Representative Chuck Brannan speaks at the start of Monday’s legislative delegation hearing at Live Oak City Hall.

LIVE OAK, Fla. — With a chance to address Suwannee County’s state legislators Monday, several elected officials and residents expressed their concerns with the environment as well as issues with the education system in the state.

The ongoing wastewater spills from Valdosta, Ga., was the chief concern addressed during the county’s legislative delegation hearing Monday morning at Live Oak City Hall.

“Our constituents are hitting us up pretty hard about (the sewage spills), especially at a time when when we start getting beat up by new septic tank rules coming down and we’re having a hard time getting stuff done in Suwannee County,” said Ricky Gamble, the chairman of the Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners. “Every time we get four inches of rain in Valdosta, we get 20 million gallons of raw sewage dumped in our back yard.”

Ronnie Richardson, the commissioner from District 5, discussed the topic again later in the hearing.

It was also one of the issues that resident Eric Rodriguez wanted Senator Rob Bradley (R-Fleming Island) and Representative Chuck Brannan (R-Macclenny) to address. He even said he was willing to help in any way he could.

“If you need a local landowner to put his name on it to sue Valdosta, I’m willing to do that,” Rodriguez said. “I own a lot on the river and it’s a shame that that continues to happen and I can’t believe how long it’s been happening.

“It’s an absolute shame.”

Bradley added: “It is a shame. It’s disgusting.”

Fellow county residents Tom Burnett, Eileen Box and Wendy and Fred Martin also voiced their concerns with the quality of the area’s waterways, especially with the spills from Valdosta — an issue that has been ongoing for years, with two more spills occurring in December.

Burnett said as someone who worked for close to three decades with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, he believes the Valdosta plant is not following the requirements of their permit.

“When one entity injures another entity, you can go to court and recover the cost for that injury,” he said. “Perhaps a civil case being brought to the city from whomever us being impacted adversely, maybe getting a $100 million adjudication against Valdosta may get them to change their behavior.”

Box, who is a board member of the Suwannee Riverkeeper, said North Florida residents may need to expand the reach of their complaints. She said those concerns need to be directed at the people who can do something about it — the Valdosta City Council.

“If they start hearing from Suwannee County and Hamilton and Madison and all these counties that are affected, I think personally, when you come and talk, it does have an effect,” she said. “That may be one little thing that we can do.”

Brannan asked Box, who also expressed concern with runoff from local farmers affecting the waterways and would like to see regulatory backing behind Best Management Practices, if she knew what the reaction was in South Georgia.

“The group I belong to are all up in arms,” she said, adding that the Riverkeepers check and maintain the water quality of the rivers in the area.

Both Wendy and Fred Martin said the concern with water quality should also be directed at the Okefenokee Swamp, which feeds the Suwannee River.

Wendy Martin, though, also addressed the concerns with wastewater getting into the aquifer.

“Even if it’s treated sewer water, I’d like to see every one of them drink a glass of it before they put it into the aquifer,” she said.

Rodriguez also wanted the legislators to try and find ways to increase per pupil funding for education.

The legislators also heard concerns from Superintendent of Schools Ted Roush, Suwannee County School Board Chairman Ed Da Silva and Malcolm Hines, safety director for the SCSD.

Roush and Hines both had questions in regards to school security and the ongoing funding of the Guardian Program and other components school safety addressed by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission.

Roush wanted clarification as to the language regarding the funding for maintaining the Guardian Program while Hines was concerned about transportation being an acceptable component of the program’s funding.

Bradley said neither should be an issue but thanked them for voicing their concerns with the language in the bills.

“That’s why we have these meetings,” Bradley said.