Update 2024-01-04: Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River 2025-01-02.

Update 2024-12-29: Sugar Creek sewer lines, Valdosta, GA 2024-12-29.

Sugar Creek is still filthy from Gornto Road to the Withlacoochee River.

Rain is predicted for this weekend, which will probably make it worse.

The Alapaha River is OK at Sheboggy Boat Ramp near Alapaha, Georgia.

We have no other river results, due to the holidays.

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

No flooding is shown on any river gauge in the Suwannee River Basin. The Santa Fe River at Fort White is still too low to paddle.

So if you like cold and wet, this weekend may be good to paddle, motor, swim, or fish, as long as you avoid the vicinity of Sugar Creek and get out before the big rain Sunday.

Please note that the WWALS cleanup at Wainwright Drive on Sugar Creek for this Sunday has been rescheduled because of predicted rain. The new date is Saturday, January 25, 2025.

Sugar Creek still filthy, Alapaha River OK 2024-12-26 Thunderstorms predicted this weekend

Alapaha River

WWALS tester Heather Brasell for Thursday got OK results at the outflow creek from the Alapaha, Georgia, wastewater plant: 267 cfu/100 mL, which is below the 410 one-time-test limit.

She got 233 for the Alapaha River above Sheboggy Boat Ramp, also OK.

Sugar Creek

WWALS tester John S. Quarterman drew four Sugar Creek samples on Thursday.

At Baytree Road, the results were OK, with 200 cfu/100 mL.

At Gornto Road, we got Too Numerous to Count (TNTC).

In front of Berta’s Kitchen, we got 5,033, which is five times the 1,000 alert limit.

At the WaterGoat, we got 4,800, almost as bad. That’s more than twice as high as last week, even though there has been no rain.

We’re going with Gretchen Quarterman’s counts for all four of these.

Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes told me Monday that they had pulled samples last Friday and gotten OK results at Baytree Road and two upstream locations (I think he said St. Augustine Road and W. Gordon Street), but bad at Gornto Road. I have not seen the numbers for those results. However, that matches the pattern we’re seeing for this week.

He also said Valdosta Utilities had scouted Sugar Creek all the way from Baytree to Gornto Road but did not see or smell any sewage leaks.

I told him I wished I had a solution, but I did not.

I think maybe next try more closely-space samples, to see where the E. coli counts go up.

Withlacoochee River

All the WWALS Withlacoochee River testers are on holiday this week.

If Valdosta Utilities drew Withlacoochee River samples, they have not posted the results online yet.

Chart: Filthy Sugar Creek, OK Alapaha River 2024-12-26
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.

Here’s a map for context on where these Sugar Creek locations are.

Map: Gornto Road Sugar Creek Bridge in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)

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/

AO

Alapaha, GA, WWTP Outflow 2024-12-26

SB

Upstream from Sheboggy Boat Ramp, Alapaha River 2024-12-26

BT

Sugar Creek @ Baytree Road 2024-12-26

GR

Sugar Creek @ Gornto Road 2024-12-26

BK

Sugar Creek @ Berta’s Kitchen, Sugar Creek @ Gornto Road 2024-12-26

WG

Sugar Creek @ WaterGoat 2024-12-26

 -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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