The Withlacoochee River tested pretty clean this week, as did the Santa Fe River, and the Ichetucknee River for Friday last week.

Even Valdosta’s problem Sugar Creek and One Mile Branch tested OK.

But Hightower Creek was bad in Valdosta Utilities’ result, although the WWALS result the same day at the same site was OK.

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 Georgia or Florida, although FDEP’s Pollution Notice reporting is half broken: see below.

No rain is predicted for the next ten days.

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, Santa Fe Rivers, Mostly Good 2025-12-11, OK One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek, But not Hightower Creek

Sugar Creek and its feeder creeks

For Thursday at St. Augustine Road on Hightower Creek, Valdosta Utilities got 535 cfu/100 mL, which is above the one-time test limit of 410 for E. coli, although well below their last week result of 2,500, which was above the 1,000 alert limit.

However, WWALS tester Suzy Hall got 366 for the same site the same day. We don’t know why these results are so different. It could be simply time of day: Suzy sampled at 11:40 AM and Valdosta typically samples (as far as we know) early in the morning. Which of course still doesn’t explain why they would be so different. Is there some upstream sewage leak that changes by time of day?

Downstream on Sugar Creek, Valdosta Utilities got 235 at Gornto Road and Suzy Hall got 180 at the WaterGoat, so those two results agree pretty closely.

Maybe Stones Aquatic clearing deadfalls out of Sugar Creek from Gornto Road to the WaterGoat last week helped, especially with the weekend rains to wash that stretch cleaner of residual sewage.
https://wwals.net/?p=68981

Valdosta Utilities also got an OK result of 140 at West Gordon Street, upstream of Sugar Creek on One Mile Branch. And they got a good 120 at Wainwright Drive, below the 126 three-test-average limit.

Valdosta Utilities switched to sampling its creeks after a different set of sewage spill, the one August 23, 2025 of 20,000 gallons into One Mile Branch at Wainwright Drive. Valdosta has since replaced both manholes at Wainwright Drive with taller ones, so maybe that is finally starting to have an effect of reduced sewage in the creeks.
https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/august-2025-sanitary-sewer-spills

Thanks for that, and here’s hoping they keep doing that each week.

Posting results a bit earlier would also be good. When I checked about 5 PM Friday, they still weren’t up, and I had an appointment the rest of the evening, so you’re getting this report Saturday morning.

Also, Valdosta could take back up testing the Withlacoochee River down to the state line, plus Okapilco Creek, as they stopped doing after the four years required in the 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order. 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.

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.

Chart: Clean Rivers Creeks Dirty Hightower Creek 2025-12-11 –WWALS Excerpt, Composite Spreadsheet Continue reading →