Three Clean Rivers 2024-01-17

Update 2024-01-26: Five clean rivers and a clean creek 2024-01-25.

Update 2024-01-24: More about the Valdosta Knob Hill or Williamsburg Drive sewage spill 2024-01-10.

Update 2024-01-20: Plus clean Alapaha River, for four clean rivers.

We got good results for Wednesday for three rivers: Withlacoochee, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe. Valdosta’s Wednesday upstream Withlacoochee River results concur.

After the light drizzle today, no rain is predicted for the weekend.

So if you like cold weather and high water, happy fishing, paddling, and maybe even swimming this weekend.

Due to high water levels, we have rescheduled this Sunday’s chainsaw cleanup to be a week later. See Try again: Langdale Park to Sugar Creek Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, 2024-01-27.

So the next WWALS paddle is the Banks Lake Full Wolf Moon Paddle, 2024-01-25.

Chart, Four Clean Rivers, Map 2024-01-17

Sewage Spills

No sewage spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida since the last week.

Ashburn, Georgia, had yet another sewage spill into Ashburn Branch from its MLK Lift Station. It showed up in GA-EPD’s Sewage Spills Report for Thursday, January 18, 2024, as happening that same day. This spill 1,500 gallons for Spill Primary Cause “Other”. Ashburn Branch joins the Little River upstream of the Coverdale Highway Bridge, and far upstream of Reed Bingham State Park.

Valdosta’s 100,000 gallon sewage spill into Three Mile Branch to the Withlacoochee River showed up in GA-EPD’s Sewage Spills Report for Wednesday, January 16, 2024. It shows the spill location as “213 Knob Dr/1020 Williamsburg Dr.”

I talked to Valdosta Acting Utilities Director Jason Barnes about this spill Wednesday in Atlanta. He says the sewage came up out of a manhole at 213 Knob Hill Drive, which he considers the “backside of Williamsburg Drive.” Also, it turns out it was not a collapsed sewer line. Utilities found rocks and some sort of lid in the pipe. They don’t know how that stuff got in there. I’m beginning to wonder whether it was vandalism.

Chart: Clean Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe Rivers 2024-01-17
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

Russ Tatum’s Holly Point site went from far too high for last Thursday to very good for this Wednesday. He also got good results for Allen Ramp. As he remarked, “What a difference a week makes.”

Joanne Tremblay again tested two sites, TREPO Point Park on the Ichetucknee River, and US 27 Ramp on the Santa Fe River. This time there were no technical difficulties, and she got excellent results for both sites.

About private TREPO Point Park, she wrote:

The waters never seem to go down, just creeping higher and higher. The numbers aren’t bad since the area is surrounded by homes and its been flooded for at least a month: 3+3+1=7/3= 2.33= 233 CFU/100 ml
The third image with the picnic platform shows the SRWMD guage where I tested when I first attempted to test the waters here.
The water is still clear and I hear it is thick with gar.

WWALS Testing Chair Suzy Hall, who reviewed all the test results, agreed, and noted, “Actually that’s a decent sign the septics aren’t leaking.”

About US 27 Ramp, Joanne Tremblay wrote, “The water was clear, clean and moving swiftly. I happened upon a small team from the SRWMD assessing the soils to determine if the ramp rebuild would require any wetland mitigation. It was interesting watching them take a sample of sand, clay and limestone, and measuring the layers.”

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 green on the map.

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

Map: Clean Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe Rivers 2024-01-17
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.

Sewage Spills

Allen

HP

PP

sf27

LBR

NPB

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