Tag Archives: Alapaha River

Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee Rivers 2026-01-28

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WWALS got good river results on Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers for Wednesday, and on the Santa Fe River for Thursday.

Valdosta Utilities also got good E. coli results for the Withlacoochee for Wednesday.

We have no new creek test results.

No new sewage spills have been reported this week in Georgia or Florida. The Florida Pollution Notices map is even finally working!

So if you can it being really cold, and you can find a river with enough water, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

This image is an illustration. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee Rivers 2026-01-28, Very cold this weekend, But happy paddling!]
Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee Rivers 2026-01-28, Very cold this weekend, But happy paddling!

Alapaha River

Please welcome back WWALS tester Kimberly Godden Tanner. For Wednesday she a very good 33 cfu/100 mL at both Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach for Wednesday.

Santa Fe River

WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler for Thursday at Mills Dock, a bit upstream from Poe Springs Ramp, bot a quite clean 100, with 4.7 C air temperature and 17.0 C water temperature.

Withlacoochee River

Valdosta Utilities for Wednesday got 360 at GA 133 and 50 at US 84, both below the 410 one-time test limit.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall for Wednesday got a perfect zero (0) for State Line Boat Ramp, aka Mozell Spells.

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Two wells, a lift station, water meters, and drainage eminent domain @ LCC 2026-01-26

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Update 2026-01-26: Videos: Water treatment upgrade because GA-EPD Consent Order, Lift Station Pump Repair, Condemnation along Twin Lakes Road, VAWA, Extension Office, Red Cross @ LCC Work 2026-01-26.

Lowndes County is under a GA-EPD Consent Order about drinking water for a well near Pine Grove Middle School. They did try for multiple bids to fix that but only got one.

And they’re fixing a sewage lift station near Ocean Pond in Lake Park. Before it breaks: good. It’s a sole source bid, though.

The Consent Order is revealed by the agenda packet page for 5.a. Spring Creek Water Treatment Plant Design Build Project. Neither the board packet materials nor the ad for bids mentions where this is. However, previous research indicates it’s the well with water tower at 4245 Hattie Pl, Valdosta, GA 31605, near a creek that runs west by Pine Grove Middle School to the Withlacoochee River.

They will vote on spending $214,412.00 on the Spring Creek plant. Which also mysteriously includes “add a lift station.” Lift stations usually refer to sewer lines, and Lowndes County’s sewer lines do not go up Hattie Place to the well site. Maybe an open records request for the Consent Order will clarify that.

And another $24,400.00 on a sewage pump repair at the Peterson Road Lift Station. The packet materials don’t say where that is, either, but it appears to be in the southeast corner of 6201 Peterson Road (the Home Depo Distribution Center), east of the I-75 Georgia Visitor Center. The sign on the fence says Roadway Lift Station.

And the county thinks $12,400.00 is a fair condemnation price to get some road and drainage right of way along Twin Lakes Road.

[Two wells, a lift station, surplus water meter components, and drainage eminent domain @ Lowndes County Commission 2026-01-26]
Two wells, a lift station, surplus water meter components, and drainage eminent domain @ Lowndes County Commission 2026-01-26

That’s about a quarter million dollars they may approve Tuesday, before even adding in the $26,371.00 cash match for a VAWA grant. Continue reading →

Agenda: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting 2026-01-11

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Here is the draft agenda and the zoom parameters for the WWALS Quarterly Board meeting Sunday evening, January 11, 2026.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89308028204?pwd=VmwyMzVTMVR6WGJxbUFUSlFXWFRWQT09

WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting

When: 6:00 PM, Sunday, January 11, 2026

What: The usual board business.

Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1448563266894844/

[Agenda: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting, By zoom, 6-8 PM, 2026-01-11, Advocacy, outings, events, Board, Staff, and Committees]
Agenda: WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting, By zoom, 6-8 PM, 2026-01-11, Advocacy, outings, events, Board, Staff, and Committees

Here is the agenda (see also PDF). Continue reading →

Hightower Creek still dirty; Alapaha River clean 2025-12-30

Update 2026-01-03: Hightower Creek dirty upstream at Norman Drive 2026-01-01.

Update 2026-01-02: And clean Santa Fe River. At Mills Dock for Wednesday, Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler got 0 E. coli at 7 C air temp. and 17.9 C water temp.

