Tag Archives: Environmental Protection Division

Lakeland environmental violations

Demolition debris buried without a permit?
That happened in Lakeland, and it’s causing a heap of trouble
for the City Council.
Could such a thing also have happened in a nearby county?



Andy Alcock reported yesterday for WCTV,

Lakeland Hires Firm to Check Environmental Issues

There’s a new push to find out about dozens of potential
environmental violations in the South Georgia city of Lakeland.

As we first reported last week, Georgia’s Environmental Protection
Division issued a notice of violation for the city of Lakeland.

That notice lists twenty-three properties where demolition debris
may be buried without a permit.

The city council has now unanimously approved the hiring of an
engineering firm to assess those sites.

Stevenson & Palmer Engineering will be paid an hourly rate plus
expenses not to exceed $15,000 without approval by the city.

There are claims of improperly demolishing, burning and burying
dozens of homes.

According to whom?

Continue reading →

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