Tag Archives: Pollution

Moody Family Housing is in aquifer recharge zone @ LCC 2013-08-27

The Moody Family Housing just rezoned is in a recharge zone for our drinking water supply, the Floridan Aquifer. What will keep runoff from this subdivision from feeding through the wetlands and sinkhole into the aquifer? Should we depend on county engineering, which never put in the traffic calming measures required for nearby Nelson Hill, or other county staff, who gave waivers for other required items there, or just didn’t require them to be implemented? What assurances can we get from our county government that Moody Family Housing won’t pollute our drinking water?

WRPDO Title Alone The above map is a detail from Lowndes County’s own Water Resource Protection Districts Ordinance (WRPDO) overlay Map. Here’s an even more detailed view courtesy VALOR GIS (turn on Streams and Waterbodies, NWI Wetlands, Muncipal Boundaries, and Groundwater Rechard Areas): Continue reading →

Seven Out Superfund site in Waycross –Joan McNeal for Channel 22

People are still getting sick and dying in Waycross after Chemical company Seven Out closed and left a toxic waste site. It’s now a Superfund site, which doesn’t mean anything has been cleaned up. 10 out of 30 City Hall employees have cancer and 8 have already died. Many living around the site are sick, and teachers and school children. What will Georgia Reps. Jason Spencer and Ellis Black who attended do after that 29 August 2013 meeting? Will action wait until more people die? And to which landfill were those precipitated solids taken?

GA Rep. Ellis Black District 177 State representative Jason Spencer District 180 said the state health report should be finished in October, and was quick to point to Rep. Ellis Black District 174 as representing the specific area. Rep. Black said they’d just heard about this and would be looking into it, and:

I’m a farmer from Clyattville…. I spent some time in the farm-supply business and I have messed with agricultural chemicals all my life and I’ve got a lot of experience there. And I can tell you that I know firsthand something about the danger and the challenges of dealing with these really sensitive products and how minute amount can cause problems. And it’s something that’s Continue reading →

Landfill is in aquifer recharge zone

In a recharge zone for our drinking water supply, the Floridan Aquifer, is the Pecan Row Landfill with its PCBs and coal ash. That proposed landfill pipeline requiring cutting through the vegetative buffer along an unnamed tributary to Spring Branch? Also at least partly in the recharge zone. Continue reading →

Citizens sue city about sewage

I wonder who else is sick of sewage?

AP, today, Sick Of Spewing Sewage, Georgia Neighbors File Lawsuit,

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division responded to a Rochelle resident’s complaint of waste spewing across portions of a 10-block area in March. The agency concluded there had been a major spill of more than 10,000 gallons of raw sewage. A March 29 letter from state regulators says Rochelle city officials were aware of “frequent spill events” in the past but had made “minimal to no progress” in fixing the problems.

The complaint and the lawsuit both started with 67-year-old John Jackson, a retired Rochelle city maintenance worker who reached out to state regulators and the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice. The firm filed suit on behalf of him and seven co-plaintiffs.

Well, of course our local county seat and county here are working on fixing their sewage problems…. Continue reading →

Landfill pipeline

Apparently ADS’s landfill gas project wants to take in methane from the closed old landfill, as well, according to a public notice today that proposes a pipeline from the old Evergreen Landfill to the Pecan Row Landfill that has the natural gas turbine. Nevermind the $27,500 fine for PCBs or that coal ash in the landfill that nobody on the Lowndes County Commission or Valdosta City Council or Deep South Solid Waste Authority (SWA) can be bothered to check on. Nevermind the unaccounted for tipping fees or host fees. I wonder if cutting through that vegetative buffer will let the coal ash and PCBs reach the Withlacoochee River more easily?

Location of proposed pipeline from Evergreen Landfill to Pecan Row Landfill
The yellow path indicated for the pipeline is just a guess.

In the VDT today, PUBLIC ADVISORY NOTICE,

The proposed project located west of Valdosta, in Lowndes County, GA along Wetherington Lane near the Pecan Row Landfill facility (2995 Wetherington Lane, Valdosta, GA, 31601) involves buffer encroachments necessary to install a 30-inch gas pipeline. This pipeline will Continue reading →

Third no-bid contract for same firm proposed this month @ LCC 2013-08-26

This time the County Engineer said Lovell was the only qualified consultant for an ecological and environmental study (because of what requirement we don’t know), for a land swap (for what we don’t know), not funded by the county (funded by whom we don’t know). You the taxpayers and people potentially affected by any ecological and environmental problems: do you think you might want to know? They vote tonight about what was proposed at the 26 August 2013 Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

6.a. Environmental Engineering Services for GDOT Land Deed for Parks and Recreation

Invisible County Engineer Mike Fletcher said he had received a proposal from Lovell Engineering Services for the 62.49 acre tract just north of the existing skate park Parks and Rec owns and just north of the old rest area.

The county Tax Assessors maps don’t show any tract of that size near that location, but they Continue reading →

Fourth or fifth flooding at Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater plant this year?

So many I’ve lost track; somebody help me….

Valdosta City PR Friday, Public Notice for Permit Violation at WWTP,

Due to continued heavy rains in Valdosta and surrounding areas in recent days, moderate flooding of the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers caused a hydraulic overload at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant. As a result of a peak hourly flow of 15.58 million gallons, the incident led to a discharge of total suspended solids in excess of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit limit.

The total suspended solids result for the effluent sample collected August 22, 2013 was 203 milligrams per liter. This is greater than Continue reading →

Path of proposed pipeline through Lowndes County

That pipeline that starts in PCB-polluted Anniston, Alabama, where would it cross Lowndes County?

Two routes, one north to south, another from Brooks County southeast to the Florida line.

Pipeline points with streets Pipeline points with imagery

On this google map, A is the land mentioned in Massive pipeline project may cross Lowndes, by Jason Schaeffer, VDT, 30 June 2013, B, C, and D several of the parcels listed in the letters Sabal Trail Transmission LLC sent Lowndes County (another is very near D). They all form pretty much a straight line north to south. The actual route probably Continue reading →

Flooding again at Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant

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 into the Withlacoochee River. Which is about a half mile away. Which makes the city’s plans to relocate this plant all the more relevant.

Since the beginning of this year more than Continue reading →

Landfill PCB violation

What hazardous waste was accepted at Veolia’s Pecan Row Landfill that got a $27,500 fine from GA EPD this January? Veolia is ADS now, the same company to which Lowndes County granted an exclusive franchise for waste pickup. We already knew that landfill accepts coal ash from TVA. What else is in there, seeping into our drinking water aquifer, and with runoff going into the Withlacoochee River?

According to GA EPD,

Under authority of the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Act :
Facility: Veolia ES Pecan Row Landfill/Valdosta; order issued to Veolia ES Pecan Row Landfill, LLC
Location: Lowndes County
Order Number: EPD-SW-2564
Date of Issue: January 30,2013
Cause of Order: Violations of Rules for Solid Waste Management/regulated hazardous waste acceptance; failure to properly conduct inspections
Requirement(s) of Order: Implement plan to prevent acceptance of regulated quantities of HW and PCB wastes at facility; ensure all employees handling waste recognize/identify labeled HW and PCB wastes at facility
Settlement Amount: $27500.00

According to U.S. EPA, Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB): Continue reading →