Yet again, Hightower Creek tested dirty with E. coli at St. Augustine Road for Tuesday in Valdosta.

It still appears there is some other source of sewage upstream of St. Augustine Road into Hightower Creek.

Sugar Creek at the WaterGoat tested much cleaner, but the next rain will wash down whatever that is upstream.

The most recent results we have for the Withlacoochee River are for last week, but they were clean.

The Alapaha River tested clean upstream for Wednesday.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week for the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida. The Florida Pollution Notices Map is broken again: “Unable to create map: Cannot read properties of null (reading ‘insertBefore’)”.

Rain is predicted for Saturday.

So if you can find a river with enough water, and you don’t mind cold and rain, happy paddling, motoring, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

Maybe you’d like to join us, weather permitting for Full Wolf Moon Paddle, Banks Lake, Gather 5 PM, launch 5:30 PM, moonrise 6:07 PM, sunset 5:55 PM, end 7 PM, Saturday, January 3, 2026.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Hightower Creek still dirty 2025-12-30, Alapaha River clean 2025-12-31, Withlacoochee River Clean last week]
Hightower Creek still dirty 2025-12-30, Alapaha River clean 2025-12-31, Withlacoochee River Clean last week

Valdosta Creeks

Continue reading →

Valdosta drinking water meter sole-source issue 2025-10-19

Update 2025-12-30: Valdosta fixing sewer system problems before they break @ VCC 2025-12-11.

Back in 2020, Valdosta happily announced installation of new water meters, including a video of them installing the meters in the ground, with a steel cover. They were supposed to last a long time.

[Valdosta drinking water meter sole-source issue 2020-01-31, 25,000 meters replaced again in October 2025]
Valdosta drinking water meter sole-source issue 2020-01-31, 25,000 meters replaced again in October 2025

Unfortunately, those meters were not designed for hot subtropical summers. That steel cover kept the heat in, and the meters failed in little more than five years. There was no upgrade, because the sole-source vendor went bankrupt.

So in 2025 the City of Valdosta had to buy a whole new set of 25,000 meters, which were not in its budget, and required changing customer billing.

This story is about drinking water. In a later post, we will discuss how the sole-source issue is also relevant to Valdosta’s sewer system, and other sewer systems.

Metro 17, Valdosta, January 31, 2020, New Water Meters, Continue reading →

Videos: Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11

History Instructor Vickie Everitte conducted a historical exploration of Georgia’s Wiregrass Region and the complex stories of survival, resistance, and adaptation that unfolded there after the 1814 Treaty of Fort Jackson.

WWALS Board Member Janet Martin gave a brief introduction to this WWALS Webinar. Questions and answers were at the end, including a distinguished guest.

[Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11]
Geography of Opportunity, by Vickie Everitte, a WWALS Webinar, 2025-12-11

Here is a zoom video of this WWALS Webinar:

https://youtu.be/ULUwKQEOh10

Her slides are on the WWALS website in PowerPoint and PDF. Images of each page are below.

Native American and Passageways to Freedom within the Wiregrass Region1

As settlers moved south of the Oconee River, drawn by the land’s economic promise, waves of migration and militia efforts reshaped the landscape—and the lives of the Native American families who called it home. Through rivers, streams, and the vast Okefenokee Swamp, Indigenous people found ways not only to endure but to carve out paths of freedom and self-determination amid the U.S. Indian Removal Policy of the 1830s.

Drawing from original correspondence between settlers, militia, and Georgia’s governors in Milledgeville, this presentation reveals how waterways became corridors of escape and survival. As Everitte reminds us, “Swamps are places on the margins — as much, they are places of transition, opportunity, and challenge.”2

About the Speaker

Continue reading →

Hydrologic Conditions Report –SRWMD 2025-11-30

Update 2025-12-17: Drought Workshop Presentation –SRWMD 2025-12-09.

Every county in the Suwannee River Basin is in drought, according to SRWMD’s own Hydrologic Conditions Report for November 30, 2025 presented in their Board meeting of December 9, 2025.

But not droughty enough for SRWMD to declare even a voluntary Drought Warning, according to the Drought Workshop after the Board meeting. I have sent in a FOIA request for the Workshop slides. Both meetings are in the SRWMD YouTube post for 2025-12-09.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LDIIdFqxaY

Meanwhile, here is the SRWMD Hydrologic Conditions Report for November 2025, plus some related information.

