Tag Archives: north Florida

Filthy creeks, Clean downstream Withlacoochee River 2025-09-17

Valdosta Utilities for Thursday got sky-high E. coli on One Mile Branch, Hightiwer Creek, and especially Sugar Creek at Gornto Road, as well as too high at GA 133.

This time upstream at US 41 was good, as was downstream at US 84, and even better in a WWALS test farther downstream on the Withlacoochee River, near the Suwannee River.

For the second time recently, a WWALS test on Sugar Creek does not agree with Valdosta results. We will have to do more testing to sort that out.

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

It hasn’t rained in days, and no rain is predicted for the next five days.

So avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, and happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

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

[Filthy Creeks 2025-09-18, Clean downstream Withlacoochee River]
Filthy Creeks 2025-09-18, Clean downstream Withlacoochee River

Or join us tomorrow for Rivers Alive Trash Pick Up, Alapaha River, Mayday Landing 2025-09-20.
https://wwals.net/?p=68386

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

Agenda, North Central Florida Regional Planning Council 2025-09-25

It’s curious that there’s nothing on their agenda about the Rivers Task Force meeting with the City of Valdosta, but maybe they covered that last month.

Anyway, the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC) meets next Thursday, in person and online.

[North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Public Notice and Agenda, Thursday, September 25, 2025]
North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Public Notice and Agenda, Thursday, September 25, 2025

A copy of the meeting notice, directions, and agenda is on the WWALS website, with images below, plus an illustrative picture of a previous NCFRPC meeting at the same location. Continue reading

Suwannee Riverkeeper in Quitman Free Press 2025-09-17

Thanks to Dr. Horne for writing and sending this article. We all do what we can.

September 17, 2025, Quitman Free Press, Page 3

Doc’s Special Messages
By: Dr. R. Marie Horne MD

Quintessential Mr. Quarterman

Some South Georgians have made numerous contributions to the South Georgia area and have rendered enormous contributions to national and global society as well. One of these South Georgia notables is Mr. John S. Quarterman, a longtime South Georgia resident who has a perpetual passion for navigating activism in protection of waterways, specifically those which impact area communities, as the WWALS Watershed Coalition’s Suwannee Riverkeeper, who takes seriously and enthusiastically his stewardship over protecting the Suwannee River Basin in South Georgia and North Florida.

[Quitman Free Press, 2025-09-17 --Dr. Marie Horne]
Quitman Free Press, 2025-09-17 –Dr. Marie Horne

Having hailed from the Bemiss Community in Lowndes County Georgia, near Valdosta, studied at Harvard, authored in 1990, the book entitled, “The Matrix, Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems Worldwide,” Mr. John Quarterman became the “longest serving cartographer of the Internet, a designation “dubbed by Mappa Mundi Magazine” in 1990.

Continue reading

Clean Santa Fe River 2025-09-10, Filthy Sugar Creek, Dirty upstream Withlacoochee River 2025-09-11

Update 2025-09-19: Filthy creeks, Clean downstream Withlacoochee River 2025-09-17.

Introducing new WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler, who got zero (0) E. coli at Mills Dock on the Santa Fe River for Wednesday, September 10.

We also have not pretty Valdosta Utilities results for September 11 for Valdosta creeks and upstream at US 41 on the Withlacoochee River. Sugar Creek at Gornto Road was back up to several times the 1,000 alert limit less than a week after WWALS tester Suzy Hall got an OK result at Gornto Road on Sugar Creek. There had been no rain, so this is puzzling.

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

No rain is predicted until Monday.

So avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, and happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing.

We’ll have another water quality report Friday.

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

[Clean Santa Fe River and downstream Withlacoochee 2025-09-10, Filthy Sugar Creek and Dirty upstream Withlacoochee 2025-09-11]
Clean Santa Fe River and downstream Withlacoochee 2025-09-10, Filthy Sugar Creek and Dirty upstream Withlacoochee 2025-09-11

Continue reading

Need more river testing and more types of testing 2025-09-13

Update 2025-09-17: Clean Santa Fe River 2025-09-10, Filthy Sugar Creek, Dirty upstream Withlacoochee River 2025-09-11.

