line. WTXL reported yesterday, Sewer line burst in Valdosta — Sewage spewing into river,

Nine hundred gallons of sewage is spewing onto the ground and into the Withlacoochee river, every single minute.

Here’s Valdosta’s Report of Major Spill from yesterday:

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Openings on local boards and authorities

Valdosta City Hall Annex Want to help your community and find out how local politics works without even having to run for office? You can apply to be appointed to a local board or authority.

Here are (most of) the local boards and authorities. Budgets range from zero to more than $3 million a year. Influence ranges from unknown to very high. Your interest you have to determine for yourself. Maybe start by going to see the CDBG Citizens Advisory Committee in action Monday. Bring back some video, will you?

Here’s a list of openings to be filled by the City of Valdosta soon. The deadline for applications is 5PM 1 May 2013; that’s next Wednesday. HTML version is below. (I would link to a similar list for Lowndes County, but that Commission doesn’t post such a list.)

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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 →

Two more megawatts of local solar power! @ VLCIA 2013-04-16

One megawatt at DuPont and one megawatt at Valdosta’s Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant: that’s two more megawatts of solar power coming to Valdosta and Lowndes County! This was revealed at the 16 April 2013 Board Meeting of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority.

Project Director Allan Ricketts was on a speaker phone, so Executive Director Andrea Schruijer gave the Existing Industry and Project Report. She thinks maybe three existing industry expansions in second and third quarter 2013. They’ve continued working with a pharmaceutical company about locating here; more on that later. Continued work with three renewable and sustainable energy companies, and Georgia Power is cooperating.

We did receive notification that two of those advanced solar initiatives have been approved by Georgia Power Company.

One of them is a megawatt solar expansion at DuPont. The other is a megawatt solar expansion at the City of Valdosta’s Mud Creek Wastewater Plant.

She didn’t mention that in most states such projects wouldn’t have to be approved for doled-out quotas by a power company.

Schruijer also talked about Continue reading →

Green Power EMC landfill gas projects

As we saw, ESG’s Pecan Row Landfill Gas Facility flash flyer quotes Jeff Pratt, President of Green Power EMC, who said this is Green Power EMC’s third landfill energy project. Curiously, Green Power EMC’s Landfill Gas Project page doesn’t list the other two, and its FAQ is apparently out of date, saying “Currently, our one landfill gas-to-electricity projects generate a combined four megawatts of power.” However, the other two appear to be:

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Valdosta receives water treatment award

Rather ironic, wouldn’t you say, what with all the problems at the other end of the water usage pipeline? This award is for treating water as it comes out of the city’s wells.

WCTV posted a City of Valdosta press release yesterday, Valdosta Receives GAWP Water Treatment Plant of the Year Award,

The City of Valdosta Water Treatment Plant has been recognized as the 2013 Water Treatment Plant of the Year by the Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP).

The plant was recently evaluated by GAWP inspectors on its well field operations, chemical processes and documentation, and scored 90% or better in all areas. City staff will accept the award in the category for groundwater systems that pump over 10 million gallons daily (MGD), at the GAWP Conference in Macon, Ga., on Tuesday April 16.

“Every day,

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