{"id":9834,"date":"2014-08-18T23:04:20","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T03:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=9834"},"modified":"2014-08-18T23:05:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T03:05:59","slug":"ga-epd-to-srwmd-re-vld-wwtp-per-osfr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/ga-epd-to-srwmd-re-vld-wwtp-per-osfr.html","title":{"rendered":"GA-EPD to SRWMD re: VLD WWTP per OSFR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe head of GA EPD went to Florida to explain Valdosta.\r\nPictured is\r\n\r\nJudson Turner, Director, Georgia Environmental Protection Division<\/a>\r\ntelling the\r\nSuwannee River Water Management District\r\n\r\nwhat Valdosta is doing<\/a> to stop\r\n\r\nsewage from flowing down the Suwannee River from\r\nValdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant<\/a>.\r\nFound\r\non OSFR<\/a>. -jsq\r\n

\r\nPR by Abby Johnson, Office of Communications,\r\nSuwannee River Water Management District,\r\n\r\nRWMD gets Valdosta wastewater treatment plant update<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nLIVE OAK, FL, August 13, 2014 — The Governing Board of the\r\nSuwannee River Water Management District (District) was given an\r\noverview and update at their August 12 meeting about the wastewater\r\ntreatment plant in Valdosta, Ga., which affects the Withlacoochee\r\nand Suwannee rivers.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nMore than 90 area concerned residents and public officials attended\r\nthe meeting to get clarity about the action being taken by Georgia\r\nto resolve the spills from the Valdosta wastewater treatment during\r\nflood events.\r\n

\r\nThe District invited the Florida Department of\r\nEnvironment Protection (FDEP), the Florida Department of Health\r\n(FDOH) and the Georgia Department of Environmental Protection (GDEP)\r\nto discuss why the problem exists, how the health concerns are\r\naddressed and what is being done to take care of the problem.\r\n

\r\nHerschel T. Vinyard Jr., Secretary of FDEP provided an overview of\r\nFlorida’s role in the wastewater spills and gave a brief history of\r\nthe sewage spills of the wastewater treatment plant in the City of\r\nValdosta into the Withlacoochee River. He spoke about the gravity of\r\nthe spills and the significance to Florida’s communities. Secretary\r\nVinyard introduced and recognized Judson H. Turner, Director of the\r\nGDEP for his responsiveness and sensitivity to the issue and its\r\nimpact to Florida.\r\n

\r\n“We are neighbors and we take this\r\nseriously” said Director Turner as he appeared before the\r\nGoverning Board. He stated that a new wastewater treatment plant has\r\nbeen approved for the City of Valdosta and is scheduled to be\r\ncompleted by December 31, 2015. The first phase of the project has\r\nbegun and it addresses the pump station issues as well as rerouting\r\nwater mains.\r\n

\r\nDirector Turner acknowledged the issues associated with\r\nwastewater treatment plant, as well as the necessity to put in place\r\nsolutions to prevent spills from the Valdosta wastewater plant.\r\n

\r\nDistrict Chairman Don Quincy invited Director Turner to report back\r\nthe Board biannually to keep the District updated on the\r\nconstruction of the new wastewater treatment plant. He welcomed the\r\nopen lines of communication between the District, other agencies and\r\nconcerned citizens.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nCeleste Philip, MD, Deputy Secretary of the FDOH reviewed her agency\r\nrole once a wastewater spill occurs from the plant. FDOH monitors\r\nwater quality of the rivers to assess public health concerns,\r\naddresses complaints, and coordinates the messaging associated with\r\nthe water quality monitoring to keep the public informed of any\r\nhealth issues.\r\n

\r\nState Representative Elizabeth Porter along with\r\nelected officials and representatives from Columbia, Hamilton,\r\nMadison and Suwannee counties and Branford, Lee and Madison cities\r\nwere present. Also attending were staff representatives from the\r\noffices of U.S. Senator Rubio, Congressman Yoho, Florida Senator\r\nDean, and Florida House of Representatives Perry and Porter.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

###\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of GA EPD went to Florida to explain Valdosta. Pictured is Judson Turner, Director, Georgia Environmental Protection Division telling the Suwannee River Water Management District what Valdosta is doing to stop sewage from flowing down the Suwannee River from Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant. Found on OSFR. -jsq PR by Abby Johnson, Office […]","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":[203,8,54,55],"tags":[8751,292,8701,8702,7813,12,7,7811,7471,7810,223,7812,6,8726,8727,58,295],"class_list":["post-9834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florida","category-georgia","category-valdosta-city-council","category-water","tag-florida","tag-ga-epd","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-live-oak","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-osfr","tag-our-santa-fe-river","tag-srwmd","tag-suwannee-county","tag-suwannee-river-water-management-district","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-water","tag-withlacoochee-river","tag-withlacoochee-wastewater-treatment-plant"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-2yC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834","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=9834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9837,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9834\/revisions\/9837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}