Update 2024-06-07: Filthy Franks Creek, clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers, despite Ashburn spill 2024-06-05.

Update 2024-06-05: A Georgia City Has Spilled Millions of Gallons of Raw Sewage Into 2 Pristine Rivers –Amber Nolan, greenmatters 2024-06-03.

With no rain since Monday, the Withlacoochee River tested clean Wednesday, and the Santa Fe River Thursay, even though High Springs, Florida had a sewage spill Thursday; see below.

Three spills appeared in the Georgia EPD Sewage Spills Report for this Tuesday, May 22, 2024: a big one and a little one from Ashburn Saturday and Sunday a week ago, and a tiny one from Quitman Wednesday a week ago; see separate report. https://wwals.net/?p=64971

There’s a slight chance of rain Sunday, 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.

Or come see us 2-7 PM Saturday in Hahira, Georgia, with South Georgia Pride at Music and Art on Main.

Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers; High Springs Sewage Spill 2024-05-30

The High Springs spill was reported in the Pollution Spills Report by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP).

The report says 35,000 gallons were spilled, but 32,000 gallons were recovered, so the remainder was only 3,000 gallons.

The location is rather vague, Southwest 25th Avenue, so I’m guessing it was at the wastewater treatment plant.

SSO 2024-4590

Incident #
Incident Name	SSO 2024-4590
Incident Report	Incident Description: Large sewer leak from a 6″ force main ductile iron pipe had a hole at the bottom of the pipe. Unsure of what exactly caused it, best speculation currently is it was ran over by a large truck. Cut off flow as much as possible but was unable to completely stop flow, had to dig around pipe and place a repair band on pipe. Once placed the leak stopped and were able to backfill and clean the area up. Wastewater Type: Untreated Cause: Break-in-Line Spill Volume: 35,000 Volume Recovered: 32,000 Waterbodies Impacted: N Clean-up Status: Complete Clean-up Actions: Vacuumed/pump truck, Applied lime, Signs posted Agencies Notified: Efrain Tavarez Alachua EPD
Report Date/Time	5/30/2024 6:35 AM
Facility Name	High Springs WWTF
Facility Address Line 1	Southwest 25th Avenue
Facility Address Line 2
Facility Directions	Southwest 25th Avenue
Facility City	High Springs
Facility State	FL
Facility ZIP	32643
Contact Name	Richard Cason
Contact Email	rcason@highsprings.gov
Contact Phone #	3522582763
Affected Counties	Alachua

Chart: Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers, High Springs Sewage Spill 2024-05-30
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.

Joanne Tremblay sampled Santa Fe River Thurssday at Eddins Ramp. She wrote, “Curious to see the water quality downstream of Ginnie Springs after 20,000-30,000 people descended on the spring. A good rain will likely give different results but for now we have what appears to be 0+0+1=1/3=.33*100= 33 cfu/100 mL. The park had some litter, the river appeared green.”

Eddins Ramp is visible towards the top left of this map, and the High Springs wastewater treatment plant is highlighted towards the bottom right.

High Springs sewage spill and Eddins Ramp 2024-05-30, Santa Fe River in the WWALS map of the Suwannee River Water Trail (SRWT)

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

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/

ER

Eddins Ramp, Santa Fe River 2024-05-30

 -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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