Update 2024-05-31: Ashburn and Quitman sewage spills reported 2024-05-22.

With no rain for four days, the Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, and Ichetucknee Rivers tested clean this Wednesday. We have no Valdosta data, because it’s a holiday weekend.

The only sewage spill reported this week was an old small one from Tifton, far upstream.

There’s a chance of rain tomorrow, but probably not enough to cause much contamination.

Happy swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend if you can find a river that is not too high. Maybe try the Suwannee River upstream from the Alapaha River, or the Santa Fe River upstream from the Ichetucknee River. Most of the other river stretches are pretty high; see below.

Or come see us at the Florida Folk Festival, on the Suwannee River in White Springs, Florida, this Saturday or Sunday.

Clean Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, Ichetucknee Rivers 2024-05-22 dirty Knights Creek 2024-05-20

No new sewage spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in the past week, in Georgia or Florida.

The old Tifton sewage spill that showed up in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report for May 21 was 6,000 gallons of raw sewage on May 13, 2024, at the Southside Lift Station on W. Golden Road, due to Power failure.

2024-05-13 Tifton spill in 2024-05-21 GA EPD Sewage Spills Report

2024-05-21–GA-EPD-Sewage-Spills-Report.html by WWALS Watershed Coalition; see https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills

FACILITY NAME	BEGIN DATE	COUNTY	CITY	OVERFLOW LOCATION	QUANTITY GALLONS	OVERFLOW TYPE	PERMIT NUMBER	SPILL SOURCE	SPILL PRIMARY CAUSE	RIVER BASIN	WATERWAY IMPACTED
Tifton, City of (New River WPCP)	2024-05-13	Tift	Tifton	Southside Lift Station (W. Golden Rd.)	6,000	Raw Sewage	GA0048470	Lift Station	Power failure	Suwannee	Little River Basin

Tifton maybe should invest in a generator, given the many spills previously at that location. Which is on Cow Creek or Willow Creek or whatever it’s called that runs into the Little River a bit below Alabama Avenue.

Map: Tifton W. GOlden Road Lift Station in the WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)

That’s upstream of Reed Bingham State Park.

Map: Tifton W. Golden Road to Reed Bingham State Park in WLRWT

And of course far upstream from the Withlacoochee and Suwannee Rivers.

Map: W. Golden Road, Tifton, GA in the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Basin.

Chart: Clean Rivers 2024-05-22
For context, see: https://wwals.net/issues/testing

The numbers in the chart boxes indicate E. coli levels as colony-forming units per 100 mililiters (cfu/100 mL), according to Georgia Adopt-A-Stream bacterial monitoring protocols:
Zero (0) is what we want to see, and often we do, on the Alapaha and upstream on the Suwannee Rivers.
From 1-125 is within long-term average limits according to U.S. EPA and Georgia and Florida state agencies.
From 126-409 long-term is not good, and is likely to make some people sick.
From 410-999 is likely to make some people sick; try not to get that water on you.
From 1,000 and up: high alert; best not to get close to that water without gloves; wash clothes afterward.

The letters before the numbers indicate the source of the datapoint, as in W100 means 100 cfu/100 mL found by a WWALS tester.

W: WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS), Suwannee Riverkeeper
V: Valdosta, GA
L: Lowndes County, GA
Q: Quitman, GA
SGRC: Southern Georgia Regional Commission
SRWMD: Suwannee River Water Management District
FDOH: Florida Department of Health
FDEP: Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Rain: From USGS and UGA and other gauges.

Gee Edwards sampled two Alapaha River Basin creeks on Monday, May 20.

He got a result too high for Knights Creek at Howell Road: 7+5+4=16/3=5.33×100=533 cfu/100 mL.

And an acceptable result for Mud Swamp Creek at Johnson Road: 4+4+1=9/3=3×100=300 cfu/100 mL.

Russ Tatum sampled Wednesday at Allen Ramp and Holly Point on the Withlacoochee River, noting, “Better results this week. The water is a silty brown, high and swift. Not what you want to kick off the summer. Surprisingly the same slide counts.”

They both came out to 100 cfu/100 mL, which is pretty clean.

Joanne Tremblay sampled two places on the Santa Fe River Wednesday.

About the swimming dock at O’Leno State Park, she said, “Water levels are low, water is clear. Ecoli is 1+0+0=1/3= .33*100= 33 cfu/100 mL.”

About US 27, she remarked, “Water is low and clear. Ecoli is up slightly at 2+0+1=3/3=1*100=100 cfu/100 mL.”

She also tested the Ichetucknee River at TREPO Point Park (just above the Ichetucknee Confluence with the Santa Fe River). “Water is up again from last week. The ecoli counts are much better at 1+0+1=2/3= .66*100= 66 cfu/100mL.”

WWALS Water Quality Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall reviewed all the results.

WWALS Water Quality Testing Trainer Gretchen Quarterman delivered testing supplies.

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

River Levels

According to NOAA river levels, the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers are in Action Stage or Minor Flood, the Little River at GA 122 is in Action Stages, and the Suwannee River from the Alapaha River most of the way to the Gulf is or soon will be in Action Stage or Minor Flood. The Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers at their Confluence are pretty high.

Map: NOAA River levels 2024-05-24

Map legend, water.noaa.gov

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/

KH

Knights Creek at Howell Road 2024-05-20

MJ

Data, Mud Creek at Johnson Road 2024-05-20

Allen

Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River @ 2726 SW 64th Way Jasper, FL 32052 2024-05-22

HP

Holly Point, Withlacoochee River @ NE Withla Bluffs Way 2024-05-22

olenodock

O’Leno Dock, Santa Fe River @ O’Leno Park Road 2024-05-22

sf27

US 27 Ramp, Santa Fe River @ US 27 2024-05-22

PP

Point Park, Ichetucknee River @ SW Riverside Ave. 2024-05-22

 -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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