Such as SRWMD actually does have “Year-Round Lawn & Landscape Irrigation Measures,” but nobody seems to know about them. And that page does not seem to include agricultural, mining, or water bottling water use. Continue reading →

Alapaha Sturgeon Rescue –Kenneth Sulak 2010-09-12

Ken Sulak sent this story today, about rescuing Gulf Sturgeon from the dry bed of the Alapaha River, back in September 2010.

The Alapaha River often goes dry in late summer and fall, because what little water it has after evapotranspiration goes down the Dry River distributary into the Dead River Sink, and only emerges about 19 miles downstream at the Alapaha River Rise and Holton Creek Rise, both on the Suwannee River upstream from the Alapaha River Confluence.

Dug deep into photo files – found a few images from 12-13 Sept 2010 rescue of 4-5 sturgeon stranded in a pool in the otherwise dry Alapaha. I no longer have access to USGS files since the current regime has decided to cutoff all retired emeritus scientists from their stored data. So I could not determine exactly where this was located, exact number of fish rescued, or their lengths. This was a 2-day effort. I will ask Mike Randall to pull up the field logs and see if he can find the relevant data.

[Sturgeon Rescue from Dry Alapaha River --Kenneth Sulak while at USGS, September 12-13 2010]
Sturgeon Rescue from Dry Alapaha River –Kenneth Sulak while at USGS, September 12-13 2010

We drove in on an SRWMD gated entry using one of their ATVs, followed a trail along riverbank, then up the dry river bed by 4-wheel ATV. Mike Randall and I waded into the pool with large landing nets (the smallest net shown here) and also a two-brail seine. After a lot of chasing the fish around we managed to net them all. I was in the water to begin with, but then took photos while the younger guys chased the fish around and managed to capture them. That was not easy. Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe Rivers; dirty Sugar Creek and One Mile Branch, filthy Hightower Creek 2025-12-04

Update 2025-12-13: Clean Rivers and Creeks, except Hightower Creek 2025-12-11.

The Withlacoochee River tested pretty clean this week, as did the Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers.

But One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek tested dirty, and Hightower Creek tested filthy.

It appears there is still some other source of sewage upstream of St. Augustine Road into Hightower Creek.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week for the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

The weather prediction for Saturday and Sunday is rain.

So if you can find a river with enough water, and you don’t mind cold and rain, happy paddling, motoring, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, & Santa Fe Rivers 2025-12-04, Dirty Sugar Creek & One Mile Branch, Filthy Hightower Creek]
Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, & Santa Fe Rivers 2025-12-04, Dirty Sugar Creek & One Mile Branch, Filthy Hightower Creek

Sugar Creek and its feeder creeks

We’re only seeing these creek results from Valdosta Utilities because they’re in the fourth week of the month 12 required testing after their November 2024 sewage spills. There won’t be any more tests in that series after this week.

https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/nov-2024-overflow-testing-results

Maybe it’s time for Valdosta to take up a more regular schedule for testing its creeks, as well as the Withlacoochee River both upstream and down. This would be to the advantage of the City of Valdosta, because such results help find sewage spills, and they also demonstrate when the creeks and rivers are clean, and when there are problems that are not Valdosta’s fault.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall got 566 cfu/100 mL E. coli at the WaterGoat on Sugar Creek, down near the Withlacoochee River. Which matches the 600 Valdosta Utilities got a bit upstream at Gornto Road. Both results are above the one-time 410 test limit.

Farther upstream, Continue reading →

WWALS teaching ABAC students about water quality @ GFEC 2025-11-21

Heather Brasell got WWALS water quality testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman invited to talk about water quality with students from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC). They did this in the classroom at the Gaskins Forest Education Center (GFEC) and onsite at streams coming from the Town of Alapaha Wastewater Treatment Plant.

[WWALS teaching ABAC students about water quality @ GFEC, Watersheds and microbes, plants and animals 2025-11-21]
WWALS teaching ABAC students about water quality @ GFEC, Watersheds and microbes, plants and animals 2025-11-21

They did the classroom part at Gaskins Forest Education Center (GFEC), 3359 Moore Sawmill Rd, Alapaha, GA 31622, in Berrien County. Gretchen talked about what watersheds are, about the watersheds of the Suwannee River Basin, about WWALS, and generally about Georgia Adopt-A-Stream water quality testing such as WWALS does. Continue reading →