Tag Archives: Valdosta City Council

Valdosta Utilities Department 5-Year Action Plan

Received 26 April 2013. Basically Valdosta is accelerating its
plans to do something about wastewater, including adding pumpstations
and force mains, as well as
relocating the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant uphill.
Here are the summary pages; there’s much more detail in

the plan. -jsq




Utilities Department 5-Year Action Plan:

Since 1992, the City has received $179 million in SPLOST funding and
over the same time period has invested nearly $168 million in
capital projects for the Water and Wastewater system. This includes
SPLOST funding, system revenues, bonds, and GEFA loans.

Since 2009, the Utilities Department has expended over $49 million
on sewer system improvement with approximately $5.6 million spent on
the Withlacoochee Treatment Plant. When the projects listed below
are completed by December 2018, the City will have invested
approximately $230 million in capital projects for its Utilities
system from 1992 to 2018, a 26-year period.

PUMP STATION, FORCE MAIN, HEADWORKS AND EQUALIZATION BASIN PROJECT

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Valdosta Plans Flooding Discussions


Valdosta is finally announcing the

11 April 2013 watershed-wide flooding meeting organized by
the Army Corps of Engineers.


WCTV yesterday carried a press release from the City of Valdosta;
PR which, oddly, does not appear to be on the city’s website.
I have added a few links. Prominently missing from the PR is any mention
of water quality, the Floridan Aquifer, or sinkholes. -jsq

The City of Valdosta initiated planning discussions recently that
brought together representatives from key local, state and federal
agencies to seek solutions to a regional flood issue.



The 50-year flood event that occurred in late

February,
early

March
2013 was a vivid reminder of the 2009 flood event that significantly
impacted south Georgia. Since 2009, the city has worked to help


identify potential causes and the scope and area of the regional
flooding that occurred. This information has been shared with
various state and federal officials and agencies in the hopes of
gaining their interest and support to work together to address the
regional flooding. Since Valdosta is located

Continue reading →

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

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:

Continue reading →