Update 2024-12-06: Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers: Sugar Creek still nasty 2024-12-05.

Update 2024-12-05: Valdosta has published their results for Tuesday 2024-12-03. Lower than ours at St. Augustine Road (380), but way higher at Gornto Road: 12,700, more than a dozen times the 1,000 alert limit. There has been no rain. Is there some other explanation than an intermittent sewage leak between St. Augustine Road and Gornto? -jsq
https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/nov-2024-overflow-testing-results

Down at the WaterGoat was the worst place for E. coli on Sugar Creek on Monday: more than three times the alert limit at 3,200 cfu/100 mL.

It is not all coming from Two Mile Branch: we also got bad results upstream.

Still very bad 2024-12-02, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River, Where is the sewage spill or spills?

Some of the colonies are faint, but they’re blue with bubbles, which is what we count: (43+28+25) * 100 / 3 = 3,200 cfu/100mL, which is more than three times the 1,000 alert limit. .

Plates, WaterGoat, Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

It’s good the sign is still up below Berta’s parking lot.

Caution: Sewage Spill, No Drinking, Wading, or Fishing; City of Valdosta, Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

I took that sample this Monday at the WaterGoat, which is only a couple hundred feet below where Two Mile Branch joins Sugar Creek.

WaterGoat, Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

Some of that contamination may be washing down Two Mile Branch from the previous Monday’s spill on Meadowbrook Drive.

Two Mile Branch entering Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

Today that Monday-a-week-ago Valdosta sewage spill appeared in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, including the street address that was missing from the Valdosta press release: 2426 Meadowbrook Drive.

2024-11-26 Valdosta Meadowbrook Drive Two Mile Branch Spill in 2024-12-04 GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report

That puts the spill about halfway between the JoRee Milpond Dam on Jerry Jones Road and Sugar Creek.

Map: Meadowbrook Drive Spill in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)

But 2,000 gallons of sewage a week before seem too little to cause E. coli that high this Monday in Sugar Creek.

And the E. coli numbers were also pretty bad on Sugar Creek above Two Mile Branch, in front of Berta’s Kitchen’s front door.

Sugar Creek in front of Berta’s Kitchen 2024-12-02

The blue bubble colonies were even fainter on these plates, but they add up to 2,333 cfu/100mL, 2.3 times the 1,000 alert limit.

Plates, Berta’s Kitchen, Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

That would be a nice recreational beach, a short walk from Berta’s, if it wasn’t so often contaminated, with deadfalls full of trash.

Context, Sugar Creek in front of Berta’s Kitchen 2024-12-02

You can actually see Sugar Creek from Berta’s parking lot in front of the front door.

Looking from Berta’s Kitchen to Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

At Gornto Road, the E. coli was still too high.

Gornto Road, Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

No, the plate picture is not blurry. The colonies really do look like that. I’m going with Gretchen’s counts on this and the other plates: 10 + 12 + 13 = 35 *100 / 3 = 1,166 cfu/100mL. Still above the alert limit.

Gretchen Quarterman is the WWALS water quality testing trainer, and is generally better at counting colonies than I am.

The numbers drop off at Baytree Road, still on Sugar Creek.

Baytree Road, Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

5 + 1 + 0 = 6 for 200 cfu/100 mL is below the 410 one-time test limit, which is good. Suzy and Gretchen agree on these counts for Baytree.

Plates, Baytree Road, Sugar Creek 2024-12-02

Between Baytree and Gornto Roads is a sewer pipe that has been known to stink. Has it been leaking? Or some manhole on it?

Valdosta Sewer Pipe Shoals, 2021-07-10, 10:20:13, 30.8520280, -83.3148300

Up at St. Augustine Road on Hightower Creek, the water stank strongly of sewage.

St. Augustine Road, Hightower Creek 2024-12-02

Gretchen got counts in between those of Suzy Hall and me, so once again I’m going with Gretchen’s counts: 4 + 4 + 7 = 15 * 100 / 3 = 500 cfu/100mL. That’s higher than the 410 one-time test limit, so not good.

Plates, St. Augustine Road, Hightower Creek 2024-12-02

This is on Hightower Creek; witness the hurricane-blown sign.

Sign, St. Augustine Road, Hightower Creek 2024-12-02

As detailed in a previous post, although USGS and apparently Valdosta Utilities think that’s Sugar Creek, Valdosta Stormwater, SGRC, and the road sign say it’s Hightower Creek.

The lower E. coli at Baytree Road is after Hightower Creek joins Sugar Creek, so perhaps the combined water flow diluted the contamination.

But then were is the increasing E. coli downstream at Gornto Road and below coming from?

Farther upstream on Hightower Creek, at Norman Drive, we finally get normal numbers.

Norman Drive, Hightower Creek 2024-12-02

2 + 1 + 1 = 4 * 100 / 3 = 133 cfu/100 mL, which is below the 410 one-time test limit. Suzy and Gretchen agree on those counts.

Plates, Norman Drive, Hightower Creek 2024-12-02

That’s above the 3-test average limit of 126, so there is room for improvement. But apparently the main contamination is not coming from upstream of Norman Drive.

Sign, Norman Drive, Hightower Creek 2024-12-02

Between Norman Drive and St. Augustine Road, two branches from Lowndes High and one from River Street behind Academy Sports join Hightower Creek. Contamination could be coming down any of those.

Map: Hightower and Sugar Creeks in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) 2024-12-02

According to their permit-required schedule, Valdosta Utilities should have sampled yesterday at Gornto and St. Augustine Roads. They will probably post results today: those should be interesting results.

And where is the contamination coming from?

Chart: Horrid Sugar Creek 2024-12-02
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.

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.

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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