Clean Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers; mostly clean Withlacoochee River 2025-10-09

Update 2025-10-18: Too much E. coli at the Watergoat, Sugar Creek 2025-10-10, Problematical Withlacoochee River 2025-10-16.

Update 2025-10-11: Plus Staten Road for Thursday.

WWALS testers found the Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers clean within the past seven days, and the Withlacoochee River mostly clean.

We don’t know about Sugar Creek, because Valdosta Utilities stopped testing after the state-required four weeks beyond a major spill.

GA-EPD finally added the gallons spilled in Valdosta’s big August sewage spills to its Sewage Spills Report. But no new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

It’s supposed to be mostly sunny or sunny for the next ten days.

I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, Other than that, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

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

Clean Ichetucknee and Santa Fe, Mostly clean Withlacoochee River, Unknown Sugar Creek, 2025-10-09

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet.

Chart: Clean Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers; Mostly Clean Withlacoochee 2025-10-09
For context, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing
Previous WWALS water quality reports are here:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results
Also follow that link for the underlying spreadsheet of water quality, sewage spills, and rainfall from Georgia and Florida sources for the Suwannee River Basin.

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.

Ichetucknee River

Please welcome new WWALS tester Christiaan Ard, who got very clean results on the Ichetucknee River for Friday, October 3, 2025. He got zero at Hodor Park, not far downstream from the US 27 bridge, in Three River Estates Property Owners (TREPO).

Air temp. 25.0 C
Water temp. 22.5 C
pH 7.5
DO 5.35
Conductivity 466

Hodor Park, Ichetucknee River @ SW Riverside Ave. 2025-10-03 –Christiaan Ard for WWALS

He got 66 at Point Park, near the Ichetucknee Confluence with the

Air temp. 25 C
Water tmp. 22.5 C
pH 7
DO 5.4
conductivity 336

Point Park, Ichetucknee River @ SW Riverside Ave. 2025-10-03 –Christiaan Ard for WWALS

Santa Fe River

WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler once again got a clean 66 cfu/100 mL at Mills Dock on the Santa Fe River, upstream from Poe Spring, this time for Wednesday, October 8, 2025.

Air temperature 21.6 C
Water temperature 24.4 C
pH 6.5
Dissolved Oxygen 4.6

Mills Dock, Santa Fe River @ NW 282nd Dr 2025-10-08 –Kurt Hurzeler for WWALS

Cat Creek and Beatty Branch

This is a volunteer water quality testing program, and nobody had time to test Cat Creek or Beatty Branch this week. We are seeking grants to compensate testers.

Withlacoochee River

Upstream of Sugar Creek, WWALS tester Cindy Vedas got a very clean 33 cfu/100 mL at Staten Road for Thursday.

Staten Road, Withlacoochee River @ Staten Road 2025-10-09 –Cindy Vedas for WWALS

Downstream of Sugar Creek, Valdosta got 400 at GA 133, just below the 410 one-time-test limit.

Table: River Results, 2025-10-09 — Valdosta Utilities

That’s lower than last week, but still high enough to indicate Sugar Creek probably still has too much E. coli. But we don’t know, because Valdosta Utilities did not test creeks this week, presumably because this wee was more than the state-required four weeks after a major spill.

No result has been seen from the request to continue testing if previous results were too high. That request was made most recently by the Rivers Task Force of the dozen downstream counties at the Florida River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop 2025-08-14.

Movie: Rick Davis, Chair, Florida Rivers Task Force (907M)
Video:
https://youtu.be/WKrbz1g0U7k
Rick Davis, Chair, Florida Rivers Task Force.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) posted in its daily Sewage Spills Report for October 6 the number of gallons spilled in Valdosta’s big August sewage spills: 20,000 into Sugar Creek at Wainwright Drive, and 1,500,000 from Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) into the Withlacoochee River.

Table: Valdosta Sewage Spiil Gallons, 2025-08-23 — GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report 2025-10-06

That was just in time for those results to roll off the next day, after 30 days.

Downstream at US 84 Valdosta got pretty clean 180, very similar to last week.

WWALS tester Russ Tatum for Wednesday again got a cleanest zero at Holly point, down the Withlacoochee River almost to the Suwannee.

Holly Point, Withlacoochee River @ NE Withla Bluffs Way 2025-10-08 –Russ Tatum for WWALS

Water quality testing training and funding

WWALS testers Suzy Hall, Cindy Vedas, and John S. Quarterman reviewed the results. Such review is part of WWALS quality control.

WWALS water quality testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman helped bring the new testers up to speed, as they went through the usual learning curve of actually testing and reporting.

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

Here’s the Georgia Adopt-A-Stream map of WWALS water quality testing sites:

Map: WWALS Water Quality Testing Sites, 2025-10-10 — GA Adopt-A-Stream

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/