Tag Archives: WWTP

Flood control measures encourage settling too close and provoke severe flooding events



Flood control to keep water out of houses seems like a good idea,
but it turns out that it causes the flood control measures to keep
needing to be raised higher, and it encourages people to build
too close to flooding areas, plus
“rare and catastrophic events take place”.
Like the 2009 “700 year flood” and the

four or more floods this year
that have overflowed the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant.
In our case, there are also the issues of widespread clearcutting
and buildings and streets with impervious cover.
The local runoff containment requirements in the various local government zoning codes may be
like levees: “flood control
structures might even increase flood risk as protection from
frequent flooding reduces perceptions of risk”.

This encourages human settlements in floodplain areas, which are then
vulnerable to high-consequence and low-probability events.

Much simpler just not to give out building permits for flood zones.
Or we could

put medical buildings right next to a creek,
assuming

because it’s never flooded it never will….


Socio-hydrology: conceptualising human-flood interactions,
G. Di Baldassarre, A. Viglione, G. Carr, L. Kuil, J. L. Salinas, and G. Bloschl,

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3295–3303, 2013
doi:10.5194/hess-17-3295-2013,
© Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License.


Abstract. Over history, humankind has tended to settle near streams Continue reading →

Fourth or fifth flooding at Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater plant this year?

So many I’ve lost track; somebody help me….

Valdosta City PR Friday,

Public Notice for Permit Violation at WWTP,



Due to continued heavy rains in Valdosta and surrounding areas in
recent days, moderate flooding of the Little and Withlacoochee
Rivers caused a hydraulic overload at the Withlacoochee Wastewater
Treatment Plant. As a result of a peak hourly flow of 15.58 million
gallons, the incident led to a discharge of total suspended solids
in excess of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit limit.

The total suspended solids result for the effluent sample collected
August 22, 2013 was 203 milligrams per liter. This is greater than Continue reading →

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

Continue reading →