E. coli is the canary in the coal mine for other contaminants in waterways.

For years WWALS has been asking the state of Florida to test frequently in many places on all rivers, to very little response FDEP did do some testing for chemical and biological tracers, including DNA tests, after Valdosta’s huge December 2019 spill, but that petered out. While FDEP was doing that, those results helped identify another source of contamination that was not Valdosta.

WWALS did test the Withlacoochee River for PFAS forever chemicals and round some, although much less than many other rivers, and no higher below the outfall of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant or PCA’s package plant.

FDEP continued with quarterly tests for a while, and put at least its fecal bacteria results online. But it stopped doing that last year.

The 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order on Valdosta required bacterial testing of the Withlacoochee River over 40 river miles three times a week, for four years. Once those four years were up, Valdosta dropped back to two locaitons once a week.

USGS ceased financial support for nitrate and pH monitoring in eight Florida springs this year. It is not clear whether SRWMD picked up the slack.

We need more testing, not less.

[Need more river testing, and more types of testing, DNA, PFAS, metals, etc., by FDEP and others]
Need more river testing, and more types of testing, DNA, PFAS, metals, etc., by FDEP and others

Treated wastewater still has PFAS and other contaminants, as Joe Squiteri of Lee, Florida, pointed out in the recent meeting of the Florida Rivers Task Force with the City of Valdosta. Continue reading

Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-09-11

Update 2025-09-17: Clean Santa Fe River 2025-09-10, Filthy Sugar Creek, Dirty upstream Withlacoochee River 2025-09-11.

Update 2025-09-13: Need more river testing and more types of testing 2025-09-13.

WWALS and Valdosta Utilities test results agree for Wednesday and Thursday: clean Withlacoochee River downstream. But avoid it near GA 133.

A WWALS tester sampled Sugar Creek at Gornto Road and the Alapaha River at Berrien Beach Boat Ramp Saturday, and found them pretty clean and very clean. We have to wonder about Sugar Creek again because of that Valdosta Utilities GA 133 result.

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

It hasn’t rained in days, and no rain is predicted for the next ten days.

So avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, and happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

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

[Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-09-11, Clean Sugar Creek and, Alapaha River 2025-09-06]
Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-09-11, Clean Sugar Creek and, Alapaha River 2025-09-06

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

Nutrien water withdrawals approved –SRWMD 2025-09-09

After SRWMD Chair Virginia Johns took the oath of office due to being reappointed, the Board at its September 9, 2025, meeting approved the agenda unchanged and then approved the Consent Agenda with the Nutrien White Springs phosphate mine water use permit still in there, for withdrawal of up to 64.1621 million gallons per day (MGD) of groundwater.

Plus, “The executive director may authorize the use of groundwater for back-up mining/dewatering use in excess of 11.0000 mgd in emergency circumstances.”

For comparison, the City of Gainesville is permitted 30.0 mgd by SJRWMD.

This strip mine water use permit was approved despite the fish kill WWALS notified SRWMD of and despite frequent violations of the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

[Nutrien water withdrawals approved, Consent Agenda unchanged, Letters from WWALS and OSFR ignored --SRWMD 2025-09-09]
Nutrien water withdrawals approved, Consent Agenda unchanged, Letters from WWALS and OSFR ignored –SRWMD 2025-09-09

I wonder if the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD) Board or Staff looked at EPA ECHO, which shows Clean Water Act (CWA) Violations Identified in 5 of 12 quarters and 1 Significant Noncompliance, as well as Significant Noncompliance in all 12 quarters of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). It’s true that these EPA ECHO quarters do not seem to include 2025, but such previous results are troubling. This is for PCS PHOSPHATE WHITE SPRINGS, 15843 SE 78TH PL, WHITE SPRINGS, FL 32096, which is the permit holder for NPDES permit FL0000655, which is cited in the SRWMD Board packet on page BCS 66: Continue reading

Fine Songs at Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest 2025-09-06

Hahira, Georgia, September 11, 2025 — Six songs were sung at the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest in WWALS River Revue, September 6, 2025. The two judges chose a group from Tallahassee for Best Song from Outside the Suwannee River Basin, and a group from Dowling Park, Florida, as overall winner.

