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"WAYCROSS REPORTS THREE SPILLS TOTALING AT LEAST 40,000 GALLONS
OF
UNTREATED WASTE" - CHURCH BASEMENT FLOODED WITH WASTE; SOME
DUMPED INTO
SATILLA" The Brantley Enterprise, Thursday, April 10,
2003
The Brantley Enterprise has learned that the
City of Waycross reported
not one, but three spillages of raw, untreated waste material into its
flood drainage system, which empties into the Satilla River near the
U.S. Highway 84 bridges between Waycross and Blackshear.
The waste material then flows downstream into
Brantley County.
According to Darrell Crosby, unit manager of the Coastal District
Compliance Office of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division of
the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in Brunswick, the city
reported three spillages of as much as 40,000 gallons or more and
required that city officials report them to the state EPD and place
notices in the local newspaper. Those notices were published,
but in
unlikely places. One was included in the jobs section of the
classified
ads. No news coverage was provided of the event.
Crosby said the city first received reports of a sewer-like smell from
residents of Central Park Apartments on Atlantic Avenue.
Officials
traced the smell to a retention pond on Central Avenue which was
either
swollen to capacity from heavy rains or a main sewer line into the
pond
was at least partially blocked.
That condition caused a manhole cover to overflow into the city's
storm
drainage system, and because the condition had existed two days before
the problem was fixed and officials weren't sure how much spillage
occurred, they treated it like a major spill of more than 10,000
gallons.
A second spill occurred March 7 when continuing heavy rains caused the
sewer to back up and overflow at a manhole cover on Reynolds Street
and
again into the city's storm drainage canal system.
Officials asked the CSX shops to cut back on their
flow of sewage to
alleviate the problem, which was fixed the same day it was discovered.
The spill was treated as a minor one of less than 1,000 gallons.
A third spill was reported March 9 when a church located at 501
Reynolds
Street reported its basement had been flooded. Officials
discovered the
church toilets had no backflow prevention devices and that about
30,000
gallons of sewage had flowed back into the basement.
After toilets were capped to stop the reverse flow, officials managed
to
correct the problem the same day it occurred.
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