Clean Sugar Creek 2025-09-06

Update 2025-09-12: Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-09-11.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall sampled Sugar Ceek Saturday at Gornto Road, and got a pretty clean 300 cfu/100 mL, which is less than the 410 one-time test limit.

This is the same place Valdosta Utilities got way-too-high 3,800 a week ago on Sunday August 31. Then they stopped sampling, because that was the end of the required seven days after their pair of major spills the previous weekend.

Gornto Road is 0.44 miles upstream from the Withlacoochee River. Valdosta Utilities did sample twice more (Monday and Tuesday) at GA 133, 2.5 river miles downstream from Sugar Creek. They got too-high 540 for Monday and OK 180 for Tuesday.

But only now because of Suzy’s sampling do we know that Sugar Creek itself is back within normal range for E. coli, including at the Watergoat, a bit more than halfway from Gornto Road to the river.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

Clean Sugar Creek, Saturday, September 6, 2025, In WWALS testing, Upstream from Withlacoochee River

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

There’s a 40% chance of storms Monday and Tuesday, so something might wash into the creeks and rivers then. Or not.

Meanwhile, this is what we know now.

The WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SVezEtnmNw2-byIvfA2exUsK-3je9N5Iir5se2nPY1o/

The following image is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet.

Chart: OK Sugar Creek 2025-09-06

Suzy Hall noted, “Bass, bream, snake, Bullfrog and Otter sightings this weekend.”

Sugar Creek @ Gornto Road 2025-09-06 –Suzy Hall for WWALS

She marked on this picture of her plates (PetriFilm after 24 hours at 95 degrees Fahrenheit in an incubator) the blue colonies with bubbles that are E. coli. Those are colony forming units (cfu). The 300 cfu/100 mL result is computed by counting all the cfu on the plates, multiplying by 100, and dividing by 3.

Plates, Sugar Creek @ Gornto Road 2025-09-06 –Suzy Hall for WWALS

This map shows where these sites are.

Map: One Mile Branch, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).
The Gornto Road Bridge on Sugar Creek is highlighted a bit right of center.
The GA 133 bridge on the Withlacoochee River is a bit below center.
The Wainwright Drive sewage spill location on One Mile Branch is near the right edge of the map.
The Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) spill site is towards the bottom left.

Here’s another spreadsheet excerpt, going back another week to when the two recent Valdosta sewage spills happened.

Chart: Valdosta Sewage Spills Followup 2025-08-23 to 2025-09-06
For context, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing
Previous WWALS water quality reports are here:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

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

WWALS tester Cindy Vedas reviewed the results. Such review is part of WWALS quality control.

WWALS water quality testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman is delivering test kits to two new Florida testers today.

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.

Turns out Suzy also tested at Berrien Beach Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River and got zero. Her images are 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/