The GA-EPD person who enters the data was on vacation, but eventually the Valdosta Country Club sewage spill appeared in GA-EPD’s online reports, on August 27, 2019, with this:

“Note: Initial 24-hour spill notification received by EPD 8/21, via phone. Entered 8/26 due to employee vacation.”

As I noted to GA-EPD, this is a good example of a case where an automated email alert could have let them and us all know when it appeared. Alabama has been doing that for two years now, and Florida for almost as long.

Red marker: 3353 Plantation Drive. Yellow diamond sign: actual spill location.

That entry included a more precise address than Valdosta had previously reported: 3353 Plantation Drive. Unfortunately, that address is still incorrect. As I have pointed out to GA-EPD, the spill was beyond the end of Plantation Drive, past the lift station, on the golf course, where nobody could see it from Plantation Drive, at 30.892791, -83.306936.

Line

Perhaps Georgia, like Florida and Alabama already do, could require latitude and longitude for each reported spill, to avoid this kind of wild goose chase.

Such a latlong would also greatly facilitate publishing a map each day of the past 30 days of spills, as Florida and Alabama already do.

Oh, look: the online report finally gets the affected waterbody right: Stillhouse Branch. After I explained to Valdosta Utilities that Valdosta Stormwater has maps of all the relevant creeks.

Stillhouse Branch

Meanwhile, WWALS keeps an archive of every day of the Georgia reports.

Thanks to Alys Hannum of GA-EPD for replying with the date this data was entered.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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