Update 2025-04-01: Clean Little & Withlacoochee Rivers, Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-04-01.

It’s a good weekend for boating, paddling, fishing, or swimming.

Water quality results are good.

No sewage spills have been reported in the past week.

No rain is predicted until Sunday, probably in the afternoon.

Avoid the water still too high at Fargo on the Suwannee River and at the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers near their Confluence.

Other than that, happy rivers to you!

Join us next weekend for Rescheduled: Ichetucknee to Santa Fe Rivers 2025-04-05.
https://wwals.net/?p=66991

Or come help prevent privatization of Florida State Parks one of the many Florida State Parks Love Fests at the Suwannee or Santa Fe Rivers:
https://wwals.net/?p=67329

For these and other WWALS outings and events, see: https://wwals.net/outings/

Clean Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers 2025-03-26, No sewage spills reported, No rain until Sunday

The drizzle of rain on Monday had no apparent effect on water quality.

No new sewage spills were reported in Georgia or Florida.

The Mayor and Chairman’s Paddle has been rescheduled to April 19th.

Alapaha River

WWALS tester Kimberly Godden Tanner reported 66 cfu/100 mL E. coli at Lakeland Boat Ramp at GA 122 and 33 at Naylor Park Beach at UW 84. Both results are well below the 126 three-sample-average limit, so very clean. She remarked, “Both locations look great as usual.”

Withlacoochee River

WWALS tester Cindy Vedas reported clean 66 for Franklinville Road, and noted: “Lots of trash. I picked it up. Is it possible we could get a trash can at this location?”

We’ll look into that. Maybe Lowndes County can place trash cans there and at Hagan Bridge Landing on the Withlacoochee and Folsom Bridge Landing on the Little River.

For Staten Road she got 33, and wrote, “Looks good, we got some trees down up and downstream. We will handle this David n neighbors.”

For Langdale Park, she got 33, and “The road is very ruff. Little trash I cleaned up. Trash cans empty.”

Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation (VLPRA) puts the trash cans at Langdale Park, since it’s one of their parks.

Valdosta Utilities good results at GA 133 and US 84: 90 cfu/100 mL at both places.

Cindy’s tests were upstream of Sugar Creek, and Valdosta Utilities’ were downstream. So while we have no direct results for Sugar Creek this week, apparently it’s clean enough that it is not contaminating the Withlacoochee River.

Chart: Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-03-26
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.

Map: NOAA River Gauges 2025-03-26

Water quality testing training and funding

John S. Quarterman reviewed the results. Such review is part of every WWALS tester’s ongoing training.

WWALS Water Quality Testing Trainer Gretchen Quarterman delivered supplies to a tester.

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/

LBR

Lakeland Boat Ramp, Alapaha River @ GA 122 2025-03-26

NPB

Naylor Park Beach, Alapaha River @ US 84 2025-03-26

franklinville

Franklinville, Withlacoochee River @ Frankinville Road 2025-03-26

staten

Staten Road, Withlacoochee River @ Staten Road 2025-03-26

LPBR

Langdale Park Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River @ North Valdosta Road 2025-03-26

 -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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