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