Pretty clean Sugar Creek 2026-04-23 and Batterbee Branch and Withlacoochee River 2026-04-27

Valdosta Utilities got a pretty good E. coli number for Monday at GA 133 (St. Augustine Road) on the Withlacoochee River, and a good result at US 84 that same day. That’s much improved from previous weeks.

WWALS results for Sugar Creek last Thursday were also OK.

And a WWALS result for Batterbee Branch, in Ray City, Georgia, upstream from Cat Creek, was OK.

Still no significant rain, and still no new sewage spills have been reported this week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

As always, we can only advise with the results we have. Happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend, if you can find any water.

Rain is predicted for this weekend, but it was predicted for yesterday, too, and didn’t happen.

If there is rain, maybe it will at least dampen some wildfires. Remember not to light anything outdoors.

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

Pretty clean Sugar Creek 2026-04-23, and Batterbee Branch and Withlacoochee River 2026-04-27, No rain, no sewage spills

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: Pretty clean Sugar Creek 2026-04-23, Withlacoochee River and Batterbee Branch 2026-04-27 –WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality reports
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.

Batterbee Branch

Please welcome new WWALS tester Tish Hall. She tested Batterbee Branch Monday near Shiloh Road, Ray City, Georgia, and got 133 cfu/100 mL. That’s well below the 410 one-time test limit.

Batterbee Branch, 2026-04-27 –Tish Hall for WWALS

She also got:
Air Temp. 21 C
Water Temp. 21 C
pH 5.5
Dissolved Oxygen (DO) 3 and 3.4
Conductivity 0.02 and 0.03

Batterbee Branch is highlighted at the top right of this map, flowing into Cat Creek west of Ray City and north of GA 37. Cat Creek then runs into the Withlacoochee River a mile downstream from Franklinville Road.

Map: Batterbee Branch, 2026-04-30 in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT).

Sugar Creek

WWALS tester Suzy Hall for last Thursday got 133 cfu/100 mL for Sugar Creek at the WaterGoat. That’s well below the 410 one-time test limit.

Watergoat, Sugar Creek 2026-04-23 –Suzy Hall for WWALS

Withlacoochee River

Valdosta Utilities for Monday got 310 cfu/100 mL for GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River. That’s below the 410 one-time test limit, and much lower than previous weeks.

And they got a very clean 20 at US 84, below the Little River Confluence.

Whatever was getting into the river seems to have gone away.

Table: GA 133 and US 84, Withlacoochee River 2026-04-27 — Valdosta Utilities

Water quality testing training and funding

WWALS testers Kimberly Christiaan Ard, Suzy Hall, and 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, Don Hutchinson, 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/