[Winners: Suwannee Riverkeeper, Songwriting Contest 2025-09-06, Joe First: First Prize, Saylor Dollar: Best from Outside]
Left to right: Organizing Committee Chair Sara Squires Jones; Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman; Bacon James in the back; Bradley Waldron, Dale Dollar, and Lisa Dollar of Saylor Dollar; Sweet William Billy Ennis; Joe First with his musicians Martin Sensiper and John White; Franc Robert and Cindy Bear of Bear and Robert; and Rena Ann Peck.

The overall winner was Joe First of Dowling Park, Florida, with his Americana song, “Beautiful Florida Day.” He got a large plaque and $300. He played accordion, which is a first for the Contest. John White on percussion and Martin Sensiper on guitar.

Continue reading

Please take the Nutrien Water Use Permit off Consent Agenda and hold a Public Hearing –WWALS to SRWMD 2025-09-08

The SRWMD Board agenda for tomorrow, Tuesday, September 9, 2025, is here:
https://www.mysuwanneeriver.com/Archive.aspx?ADID=1706

I sent this letter Monday evening.

[Please remove Nutrien WUP from Consent Agenda and hold a Public Hearing --WWALS to SRWMD 2025-09-08]
Please remove Nutrien WUP from Consent Agenda and hold a Public Hearing –WWALS to SRWMD 2025-09-08

September 8, 2025

To: Virginia H. Johns
Board Chair
virginia.johns@srwmd.org
Suwannee River Water Management District

Cc: Hugh Thomas
Executive DIrector
Hugh.Thomas@srwmd.org

Dear SRWMD,

Staff seem unaware of a recent fish kill on Swift Creek, one of the “offsite discharge locations” cited in the Memorandum on the proposed five-year extension of the Nutrien Water Use Permit 2-047-219878. A fish kill is not a natural system “healthy and functioning well.”

That alone should be enough reason to remove that item from the Consent Agenda and to schedule a public hearing on that WUP.

Specifically, on your agenda for Tuesday morning, in this item, Continue reading

Clean Sugar Creek 2025-09-06

Update 2025-09-12: Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-09-11.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall sampled Sugar Ceek Saturday at Gornto Road, and got a pretty clean 300 cfu/100 mL, which is less than the 410 one-time test limit.

This is the same place Valdosta Utilities got way-too-high 3,800 a week ago on Sunday August 31. Then they stopped sampling, because that was the end of the required seven days after their pair of major spills the previous weekend.

Gornto Road is 0.44 miles upstream from the Withlacoochee River. Valdosta Utilities did sample twice more (Monday and Tuesday) at GA 133, 2.5 river miles downstream from Sugar Creek. They got too-high 540 for Monday and OK 180 for Tuesday.

But only now because of Suzy’s sampling do we know that Sugar Creek itself is back within normal range for E. coli, including at the Watergoat, a bit more than halfway from Gornto Road to the river.

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

[Clean Sugar Creek, Saturday, September 6, 2025, In WWALS testing, Upstream from Withlacoochee River]
Clean Sugar Creek, Saturday, September 6, 2025, In WWALS testing, Upstream from Withlacoochee River

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

There’s a 40% chance of storms Monday and Tuesday, so something might wash into the creeks and rivers then. Or not.

Meanwhile, this is what we know now.

The WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SVezEtnmNw2-byIvfA2exUsK-3je9N5Iir5se2nPY1o/

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