Yet again, Hightower Creek tested dirty with E. coli at St. Augustine Road for Tuesday in Valdosta.

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

Sugar Creek at the WaterGoat tested much cleaner, but the next rain will wash down whatever that is upstream.

The most recent results we have for the Withlacoochee River are for last week, but they were clean.

The Alapaha River tested clean upstream for Wednesday.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week for the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida. The Florida Pollution Notices Map is broken again: “Unable to create map: Cannot read properties of null (reading ‘insertBefore’)”.

Rain is predicted for Saturday.

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.

Maybe you’d like to join us, weather permitting for Full Wolf Moon Paddle, Banks Lake, Gather 5 PM, launch 5:30 PM, moonrise 6:07 PM, sunset 5:55 PM, end 7 PM, Saturday, January 3, 2026.

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

Hightower Creek still dirty 2025-12-30, Alapaha River clean 2025-12-31, Withlacoochee River Clean last week

Valdosta Creeks

Thanks to WWALS tester for sampling two Valdosta creeks Tuesday.

For Hightower Creek at St. Augustine Road she got 866 cfu/100 mL, which is higher than the 410 one-time-test limit.

Too-high results at that location have persisted for months. It sure looks like something is leaking upstream.

Downstream of Hightower Creek, on Sugar Creek at the WaterGoat, Suzy got 200, which is OK. Presumably water coming in from One Mile Branch and Two Mile Branch diluted the contamination from Hightower Creek.

Withlacoochee River

Valdosta Utilities has not published any results for this week. For last week for the Withlacoochee River they published 320 for GA 133 (which is OK) and 30 for US 84 (which is very clean).

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

In their table of 2025 Withlacoochee River Bacteriological Monitoring Results, they reported these numbers with the same date as the previous results, “12/17/2025”. Since the new results appeared on Tuesday, December 23, probably they are for samples taken Monday, December 22, 2025. I asked Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes about this on that Tuesday. Presumably they will straighten that out next week after the holidays.

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.

Alapaha River

WWALS tester Heather Brasell sampled her two Alapaha River site on Wednesday, December 31, 2025. She got a very clean 67 cfu/100 mL at the Town of Alapaha Wastewater Plant outflow creek, and a pretty clean 333 on the Alapaha River just upstream from Sheboggy Boat Ramp.

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: Dirty Hightower Creek, Clean Alapaha River, 2025-12-31 –WWALS Composite Spreadsheet Continue reading →