Dirty Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2024-01-11

Update 2024-01-19: Three Clean Rivers 2024-01-17.

We got bad results for Thursday for one Alapaha River site and horrible results for one Withlacoochee River site.

Russ Tatum’s Holly Point site went from zero E. coli for Wednesday to 5,000 for Thursday. We don’t know whether this is related to Valdosta’s Wednesday 100,000-gallon sewage spill into Three Mile Branch to the Withlacoochee River, but it could be. In the last week, no other pollution spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, and none at all in Florida.

The most recent City of Valdosta Withlacoochee River results we have are for Monday, and they are all too high after last Saturday’s rain. There was more rain Tuesday, and a bit more yesterday (Friday).

If I were you, I would avoid the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers this weekend. Maybe even the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers.

We shall see whether the Withlacoochee is clean enough and low enough Sunday week for the Langdale Park to Sugar Creek Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2024-01-21.

Chart, Rivers, Map 2024-01-11

WWALS tester Kimberly Godden Tanner tested the Alapaha River at Lakeland Boat Ramp @ GA 122 and at Naylor Park Beach @ US 84. She wrote, “Both locations were clean [of trash]. The only additional item of note was a couple a dead fish on the ground at the boat ramp in Lakeland. I am not a fisher, so I am unaware of why this might be.”

Dead fish, Lakeland Boat Ramp, Alapaha River @ GA 122 2024-01-11

She got acceptable 200 cfu/100 mL at Lakeland Boat Ramp, but too-high 433 at Naylor Park Beach.

Chart: Dirty Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2024-01-11
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

Russ Tatum sampled the Withlacoochee River Wednesday at Allen Ramp and Holly Point and got 233 and zero, good and excellent results.

He remarked, “I’ve pulled another sample today at HP as the river has turned muddy. [Wednesday] when I pulled it the was tannic but clear. I’m thinking the results will be different.”

And it was very different. WWALS Testing Trainer Gretchen Quarterman’s counts for Holly Point Thursday yield 5,000 cfu/100 mL. That’s five times the alert limit.

Holly Point is about sixty river miles downstream of Valdosta’s Wednesday 100,000-gallon sewage spill into Three Mile Branch to the Withlacoochee River. That’s a long way, but at only 2.5 miles per hour, it could get there in 24 hours. If the spill started earlier than when it was reported to Valdosta Utilities, it wouldn’t have had to move even that fast.

Joanne Tremblay tested two sites, TREPO Point Park on the Ichetucknee River, and US 27 Ramp on the Santa Fe River. Unfortunately, due to a technical difficulty, the results are not usable.

About private TREPO Point Park, she wrote, “The area has been in flood-like conditions for at least two weeks if not more. You can see in the images how the low lying wooded areas are underwater. The Santa Fe appeared to be flowing into the Ichetucknee at a distance. I was not able to get into the actual flow of the Ichetucknee since the flood waters were spread out. Nevertheless, the sample I pulled had the distinctive clarity of the spring run. The sample I pulled read high in e-coli activity.”

About US 27 Ramp, she wrote, “Wow, hard to beleive the river can be apparently free of ecoli after the storm on the 9th. When I checked the rain guage it registered less than 1.5″ the day before so the storm was more bluster than rainfall. Funny how that is since it came down so fast and hard the streets flooded, it just seemed like a lot more rainfall than what we actually got.”

WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall reviewed all the results.

If you want to get trained to be a WWALS water quality tester, please fill out the form:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084

As previously noted, Valdosta’s last downstream tests were September 1, 2023.

All the WWALS “beaches” for which we have recent data are red on the map.

Here’s a map with Allen Ramp on the Withlacoochee River highlighted towards the center.

Map: Dirty Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2024-01-11
in the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Basin

Here’s a live Swim Guide Map.

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

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

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/

-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/

Short Link:

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.

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