Update 2024-07-05: Bad Franks Creek, unknown rivers, after much rain 2024-07-03.

The Withlacoochee River tested clean for Wednesday and Thursday, and the Santa Fe River for Monday.

Retesting upstream and downstream from the previous One Mile Branch Valdosta Williams Street anomolous results found little to no E. coli.

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

The rivers are almost all down to good boating and fishing levels; maybe too low in some areas.

There was rain on the Withlacoochee River in several places over several days, so some contamination may have washed in.

Other than that, happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend!

Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers, but rain 2024-06-27

Cindy Vedas tested three upstream Withlacoochee sites Thursday.

For Franklinville Road at Tyler Bridge, she got 133 cfu/100 mL. “John sorry no sign picture, but I remember it not being shot up!”

For Staten Road she got 33 cfu/100 mL. “River looks really good. I know the fishing is good also. Level at Skipper Bridge 2.2 yesterday.”

For Langdale Park she got 0 cfu/100 mL. “Looked clean, trash was emptied.”

The City of Valdosta for Wednesday reported good results at GA 133 and US 84 on the Withlacoochee River.

Joanne Tremblay sampled one Santa Fe River site Wednesday. “I returned to the lower Santa Fe at 129 bridge yesterday. Finally can test at the river rather than the flooded ramp area. There is a great deal of bacterial activity but only 0+0+1=1/3=.33*100= 33 cfu/100 mL E. coli.

Chart: Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha River 2024-06-27
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.

For Saturday, Gee Edwards got very low results upstream at Ashley Street and downstream at Sustella Avenue from his previous very peculiar sample on One Mile Branch at Williams Street.

Map: Williams Street One Mile Branch Culvert in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)

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/

FV

Tyler Bridge, Withlacoochee River @ Franklinville Road 2024-06-27

SR

Withlacoochee River @ Staten Road 2024-06-27

LP

Withlacoochee River @ Langdale Park 2024-06-27

OMBAshley

Ashley Street, One Mile Branch 2024-06-22

OMBSustella

Sustella Ave., One Mile Branch 2024-06-22

SF129

Santa Fe River @ US 129 2024-06-26

 -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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