The Withlacoochee River tested pretty clean this week, as did the Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers.

But One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek tested dirty, and Hightower Creek tested filthy.

It appears there is still some other source of sewage upstream of St. Augustine Road into Hightower Creek.

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

The weather prediction for Saturday and Sunday is rain.

So if you can find a river with enough water, and you don’t mind cold and rain, happy paddling, motoring, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

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

Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, & Santa Fe Rivers 2025-12-04, Dirty Sugar Creek & One Mile Branch, Filthy Hightower Creek

Sugar Creek and its feeder creeks

We’re only seeing these creek results from Valdosta Utilities because they’re in the fourth week of the month 12 required testing after their November 2024 sewage spills. There won’t be any more tests in that series after this week.

https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/nov-2024-overflow-testing-results

Maybe it’s time for Valdosta to take up a more regular schedule for testing its creeks, as well as the Withlacoochee River both upstream and down. This would be to the advantage of the City of Valdosta, because such results help find sewage spills, and they also demonstrate when the creeks and rivers are clean, and when there are problems that are not Valdosta’s fault.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall got 566 cfu/100 mL E. coli at the WaterGoat on Sugar Creek, down near the Withlacoochee River. Which matches the 600 Valdosta Utilities got a bit upstream at Gornto Road. Both results are above the one-time 410 test limit.

Farther upstream, at St. Augustine Road on Hightower Creek, Valdosta got 2,500, which is 2.5 times the 1,000 alert limit.

For One Mile Branch, also upstream from Sugar Creek, Valdosta Utilities got 500 (too high) at Wainwright Drive and 285 (OK) at West Gordon Street.

Maybe the rains this weekend will finally flush Sugar Creek, especially after the logjam clearing from Gornto Road to the WaterGoat.

But if there is a sewage leak into Hightower Creek, there will still be creek contamination.

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 Rivers; Dirty Creeks 2025-12-04 –WWALS composite spreadsheet
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.

Withlacoochee River

Valdosta Utilities got an OK 300 at US 41 upstream from Sugar Creek. That’s from another followup sewage spill testing series.

https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/august-2025-sanitary-sewer-spills

And Valdosta got an OK 225 at GA 133 and a good 115 both downstream from Sugar Creek.

https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/2025-withlacoochee-river-bacteriological-monitoring

WWALS tester Russ Tatum got a perfect zero (0) for Wednesday at Holly Point, downstream on the Withlacoochee River near the Suwannee.

Santa Fe River

WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler also got zero for Wednesday at their Santa Fe River site upstream from Poe Springs.

Alapaha River

WWALS tester Kimberly Godden Tanner got zero for Thursday for both her Alapaha River sites, at Lakeland Boat Ramp (GA 122) and Naylor Park Beach (US 84).

Water quality testing training and funding

WWALS water quality testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman ordered and distributed some testing materials.

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 2025-12-04 –Kim Tanner for WWALS

NPB

Naylor Park Beach, Alapaha River @ US 84 2025-12-04 –Kim Tanner for WWALS

WG

Sugar Creek @ WaterGoat 2025-12-04 –Suzy Hall for WWALS

Tables

Table: River Results, 2025-12-04 –Valdosta Utilities

HP

Plates, Holly Point 2025-12-03 –Russ Tatum for WWALS

MillsDock

Mills Dock, Santa Fe River @ NW 282nd Dr 2025-12-03 –Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler for WWALS

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