- 6.7 million gallons of groundwater and sewage spilled near the Withlacoochee River on April 12.
- Over 1.34 million of that is raw sewage, but the river sees no contamination
- Watch the video to hear from neighbors concerned about their health.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
After a series of sewage spills between January and March, Valdosta has been hit with over 6 million gallons of overflow near the Withlacoochee River.
"It just can't keep happening. You can't keep saying it'll stop. It needs to stop."
I'm Malia Thomas, your neighborhood reporter in Valdosta, and I'm checking in with neighbors who are growing concerned about the impact of these spills.
This is Teena Kulakowski. She reached out to the ABC27 team after hearing about 6.7 million gallons of liquid overflowing by a tributary/drainage ditch that drains to Spring Branch and the Withlacoochee River.
"It kills me to think that there's elders out there drinking this out of the tap water because the county, the state, Valdosta... no one has even put out the word not to drink the water."
The city is still updating aging infrastructure and developing a Georgia Environmental Protection Division approved game plan to help prevent future spills.
In the meantime, the city did put out an advisory that explained that their water system is at "no risk of contamination", but they are advising neighbors using wells to have their water tested and the well disinfected.
"6.7 million gallons of effluent from a wastewater treatment plant is really something that's it's catastrophic, affects people's health and wealthier, which is terrible. And then it's gonna affect property prices. You know, riverfront property. Wow. But then you hear Withlacoochee and you think, Ohh."
The overflow is composed of approximately an estimated 20% conventional sewage and 80% groundwater, meaning over 1 million gallons of raw sewage has spilled out.
The City Sewer collection System is still in a state of hydraulic overload, so the city is still monitoring and testing the water systems.
Ashley Tye, Lowndes County emergency manager, explains that extreme weather events causes spills like this.
"All of this rain fell in about a 4-hour span, so it simply overwhelmed drainage infrastructure and had nowhere to go." During severe weather events, rainwater seeps into the soil and the resultant groundwater can infiltrate the sewer collection and distribution system and possibly overwhelm treatment infrastructure."
While the city works on improving the stormwater system, Teena hopes to see some direct action.
"The first thing I'd like to see them do is reach out to the Feds to see if there's any money to mitigate the problem."
Updated Results of Bacteriological testing for sites can be found on the city website under Water Quality Data. In Valdosta, I'm Malia Thomas, ABC27.
