{"id":3217,"date":"2013-04-28T09:11:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-28T13:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=3217"},"modified":"2013-04-28T09:31:10","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T13:31:10","slug":"lowndes-county-sort-of-takes-responsibility-for-sewer-spill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/lowndes-county-sort-of-takes-responsibility-for-sewer-spill.html","title":{"rendered":"Lowndes County (sort of) takes responsibility for sewer spill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.walb.com\/story\/22096867\/lowndes-county-t\">\r\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" width=\"240\" height=\"160\" src=\"http:\/\/walb.images.worldnow.com\/images\/22096867_BG2.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nLowndes County notified the VDT that it was actually their sewer line\r\n(not Valdosta&#8217;s) that broke this week,\r\nbut there&#8217;s still nothing on the Lowndes County website,\r\nnot on the\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lowndescounty.com\/\">\r\nfront page<\/a>,\r\nnot under <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lowndescounty.com\/content.asp?pid=23&#038;id=146\">\r\nUtilities<\/a>,\r\nand not under\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lowndescounty.com\/content.asp?pid=23&#038;id=139\">\r\nCounty Clerk<\/a>.\r\nSo the Lowndes County government did sort of\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/valdosta-blamed-in-florida-for-lowndes-county-sewage-spill.html\">\r\ncome clean<\/a> about its sewer problem, but you have to know where\r\nto look to see them washing.\r\nAnd they actually fixed the problem by dumping county sewage\r\ninto Valdosta&#8217;s sewer main, which presumably means it ends\r\nup in the same Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant\r\nthat the county has seemed to mostly regard as the city&#8217;s problem\r\nand not theirs.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nIn the VDT 26 April 2013,\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/valdostadailytimes.com\/todays-top-stories\/x319970004\/Lowndes-County-Notification-of-Sewer-Spill\">\r\nLowndes County Notification of Sewer Spill, Lowndes County Commission,<\/a>\r\n<\/p><!--more-->\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nVALDOSTA &mdash; At 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, Lowndes County\r\nwas notified that a sewer main break west of Interstate 75, on the\r\nsouth side of Highway 133, previously believed to be a City of\r\nValdosta sewer main, was actually a Lowndes County main. The flow\r\nwas diverted by 4:00 p.m. into the City of Valdosta sewer system and\r\nby 5 a.m. on Friday, April 26, the force main repair was complete\r\nand back in service.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nA force main broke, releasing approximately 1.32 million gallons\r\nover the course of approximately 40 hours, some of which reached the\r\nWithlacoochee River. Lowndes County notified the State EPD and\r\nreported the spill and sampling points were established to monitor\r\nthe river.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nWALB carried Valdosta City PR 27 April 2013,\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.walb.com\/story\/22096867\/lowndes-county-t\">\r\nLowndes County takes responsibility for sewage spill<\/a>,\r\nwith <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walb.com\/story\/22096867\/lowndes-county-t?autoStart=true&#038;topVideoCatNo=default&#038;clipId=8818394\">video<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\r\n<script type='text\/javascript' src='http:\/\/WALB.images.worldnow.com\/interface\/js\/WNVideo.js?rnd=155926;hostDomain=www.walb.com;playerWidth=630;playerHeight=385;isShowIcon=true;clipId=8818394;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=false;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=fixed'><\/script><a href=\"http:\/\/www.walb.com\" title=\"WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports\">WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n&#8220;The city has a 54-inch gravity main and a 8-inch jail main in that\r\narea, so we made an assumption that it was our line and immediately\r\nbegan mobilizing staff and equipment to excavate and repair the\r\nleaking main,&#8221; said Utilities Director Henry Hicks. &#8220;We were not 100\r\npercent sure this was our line, so we ran dye through the system.\r\nWhen the dye didn&#8217;t show up at the site, we were convinced it was\r\nnot a city main and were also able to confirm this information with\r\nthe contractor.&#8221;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nOnce Lowndes County verified it was their line, they took over the\r\nrepair process. To assist Lowndes County in stopping the sewer\r\noverflow as quickly as possible, the City of Valdosta offered to\r\nallow Lowndes County to pump their sewage into the city&#8217;s 54-inch\r\nline, which immediately stopped the flow of sewage into the river\r\nand prevented any further spill and violations during the repair\r\nprocess.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n&#8220;Lowndes County would have to either allow the sewage to flow into\r\nthe river or pump into our system,&#8221; said Hicks. &#8220;We agreed to help\r\nthem by allowing them to pump their sewage into our 54-inch main\r\ntaking the flow off their force main until the repair can be\r\ncompleted. We are glad to help, understanding these issues can\r\nhappen to anyone.&#8221;\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nMeanwhile, Valdosta&#8217;s PR <em>is<\/em>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.valdostacity.com\/Index.aspx?page=270&#038;recordid=2334&#038;returnURL=%2findex.aspx\">\r\non the Valdosta city website<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lowndes County notified the VDT that it was actually their sewer line (not Valdosta&#8217;s) that broke this week, but there&#8217;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 [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8,41,88,32,3,54,133,204,55],"tags":[8701,8718,8702,12,7,8734,656,8715,6075,8700,6,8726,294,8727],"class_list":["post-3217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-georgia","category-health-care","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-pollution","category-transparency","category-valdosta-city-council","category-vdt","category-walb","category-water","tag-georgia","tag-health-care","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-paige-dukes","tag-pollution","tag-spill","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-wastewater","tag-water"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-PT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3217"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3226,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3217\/revisions\/3226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}