Yesterday Suwannee Riverkeeper decided to go ahead with the Mayor’s Paddle today. Come on down to Troupville Boat Ramp at 9AM this morning. That’s I-75 exit 18, St. Augustine Road, GA 133. Go west towards Moultrie. At the sign for Val Tech Road, turn left, down to the boat ramp. More detail here. You do not even have to paddle; you can just come and see us off.

Sampled at US 84.

I made that decision, in conjunction with the WWALS Testing and Outings Committees, because of the water quality test results by Sara Jay and John S. Quarterman for WWALS, and the test results from Lowndes County. Valdosta did nothing to help test before their Mayor paddles today.

From 2020-01-15

Today we have results from further samples I took on Thursday, at Okapilco Creek, US 84 (pictured above), Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line (GA 31) Boat Ramps: 66, 66, 233, 266, and 233 cfu/100 mL E. coli respectively. The important number for today is that 66 at U.S. 84, which is just upstream from our takeout at Spook Bridge.

Takeout just downstream from Spook Bridge.
Thanks to The Langdale Company for access to Spook Bridge and the midpoint bailout.

U.S. 84 usually samples higher than Spook Bridge, and 66 is well within safe levels.

For 2020-01-16

To prevent contamination of the river by this outing, thanks to Outhouse Port-A-Potties and The Langdale Company, we have placed some facilities at our midpoint bailout and at Spook Bridge.

Takes a family

The only real obstacle on this paddle is the rapids just upstream from U.S. 84.

Movie: Rapids (51M)

Here are the testing results for Wednesday and Thursday in a spreadsheet:

Table of results for Wednesday and Thursday
The entire spreadsheet is on the WWALS website.

As you can see, the picture is not so pretty for Florida. We do not have any new results from SRWMD or FDEP or FDOH yet to report, but it appears the third wave of Valdosta sewage from that one December 2019 record-largest raw sewage spill is still moving down the Withlacoochee River in Florida.

How You Can Help

You can help WWALS test water quality by donating to our WWALS water quality testing program.

Suzy Hall with a Petrifilm.
Each bacterial test costs $6 for Petrifilms alone.
WWALS is spending about $40 a day on Petrifilms after this Valdosta spill.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

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