VALDOSTA, Ga. – On Tuesday, December 10, Darryl Muse, director of City of Valdosta Utilities Department, met with members of the press to discuss the latest raw sewage spill which occurred in the last week.
“It happened at one of the major stations constructed there five years ago to handle the flow,” Muse said of the station located behind the newest apartment complex in Remerton off of Baytree.
The City of Valdosta worked with the Department of Health in Florida to issue a joint health advisory to Hamilton and Madison Counties Monday about the 7.5 million gallons of raw sewage that had been released.
Those North Florida residents near the Withlacoochee River were advised the spill would impact water quality from Sugar Creek into the Withlacoochee River.
The health departments have advised people living near those areas to take precautions when in contact with the Withlacoochee until further information is known. The DOH and the Dept. of Environmental Protection are currently taking water samples there.
The City of Valdosta found out about the spill when staff at the Wastewater Treatment Plant noticed a change in water pressure and alerted there was a problem. The millions of gallons spewed out over a four-day period. Workers are currently doing everything they can to remedy the problem and undo the damage, but Muse didn’t sugarcoat the dirty truth.
Muse explained that human error had caused the spill. A contractor working for Electrical Machines Controls out of Alabama was confirmed to have been at the station that particular day, ironically working on the equipment to prevent such an incident from occurring. The company has worked with Valdosta many times and this incident was an oversight by one individual.
“If the cable had been reconnected as it should have been then the pumps would have operated properly and we would not have had that release,” Muse said sitting at the conference table in City Hall Tuesday. “The release occurred behind Target. Once we were notified by our staff at the Wastewater Treatment Facility that they were receiving reduced flows, our crews went out and quickly found out where those were going and that helped us get there more quickly. The station typically would notify us, but that plug that was disconnected was the piece of data that the system needed to transmit to us to allow us to respond quickly.”
The cleanup was “pretty significant,” Muse added.
“As you know we had about 7.5 million gallon release,” he said. “Our crews were out there with vacuum trucks, capturing any residue from the spill that was in the creek. Fortunately, the levels were pretty low in the creek and we’re going to be able to capture a significant amount of that that has been contained in the creek itself. We’re working on that as we speak. We have also disinfected the area. We go to the infected area and put down sodium hydrochloride which is a disinfectant so it kills most of the pathogens.”
A year ago, in December 2018, another massive spill occurred that affected North Floridians that drew much ire and criticism for the City of Valdosta’s Utilities Department and Wastewater Treatment facilities.
“It’s very frustrating. We spent millions and millions of dollars to address spills we’ve had in the past and I think we’ve done a really good job,” Muse said. “We were on path to not have a significant release by the City this calendar year.”
After the 2018 spill, the City was required to conduct mandatory 365-day testing, and they had just issued a memo to the state saying that they were completing it.
Then, this happened.
Another 365-day mandatory testing period is required.
The City of Valdosta issued a statement Tuesday:
On December 9, 2019, the staff at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment plant notified Environmental Services personnel to inform them that flow into the plant had decreased by 50% over the previous few days. After a brief investigation, utility personnel noticed that a contractor working on the city’s SCADA system disconnected a reference cable at the Remerton Lift Station for testing and failed to reconnect it. As a result of the incident, the lift station’s level indicator and alarm agent were disconnected. The lift station’s alarm agent system did not operate as it normally would, bypassing the alert notification that is typically sent to utility staff when there is an issue at a lift station.
Based on the flow information collected, approximately 7,592,910 gallons discharged from a manhole into Sugar Creek adjacent to the 1800 block of Norman Drive.
City of Valdosta statement
“I don’t want to make it sound like seven million gallons is just a trickle,” Daryn Muse said. “I just want to say, I’ve heard people say something things. Say we may not have been as proactive as we should have been…but the Utilities Department is prepared to spend another $40 million” to continue upgrading the present system.
The DOH advised anyone who comes into contact with this water to wash thoroughly especially before eating or drinking. Extra care should be taken by those with a weakened immune system, as well as children and the elderly.
Muse said that the City of Valdosta’s drinking water supply remains unaffected by the spill. “Our wells are in the north of Lowndes County and are 400-feet deep,” Muse said.
For more information about the potential health effects of the overflow, Florida residents should contact DOH-Hamilton at 386-758-1059 or hamilton.floridahealth.gov and DOH-Madison at 850-973-5000 or madison.floridahealth.gov.
For information regarding the spill, please contact the Valdosta Utilities Department Environmental Manager Scott Fowler at 229-259-3592 or sfowler@valdostacity.com.