Bad Friday after rain, Better Sunday, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-24

Update 2021-01-29: Very bad, health advisory, Withlacoochee River 2021-01-28.

As expected, the big rains Friday caused contamination on the Withlacoochee River, according to Valdosta’s upstream data for US 41, GA 133, and US 84. Everything was clean the day before, both upstream and down. We don’t know about downstream again until I tested Sunday. While Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps were not as clean as we like, they were well within the one-time test limit of 410 cfu/100 mL E. coli. So it appears that if the downstream sites were contaminated Friday, most of that had already washed away in the rest of the rainwater by Sunday.

[KF, Nankin, SL, chart, Swim Guide]
KF, Nankin, SL, chart, Swim Guide

Apparently the Withlacoochee River is clean again, although we do not have many datapoints yet. Be warned more rain is expected today.

[Bad Friday, pretty good now]
Bad Friday, pretty good now
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida water quality results, rainfall, and spills, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/

On Swim Guide, everything is green except US 84 (and GA 133 if you zoom in). They may be clean again by now, too, but that’s the latest data we have for them. Maybe we’ll get Monday data from Valdosta soon.

[Swim Guide: almost all good]
Swim Guide: almost all good

We also have more data from the previous week than we had when last we posted; thanks to Valdosta, Madison Health, and FDEP for the additional data.

The Withlacoochee remained clean that week except for a peculiar spike at Knights Ferry on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

[Mostly good week before last]
Mostly good week before last

We also have more FDEP DNA marker and chemical tracer data for the week before that, on January 4 and 6, 2021, for the Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers. Stay tuned for WWALS analysis of that data.

Here are some pictures of the sites and of the Petrifilms.

SLBR

[Upstream, Horn Bridge]
Upstream, Horn Bridge

NBR

[Nankin Boat Ramp]
Nankin Boat Ramp

KFBR

[WLRWT signs]
WLRWT signs

Sample water

[KF, Nankin, SL]
KF, Nankin, SL

Plates

[KF, Nankin, State Line]
KF, Nankin, State Line

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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