Clean rivers and creek 2024-02-14 | WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

Update 2024-02-24: Clean Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers and Franks Creek 2024-02-21.

Update 2024-02-22: Valdosta Boone Drive and Knob Hill small sewage spills 2024-02-20.

We got good results for Wednesday for the Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers, and Franks Creek.

Valdosta’s recent upstream Withlacoochee River results through Wednesday are good.

Rain is predicted for this weekend, through Saturday. But if there is not much rain, paddling Sunday should be OK. If you like high water, since the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers are up from previous upstream rains. The Santa Fe River is coming back down. The Suwannee was never especially high.

WWALS has two outings coming up on Saturday, February 24, 2024: the morning paddle from Knights Ferry to Nankin on the Withlacoochee River, and the evening Full Snow Moon paddle on Banks Lake.

And of course don’t forget that Saturday, March 2, is the Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle from Langdale Park to Troupville on the Withlacoochee River. That one is free, thanks to a generous grant from Georgia Power.

Chart, Clean Franks Creek and Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers 2024-02-14, Map

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

But one was reported in Georgia. Ashburn had a spill of 3,000 gallons of raw sewage into Ashburn Branch, which flows into the Little River.

Ashburn 2024-02-06 spill in 2024-02-12 GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report

It happened Tuesday a week ago and showed up Monday, February 12, 2024, in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report. The cause was reported as power failure. Maybe Ashburn should invest in some backup generators.

Chart: Clean Franks Creek and Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers 2024-02-14
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

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

Debbie Smith reported good results for Franks Creek for Wednesday at the GA 122 bridge just west of Hahira. It turns out she has been sampling there almost every week for a couple of months. Now that a communications glitch has been resolved, her results back to October are in the 2023 2024 WWALS composite spreadsheets of water quality results, sewage spills, and rainfall. She only got one really bad result, 1,300 cfu/100 mL for Wednesday, January 10, 2024, after big rains the day before.

Kimberly Godden Tanner reported results for samples taken Wednesday at two Alapaha River sites, Lakeland Boat Ramp on GA 122 just east of Lakeland, Georgia, and Naylor Park Beach just north of US 84. She remarked, “Both locations looked great.”

Joanne Tremblay reported two sites for the Santa Fe River for Wednesday.

For O’Leno Swimming Dock in O’Leno State Park, she noted, “River is finally going down, it has been up quite a while and this has really affected visibility. This weekends projected rain should bump it back up. The river is clean, 0+0+0=0 CFU’s.”

For US 27, she reported, “1+0+2=3/3=1*100=100 cfu/100 mL. The river has been dropping and is beginning to gain some clarity. A little E. coli in the mix.”

Reina Lingle reported good Wednesday results for two Suwannee River sites: Royal Springs in O’Brien, FL, and Ivey Memorial Park in Branford, FL.

WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall reviewed all the results.

WWALS Testing Trainer Gretchen Quarterman trained a bunch more testers Saturday; we hope to see their results soon.

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

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

Here’s a map with Franks Creek highlighted towards top left.

Map: Clean Franks Creek and Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers 2024-02-14
in the WWALS map of all public landings in the Suwannee River Basin

That’s a little hard to spot, so here’s a map highlighting the GA 122 bridge on Franks Creek.

Map: Franks Creek in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).

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/

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