The Withlacoochee River tested pretty clean this week, as did the Santa Fe River, and the Ichetucknee River for Friday last week.

Even Valdosta’s problem Sugar Creek and One Mile Branch tested OK.

But Hightower Creek was bad in Valdosta Utilities’ result, although the WWALS result the same day at the same site was OK.

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 Georgia or Florida, although FDEP’s Pollution Notice reporting is half broken: see below.

No rain is predicted for the next ten days.

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, Santa Fe Rivers, Mostly Good 2025-12-11, OK One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek, But not Hightower Creek

Sugar Creek and its feeder creeks

For Thursday at St. Augustine Road on Hightower Creek, Valdosta Utilities got 535 cfu/100 mL, which is above the one-time test limit of 410 for E. coli, although well below their last week result of 2,500, which was above the 1,000 alert limit.

However, WWALS tester Suzy Hall got 366 for the same site the same day. We don’t know why these results are so different. It could be simply time of day: Suzy sampled at 11:40 AM and Valdosta typically samples (as far as we know) early in the morning. Which of course still doesn’t explain why they would be so different. Is there some upstream sewage leak that changes by time of day?

Downstream on Sugar Creek, Valdosta Utilities got 235 at Gornto Road and Suzy Hall got 180 at the WaterGoat, so those two results agree pretty closely.

Maybe Stones Aquatic clearing deadfalls out of Sugar Creek from Gornto Road to the WaterGoat last week helped, especially with the weekend rains to wash that stretch cleaner of residual sewage.
https://wwals.net/?p=68981

Valdosta Utilities also got an OK result of 140 at West Gordon Street, upstream of Sugar Creek on One Mile Branch. And they got a good 120 at Wainwright Drive, below the 126 three-test-average limit.

Valdosta Utilities switched to sampling its creeks after a different set of sewage spill, the one August 23, 2025 of 20,000 gallons into One Mile Branch at Wainwright Drive. Valdosta has since replaced both manholes at Wainwright Drive with taller ones, so maybe that is finally starting to have an effect of reduced sewage in the creeks.
https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/august-2025-sanitary-sewer-spills

Thanks for that, and here’s hoping they keep doing that each week.

Posting results a bit earlier would also be good. When I checked about 5 PM Friday, they still weren’t up, and I had an appointment the rest of the evening, so you’re getting this report Saturday morning.

Also, Valdosta could take back up testing the Withlacoochee River down to the state line, plus Okapilco Creek, as they stopped doing after the four years required in the 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order. 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.

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 Creeks Dirty Hightower Creek 2025-12-11 –WWALS Excerpt, 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 130 at US 41 upstream from Sugar Creek.

And Valdosta got an OK 180 at GA 133 and a good 20 both downstream from Sugar Creek.

All three Valdosta Utilities river results are better than last week.

Santa Fe River

For Wednesday, WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler got zero at their Santa Fe River site upstream from Poe Springs, “River is clean.”

Air Temp. 16.3 C
Water Temp. 19.4 C

Ichetucknee River

For Friday of last week, WWALS tester Christiaan Ard got zero at both of his Ichetucknee River sites, at Hodor Park and Point Park, both parks owned by Three Rivers Estates Property Owners (TREPO).

Hodor Park

Air Temp. 26 C
Water Temp. 22 C
pH 7.5
DO 5.9
Conductivity 319
E. coli: 0 + 0 + 3 = 33 cfu/100 mL

Point Park

Air Temp. 26 C
Water Temp. 22 C
pH 7.75
DO 5.0
Conductivity 323
E. coli: 0 + 0 + 3 = 33 cfu/100 mL

FDEP Pollution Notice bugs

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)’s Pollution Notice map is chronically broken: “Unable to create map: Cannot read properties of null (reading ‘insertBefore’)”.
https://fdep.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=90072bb50dab41e68a51419353d5d40f

And the viewing window in its web table is so short it’s not very useful:
https://prodenv.dep.state.fl.us/DepPNP/reports/viewIncidentDetails?page=1

I’ve taken to retrieving the Excel spreadsheet and looking at that for notices in the Basin:
https://prodenv.dep.state.fl.us/DepPNP/reports/viewIncidentDetails?page=1#

Water quality testing training and funding

WWALS water quality testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman 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/

HC

Hightower Creek @ St. Augustine Road, 2025-12-11 –Suzy Hall for WWALS

WG

Sugar Creek @ WaterGoat 2025-12-11 –Suzy Hall for WWALS

Tables

Table: Creek Results, 2025-12-11 –Valdosta Utilities for WWALS

MillsDock

Mills Dock, Santa Fe River @ NW 282nd Dr 2025-12-10 –Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler for WWALS

PP

Point Park, Ichetucknee River @ SW Riverside Ave. 2025-12-05 –Christiaan Ard for WWALS

Short Link: