{"id":4905,"date":"2013-07-25T22:04:46","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T02:04:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=4905"},"modified":"2013-07-25T22:13:25","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T02:13:25","slug":"flooding-again-at-valdostas-withlacoochee-wastewater-treatment-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/flooding-again-at-valdostas-withlacoochee-wastewater-treatment-plant.html","title":{"rendered":"Flooding again at Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nThird major spill this year, after\r\n\r\nMarch by Valdosta<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nand\r\n\r\nApril by Lowndes County<\/a>.\r\nOr did I forget some?\r\nLookout, Florida!\r\n

\r\nEames Yates wrote for WCTV today,\r\n\r\nNearly Eight Million Gallons Of Raw Sewage… Straight Into Area River<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAlmost eight million gallons of raw sewage flooded here at the plant\r\nand made it’s way directly into the Withlacoochee River. Which is\r\nabout a half mile away. Which makes the city’s plans to relocate\r\nthis plant all the more relevant.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

Since the beginning of this year more than\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n twenty million gallons of\r\nraw sewage has spilled into the the Withlachoochee river, according\r\nto the city of Valdosta. It all stems from the flooding at the\r\nWithlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant. The most recent spill has\r\nbeen contained— for the moment.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nJohn Waitem Valdosta Environmental Manager: “What we’re doing now is\r\ncreating some new storage space at the facility by re purposing some\r\nof our tanks to make temporary storage.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe keyword is temporary. The city has plans to move the plant by\r\nAugust of 2015. A local penny sales tax called SPLOST will fund the\r\ntwenty million dollar relocation if it passes in November.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nJason Scarpate, Valdosta Asst. Utilities Director: “That’s what\r\nwe’re looking at using right now as a funding stream for that\r\nproject. And if it does not pass the city will be looking at other\r\nfunding sources for that project.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nLydia Jennings wrote for WALB today,\r\n\r\nMore trouble for Valdosta sewage treatment plant<\/a>\r\n

\r\nValdosta city officials are asking people to stay out of the Withlacoochee River for the next few days. Another major sewage at the wastewater treatment plant contaminated the water. \r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nPR from City of Valdosta today,\r\n\r\nCity Responds to Spill at Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe city has responded to the high flows at the Withlacoochee\r\nWastewater Treatment Plant by repurposing some of its tanks to\r\ncreate additional storage space for the excess solids and high flows\r\nat the plant. Heavy rains resulted in another discharge of total\r\nsuspended solids on July 24 in excess of the National Pollutant\r\nDischarge Elimination System (NPDES) permit limit. The city expects\r\nthe corrective actions to resolve future occurrences.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe total suspended solids result for the effluent sample collected\r\nJuly 24 was 111 milligrams per liter. This is greater than 1.5 times\r\nthe weekly average allowed by the NPDES permit, which constitutes a\r\nmajor spill. The volume of the major spill into the Withlacoochee\r\nRiver is the total flow for July 24, which is 7.95 million gallons.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWarning signs have been placed downstream, and stream sampling of\r\nthe Withlacoochee River has been initiated as required. For more\r\ninformation, contact Environmental Manager John Waite at (229)\r\n259-3592 or at jwaite@valdostacity.com.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd another Valdosta PR, also today,\r\n\r\nPermit Limit Exceeded at Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAs a result of several days of consistently heavy rains in Valdosta,\r\nthe Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant discharged total\r\nsuspended solids in excess of the National Pollutant Discharge\r\nElimination System (NPDES) permit limit.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe total suspended solids result for the effluent sample collected\r\nJuly 23, 2013 was 77 milligrams per liter. This is greater than 1.5\r\ntimes the weekly average of 45 milligrams per liter allowed by the\r\nNPDES permit, which constitutes a major spill. The volume of the\r\nmajor spill into the Withlacoochee River is the total flow for July\r\n23, which is 7.6 million gallons.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe city is working closely with a design consultant and a\r\nconstruction firm to implement seven projects that, once in place,\r\nwill help keep the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant in\r\ncompliance with the NPDES permit until the relocation of the plant\r\nis complete. The city’s contractor is expected to be on site within\r\nthe next two weeks to start work on these necessary improvement\r\nprojects. The city is also preparing to issue a design\/build RFP for\r\nthe relocation of the Withlacoochee Plant, which is expected to cost\r\n$20 million and be completed by August 2015.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWarning signs have been placed downstream, and stream sampling of\r\nthe Withlacoochee River has been initiated as required. For more\r\ninformation, contact Environmental Manager John Waite at (229)\r\n259-3592 or at jwaite@valdostacity.com.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Third major spill this year, after March by Valdosta and April by Lowndes County. Or did I forget some? Lookout, Florida! Eames Yates wrote for WCTV today, Nearly Eight Million Gallons Of Raw Sewage… Straight Into Area River, Almost eight million gallons of raw sewage flooded here at the plant and made it’s way directly […]","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":[47,14,16,32,54,204,55,177,89],"tags":[8704,8706,8701,8702,12,7,8715,6,8726,8727,8748,58,295],"class_list":["post-4905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-economy","category-environment","category-pollution","category-valdosta-city-council","category-walb","category-water","category-wctv","category-weather","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-pollution","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-water","tag-wctv","tag-withlacoochee-river","tag-withlacoochee-wastewater-treatment-plant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1h7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905","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=4905"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4912,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4905\/revisions\/4912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}