“Corporate responsiblity,” answered Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning
to questions about Kemper Coal from Linda St. Martin of Mississippians
For Affordable Energy.
I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.
Ray Henry wrote for AP yesterday, Southern Co. CEO defends Miss. power project,
Continue readingReceived 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:
Continue readingSince 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
WCTV went downstream to Suwannee County, Florida, to see further effects after the
Valdosta PR that revealed what happened with the Lowndes County sewer leak.
One of their interviewees recommends escalating this ongoing problem
(first
Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant flooded,
and now this) to the state governors’ level.
Eames Yates wrote for WCTV 27 April 2013, Suwannee River Could be Contaminated After Lowndes Sewer Spill,
Travis Luttrell also vacations in Suwannee County. He said “it’s a pretty big administrative challenge between the two governors. And is something that needs to be worked out between state to state and hopefully we can overcome the administrative challenges it might take to fix these kinds of problems.”
The Florida Department of Health also issued the advisory for Hamilton, Levy, Lafayette and Madison counties.
Here’s the WCTV video:
-jsq
Lowndes County notified the VDT that it was actually their sewer line
(not Valdosta’s) that broke this week,
but there’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 you have to know where
to look to see them washing.
And they actually fixed the problem by dumping county sewage
into Valdosta’s sewer main, which presumably means it ends
up in the same Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant
that the county has seemed to mostly regard as the city’s problem
and not theirs.
In the VDT 26 April 2013, Lowndes County Notification of Sewer Spill, Lowndes County Commission,
Continue reading
Maybe Lowndes County should come clean about
its sewage spill
so Florida will stop blaming Valdosta.
Gainesville.com staff report today, Health dept. urges public to avoid Suwannee, Withlacoochee rivers,
This is the second time in two months that state health officials have had to warn residents of North Central Florida to avoid contact with the water flowing in the Suwannee — and both instances involve sewage contamination involving a spill in Valdosta.
Or maybe it’s normal for GA EPD to be more responsive than our local elected government. What do you think?
-jsq
Lowndes County: voice mail.
GA EPD: written response within minutes about that wastewater spill
into the Withlacoochee River that turns out to be from a Lowndes County
sewer line (not Valdosta’s).
After I called Lowndes County and got referred to voice mail, I filed an open records request with the county. I then called GA EPD in Albany and talked to Mary Sheffield. She said that compliance issues are handled from the Atlanta Office and provided the number.
I called GA EPD in Atlanta and asked for the Lowndes County Compliance Officer. She kindly told me that there had been some confusion about what government was responsible for the spill, because Valdosta called first but then Lowndes County did call and take responsibility for the spill.
She said that the spill had been 1.32 Million Gallons and that so far they had had a verbal report from the county and that the county has 5 days to make a written report.
Further, she said she would e-mail me any information that she had at this time, although the verbal reports are not “official”. And before I finished typing this up, she sent this response:
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:34:19 -0400
From: Kim Hembree
Subject: Lowndes County Spill
Ms. Quarterman,
The Lowndes County spill was originally reported to the Environmental Protection Division by the City of Valdosta on 4/25/2013. After responding to the spill, the City of Valdosta determined that the spill was coming from a portion of sanitary sewer collection system that belonged to Lowndes County. Lowndes County (County) responded to the spill on 4/25/2013. This morning, the County reported that the spill was approximately 1.32 million and entered the Withlacoochee River.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
To which I replied:
Thank you.If I understand correctly, Lowndes County now has 5 days to file a complete spill report. I’ll be interested in that when it is available.
Gretchen
Also, has Lowndes County put up a sign at the spill site to replace the Valdosta spill sign?
-gretchen
In addition to
calling Lowndes County, I also filed this Open Records Request:
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:56:39 -0400
To: Paige Dukes, Mike Allen, Phyllis Judge
Subject: Open Records Request – 20130426 – Waste Water
Hi,Please find attached an open records request for the following:
1) All written reports to EPD about waste water spills for the last 3 years
2) All year long monitoring programs/results after each spill
3) published notices in legal organ of all spills for last 3 years
4) a copy of the Overflow Emergency Response ProgramI would prefer electronic copies of these documents if they are available.
Thank you,
Gretchen
Gretchen Quarterman
I attached a scan of the paper Lowndes County Open Records Request form I filled out.
-gretchen
After learning that Lowndes County (not Valdosta) was having a waste water spill,
I called the Utilities Department
and asked to speak with Director Mike Allen.
The person that answered the phone said that he was not available and perhaps she could answer my question or put me through to his voice mail. I figured that perhaps I could get some of my questions answered so I asked about the status of the current waste water spill. She said that it had been repaired as of 5am today (April 26).
I then asked if it would be possible to get a copy of the Overflow
Emergency Response Program and she asked my name. When I said my
name (Gretchen Quarterman) she said that I would have to talk to
Paige Dukes
and she would transfer me.
After a long wait, she came back on the phone and said she would
transfer me and I was transferred to the voice mail of Paige Dukes.
I did not leave a message.
-gretchen
Apparently whoever is responsible for a major spill into Georgia waters
needs to immediately tell GA EPD DNR and the local health department
and post a sign, and
the sewage leak at GA 133 into the Withlacoochee River
qualifies as a major spill.
The City of Valdosta reported it as such, but it’s not clear it was their spill (update: it was Lowndes County’s spill).
Excerpts below from GA DNR’s guidelines.
-jsq
Water Quality: A Guide for Municipal Compliance by Mick Smith, Environmental Engineer.
Continue readingSpills and Major Spills
Spill
- Any discharge of raw sewage < 10,000 gallons to waters of the state
Major Spill
- Any discharge of raw sewage > 10,000 gallons to waters of the state
- BOD5 or TSS = 1.5 x weekly avg. permit limit
- Any discharge resulting in a water quality violation
Valdosta (update: it was Lowndes County’s spill) is famous in Florida again for sewage in our rivers.
Last month it was flooding at the Withlacoochee Wastwater Treatment Plant. This month it’s a broken sewer line. WTXL reported yesterday, Sewer line burst in Valdosta — Sewage spewing into river,
Nine hundred gallons of sewage is spewing onto the ground and into the Withlacoochee river, every single minute.
Here’s Valdosta’s Report of Major Spill from yesterday:
Continue reading