Sunday and Monday creek and river water quality results 2020-06-01

Update 2020-06-09: Filthy Withlacoochee River Monday after Sunday rain 2020-06-08

Conn and Trudy Cole also tested for WWALS Sunday, except at Crooked Creek, which was almost dry under the Devane Road bridge, so it can’t be sending any contamination downstream. At US 84 they got 66 cfu/100 mL E. coli for Okapilco Creek and 33 for the Withlacoochee River. WWALS continues testing, and you can help.

[Dry Crooked Creek @ Devane Road]
Dry Crooked Creek @ Devane Road

On the Little River at GA 76 (Cook County Boat Ramp) they got 33, similar to the 0 (zero) I got there that same day.

[Rock Bridge]
Photo: John S. Quarterman, Rock Bridge on the Little River @ GA 76, 2020-05-31.

Plus we have Valdosta data for Monday and last Wednesday and Friday, all showing pretty clean at US 84 on the Withlacoochee River and upstream. So it was a good weekend for boating, swimming, and fishing on the Withlacoochee and Little Rivers.

[Clean weekend]
Clean weekend
For context, including the entire WWALS composite water quality table of results from both Georgia and Florida, see wwals.net/issues/testing/.

Valdosta results upstream Friday, May 29, 2020, at GA 133 and US 41 on the Withlacoochee River were oddly higher than downstream, with 265 E. coli. That’s higher than the 126 long-term average limit, but still well below the 410 single-test limit. For Wednesday at Knights Ferry, Valdosta got a weirdly very high Fecal coliform result, 1,400, but a pretty normal 140 E. coli. See What do these numbers mean?

[Clean week]
Clean week

We have no new data from Florida since last time.

The only Florida agency currently sampling is Madison Health. I don’t know why a local county health department should have to pay to do the state of Florida’s job. Also, nobody knows the water quality of the Withlacoochee or Suwannee Rivers downstream from FL 6, because nobody is testing there.

Maybe you’d like to contact your Florida elected officials and ask them to get FDEP to implement thrice-weekly river sampling all the way to the Gulf, like Valdosta is doing all the way to the GA-FL line.

Folsom Bridge Landing

[Little River @ GA 122]
Little River @ GA 122

Hagan Bridge Landing

[Withlacoochee River @ GA 122]
Withlacoochee River @ GA 122

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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

2 thoughts on “Sunday and Monday creek and river water quality results 2020-06-01”

  1. Loretta Tennant Whelpton

    I’d rather contact WWALS about Florida sampling… I’m trained and ready to go. Shall I purchase a test kit and incubator through a directed donation?

    1. jsq Post author

      Yes, donations are how we buy most of the kits, and some testers raise their own donations.
      https://www.gagives.org/story/Wwals-Waterqualitykits
      You’re a WWALS member, and, as you know, the other thing is to fill out the committee request form
      https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScf_9JXZmsVsZmKpAda3TNNKoGKHK7BnlWeVfEv36M-q_9O8Q/viewform

      so we can add you to the WWALS Testing Committee, which coordinates testing.
      https://wwals.net/about/committees/#wwals-testing

      Thanks for your continued participation in WWALS. -jsq

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