Hightower Creek dirty upstream at Norman Drive 2026-01-01

It sure looks like there is some sort of leak upstream of Norman Drive on Hightower Creek.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall got 833 cfu/100 mL for Thursday, only slightly lower than her 866 half a mile downstream at St. Augustine Road. Both results are above the one-time test limit of 410. Both WWALS and Valdosta Utilities have been getting too-high results at St. Augustine Road for many weeks.

And Valdosta Utilities got 880 at GA 133 for Wednesday on the Withlacoochee River.

That could be the contamination Suzy saw Tuesday washing downstream. If so, where is the water coming from to wash it down? There was no rain until today.

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

Hightower Creek dirty upstream at Norman Drive 2026-01-01, And Withlacoochee River at GA 133 2025-12-31

Suzy’s Norman Drive number is way worse than when I sampled the same location a year ago, December 12, 2024. That was part of a ten-site effort with Suzy Hall all the way down Hightower Creek and Sugar Creek to just above the Withlacoochee River. That project localized a likely sewer leak within 2,000 feet.

And a month later, the City of Valdosta found that major sewage spill in Sugar Creek that had been spilling for months.

Will Valdosta Utilities find this sewer system leak?

Fortunately, Valdosta Utilities got an OK 200 downstream at US 84 on the Withlacoochee River for Wednesday.

Today’s rain is supposed to be gone by tomorrow.

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.

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 and Withlacoochee River Upstream 2026-01-02 –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.

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 still broken: “Unable to create map: Cannot read properties of null (reading ‘insertBefore’)”.

Maps of the subject area

The Norman Drive culvert is highlighted on this image from the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT). Ignore that googlemaps mis-labels Hightower Creek as Sugar Creek.

Map: Hightower Creek @ Norman Drive, 2026-01-03 –WLRWT by WWALS

This is a context map showing Hightower Creek flowing north into Sugar Creek and on to the Withlacoochee River. The Valdosta Utilities sample site at the GA 133 Bridge is a bit up and left of center.

Map: Hightower Creek, Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River 2026-01-03 –WLRWT by WWALS

This is a WWALS map of Valdosta manholes, using data from SGRC and Valdosta Utilities. The only manholes it shows uphill from the Norman Drive culvert are on the property of Sam’s Club.

Map: Hightower Creek Manholes, 2026-01-03 –Valdosta Utilities

This image is from VALORGIS, showing Valdosta water lines, sewer lines, stormwater pipes and features, and various easements.

Map: Valdosta Sewer Water Lines, 2026-01-03 –Valor GIS

Wiggly blue lines are creeks.
Wide straight blue lines are Valdosta water lines.
Green lines are Valdosta sewer lines.
Brown lines are Valdosta stormwater pipes.
Brown dots are Valdosta stormwater features, presumably stormwater drains.
Black double lines filled with grey are easements.

You can follow the above links to any of these maps and pan and zoom.

Water quality testing training and funding

WWALS tester John S. Quarterman reviewed the WWALS results. Such review is part of the WWALS standard ongoing testing quality analysis.

If you want to get trained by WWALS water quality testing trainer Gretchen Quarterman 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/