{"id":8399,"date":"2014-04-13T12:06:20","date_gmt":"2014-04-13T16:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=8399"},"modified":"2014-04-13T21:11:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T01:11:02","slug":"vdt-has-selective-smell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/vdt-has-selective-smell.html","title":{"rendered":"VDT has selective smell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nTo the VDT the county government always smells like azaleas\r\nand the city of Valdosta government always smells like sewage.\r\nThe local newspaper of record doesn’t seem to smell sewage\r\nor landfill problems from Lowndes County.\r\nToday’s VDT editorial complains about\r\nenvironmental groups paying attention to “theoretical disasters”\r\n(presumably referring to the Sabal Trail pipeline),\r\nyet the VDT has never covered the group that has\r\nmost consistently followed the watershed-wide\r\nflooding issues that cause Valdosta’s flooding problems:\r\nWWALS Watershed Coalition.\r\nThe VDT recommends citizens get more involved\r\nin sniffing out Valdosta’s sewage problems, yet it doesn’t seem\r\nto cover Citizens Wishing To Be Heard anymore, nor has the VDT called\r\nfor the citizen participation sessions promised by\r\nthe local governments for the Army Corps of Engineers flooding studies.\r\nMaybe the VDT could encourage citizen participation, rather than ignore it.\r\n

\r\nVDT editorial today,\r\n\r\nIt just plain stinks<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAfter every rain event, the pungent smell of sewage can be detected\r\naround the rivers and streams of south Georgia, and Florida\r\nresidents brace for more to float their way.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAt 305 million gallons spilled in seven years, by the city and EPD’s\r\nreckoning, Valdosta has spewed more raw and partially treated sewage\r\ninto the waters of the state than any other municipality ever has.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIf anybody posting on the LAKE blog made an assertion like that last sentence,\r\nevidence to back it up would be included or linked to, even in an editorial.\r\n

\r\nThe VDT continues with some more-documentable assertions, then:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe Times found several manholes leaking sewage this week that the\r\ncity didn’t know about. It’s difficult to find spewing manholes if\r\nyou aren’t even looking. And if you don’t know about spills, you\r\ndon’t have to report them.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n<\/a>\r\nI commend the VDT on its investigative reporting!\r\nHere’s that story,\r\nby Matthew Woody, 13 April 2014,\r\n\r\nCity sewage woes continue:\r\nMore than 305 million gallons and counting<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n\r\nBut maybe I missed any story the VDT did about\r\n\r\nthe Lowndes County sewer main spill into the Withlacoochee River<\/a>\r\nthat the city of Valdosta found and told the county about.\r\nWCTV covered it. Why didn’t the VDT cover it, and ask the county\r\nwhy the county didn’t find its own leak?\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nHowever, the VDT has done zero investigative reporting on\r\n\r\nthe PCBs, TVA coal ash, and wastewater from a Superfund site in Waycross<\/a>\r\nin the Pecan Row landfill in Lowndes County just uphill from the\r\nWithlacoochee River and in a recharge zone for the Floridan Aquifer,\r\nour source of drinking water.\r\n

\r\nHere’s a good idea in today’s VDT editorial:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nBetween city employees, citizens and civic groups, surely there are\r\nenough volunteers to “adopt” manholes to report leaks in\r\norder to expend the millions in resources the city has at its\r\ndisposal to stop the sewage from flowing.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nHow about an interactive citizen-input map like\r\n\r\nthe city of Dunwoody, GA<\/a> provides online?\r\nMaybe\r\nLowndes County’s new\r\n\r\nturnkey government website service<\/a>\r\ncan do that;\r\naccording to the County Clerk it can\r\n\r\ndo trouble ticket tracking<\/a>.\r\nWill the VDT ask the county about that?\r\nAnd will the VDT ask the city of Valdosta when it will implement software that can do that?\r\n

\r\nGiven the VDT’s desire for citizen participation,\r\nit’s unfortunate the VDT doesn’t seem to be covering citizens any more,\r\nat least when they speak before local elected or appointed bodies.\r\n

\r\nThe VDT editorial continues:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIt’s a shame that environmental groups are more interested in\r\nstopping theoretical disasters than addressing real ones. It’s also\r\na shame that those whose lack of oversight and judgment has allowed\r\nwater pollution of this magnitude continue to go unpunished.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMany of us fondly remember the VDT’s positive coverage of resistance to previous\r\n“theoretical disasters”, such as:\r\n