Update 2023-02-21: Valdosta says it spilled 672,250 gallons of sewage into the Knights Creek floodplain 2023-02-21.

WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall tested two sites in the Alapaha River Basin Saturday, and got good results at both. And she videoed a waterfall on Mud Swamp Creek.

Mud Swamp Creek @ Old Clyattville Road, Alapaha River @ Sasser Landing 2023-02-18

The site at Old Clyattville Road is upstream on Mud Swamp Creek from where Knights Creek comes in, and the site at Sasser Landing on the Alapaha River is downstream from where the Alapahoochee River carries Mud Swamp Creek water into the Alapaha. So if the Valdosta sewage spill of Wednesday, February 15, 2023, ever had any effect on the Alapaha River, that contamination has apparently washed downstream or has been diluted.

Map: Mud Swamp Creek to Alapaha River in the WWALS map of the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT)

The Old Clyattville Road bridge over Mud Swamp Creek is highlighted towards the upper left of the map, on the south side of Valdosta. Suzy got 33 cfu/100 mL E. coli there, which is below the 126 multi-sample average limit.

Knights Creek is the creek running down the east side of Valdosta. The Valdosta press release about the spill mentioned two sites, both marked by yellow diamonds on the map: at E. Park Avenue (Lakeland Highway), and at US 84 (E. Hill Ave., US 221), both next to Knights Creek.

Sasser Landing in Hamilton County, Florida, is towards the lower right of the map. Suzy got 166 cfu/100 mL there, which is well below the one-time sample limit of 410, and far below the alert limit of 1,000.

Here’s the waterfall:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Evp4LMUb670?feature=share

For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

Thanks to Joe Brownlee and Georgia Power for a generous grant for water quality testing equipment and materials.

You or your organization could also donate to the WWALS volunteer water quality testing program.

Or maybe you’d like to become a WWALS water quality tester; please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/DzWvJuXqTQi12N6v7

There are more images below.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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2023-02-18–mudswamp-20230218 130006

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Sasser Landing, Alapaha River 2023-02-18

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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