Update 2024-11-30: Bad Sugar Creek, clean Withlacoochee River 2024-11-26.

Madison Health on Wednesday lifted its health advisory about the Withlacoochee River, after they got two successive good water quality results, for Friday and Monday, at CR 145, aka Mozell Spells, State Line Boat Ramp, on GA 31, Madison Highway.

Valdosta’s Tuesday results at US 84 agree, but Valdosta’s GA 133 results were too high, and Valdosta’s Hightower and Sugar Creek results were way too high.

WWALS upstream testing Thursday was good.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

The Withlacoochee River is well below Action stage. So happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating.

Remember, many parks and put-ins remain closed after Hurricane Helene. So check before you go.

Or join us tomorrow for the Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup after Hurricane Helene, Troupville Boat Ramp 2024-11-23.

Cleaner Withlacoochee River 2024-11-21 Questionable Hightower and Sugar Creeks

WWALS tester Cindy Vedas got OK results for Thursday at two upstream Withlacooche River sites.

At Franklinville, she got 133 cfu/100 mL E. coli, which is well below the 410 one-time sample limit. She wrote, &lrduo;River looked nice. The dirt road getting to Franklinville was a little tricky though.”

For Staten Road she got 200 cfu/100 mL, and she wrote, “The river is around 7ft. Level coming down nicely. Current is slowing also.”

But Valdosta Utilities for Tuesday got 915 cfu/100mL at GA 133, which is too high. That’s downstream from Sugar Creek, where for Tuesday at Gornto Road Valdosta got 2,450 cfu/100 mL, which is 2.4 times the 1,000 alert limit. And Valdosta got 26,600 upstream on Hightower Creek at St. Augustine Road, 26 times the alert limit. We have no further results, because Valdosta only posted the test results required after a major spill by Valdosta’s NPDES wastewater permit: seven days, and then one day for the second week so far.

I commend Valdosta Utilities again for posting those results. I do not know of any other city or county that does that.

But I am mystified as to why more testing was not done at St. Augustine Road and Gornto Road to see what is going on. And I do not understand what could be causing E. coli numbers that high other than another sewage spill.

Chart: Cleaner Withlacoochee River 2024-11-21
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.

This contamination and flooding was largely caused by the foot of rain on Valdosta from the fringe of Hurricane Rafael.

Map: NOAA River Gauges 2024-11-22 in the National Water Prediction Service.

Water quality testing training and funding

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

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/

franklinville

Franklinville, Withlacoochee River @ Frankinville Road 2024-11-21

staten

Staten Road, Withlacoochee River @ Staten Road 2024-11-21

 -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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