Tag Archives: Suwannee River

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

Circular wastewater firing squad continues

The VDT's Sunday front page was covered with wastewater stories,
continuing the circular firing squad of the local powers that be.
Meanwhile

in Dublin, GA, they're breaking ground for solar panels
at the local high school, using a bond financing
model that we could use here, if local leaders would look up.



In addition to

some detail about the city's FEMA application
and

following up on flooded yards,
the VDT followed up on

its EPD and EPA scrutiny story
with one saying

City received help from EPD to keep EPA away.
It's good the VDT is covering these issues, but it's still leaving out
important parts of the local water story.

Apparently firing back at



Thursday's Valdosta City Council session,
perhaps especially

Robert Yost's very pointed criticisms of the VDT,
the VDT concluded its

rather rich Sunday editoral:

City leaders, please, no more of the blame game. The citizens of
this community are imploring you to just accept responsibility and
fix it.

Yet the VDT has

spent the last week blaming the city,
and has accepted no responsibility for its own role, or that of
its editor, Kay Harris, in the recent loss of the SPLOST referendum
that would have further funded wastewater work in Valdosta.

Now, I agree with the VDT that

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Water Plant Planning —Henry Hicks @ VCC 2013-03-07


Henry Hicks

Valdosta Utilities Director Henry Hicks gave a detailed history of

flood control

projects
and work on the

Withlacoochee Waste Water Processing Plant
at the Valdosta City Council Meeting last night during the
"Manager's Report" section
of

the agenda.
Several Council members expressed their distaste for the VDT’s recent reporting
on the subject, and thanked Hicks and other city employees for their work.


$40 million already spent
Hicks said

they had spent $4 million on repairs
to the Withlacoochee plant, and that didn't include the $40 million
they'd already spent on upgrades in general.
Also, it took three days to build the berm around the plant in 2009,

and FEMA wouldn't approve any improvements to it.

He said he would

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Valdosta famous for wastewater in rivers all the way to the Gulf



The VDT had a small front page headline yesterday:

“Floridians warned about river contamination”.
That story was also heard in Florida, in
Madison, Gainesville, and elsewhere,
emphasizing something that Valdosta didn’t mention:
people live downstream of Valdosta’s wastewater spill,
all the way down the Withlacoochee and the Suwannee Rivers
to the Gulf of Mexico.
The story also made the AJC.

Green Publishing, Inc, which covers Madison, Lee, and Greenville, Florida, reported yesterday,

ALERT: FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH WARNS OF POSSIBLE WASTEWATER CONTAMINATION:
GA wastewater plan overflow may impact Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers.

TALLAHASSEE- The Florida Department of Health (DOH) today issued a
caution to residents in the counties surrounding the Withlacoochee
and Suwannee rivers. The Withlacoochee Water Pollution Control Plant
in Valdosta, GA has overflowed into the Withlacoochee River, which
flows south, connecting with the Suwannee River.

Other news venues carrying the story:

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