Update 2025-02-14: Five days of changes in GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report 2025-02-14.

A step backwards: Sugar Creek tested too high in E. coli at Gornto Road for Wednesday.

It’s not as high as in many weeks, but still above the alert limit. And there had been no rain to wash anything into the creek.

So, what’s going on? Is there another leak? Or a glitch in the sewage spill bypass?

New River clean 2025-02-02, Withlacoochee Clean 2025-02-06, Sugar Creek, Dirty 2025-02-05

WWALS and Valdosta Utilities got good results for the Withlacoochee River both upstream and downstream of Sugar Creek.

And WWALS got OK results for the New River downstream (south) of Tifton at GA 125 in Berrien County.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the last week in Georgia or Florida.

No rain is predicted for the next five days, with warm sunny weather this weekend.

So happy fishing, swimming, paddling, and boating this weekend!

Or join us at Troupville Boat Ramp for a Withlacoochee River chainsaw cleanup on Saturday, January 8:
https://wwals.net/?p=66873

Or another one on Sunday, January 9:
https://wwals.net/?p=66892

Sugar Creek

Valdosta Utilities for Wednesday got 1,485 cfu/100 mL of E. coli at Gornto Road on Sugar Creek. That’s above the 1,000 alert limit and way up from the 210 for Wednesday last week.

For this Wednesday, they got 95 upstream at Baytree Road, below the 126 three-test average limit, so that’s very good. So there’s something wrong between Baytree Road and Gornto Road.

Also Wednesday, while we were in Atlanta, I complimented Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes for bypass working. However, apparently there is still something not right on Sugar Creek.

Map: Sugar Creek from Baytree Road north to the Withlacoochee River in the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT)

New River

WWALS tester Samantha Carr continued exploring test sites near Tifton, this time downstream on the New River at GA 125, where she got 166 cfu/100 mL, which is OK. This was for Sunday.

Ty Ty Creek

Samantha Carr also sampled Ty Ty Creek at US 319 west of Tifton, but due to a technical glitch we have no results for there.

Withlacoochee River

WWALS tester Cindy Vedas sampled her usual three sites Thursday.

At Franklinville Road she got zero, &ldqup;Mattress in the river, saw a beaver.”

At Staten Road she got 66, still very good.

At Langdale Park she got 33, “Trash cans were empty. Saw Canadian geese at the river.”

Valdosta Utilities got good results for the Withlacoochee River at US 41, just upstream from Langdale Park, which is upstream of Sugar Creek.

They also got good results downstream of Sugar Creek at GA 133 and US 84. Apparently the much larger volume of river water is diluting the Sugar Creek water.

Chart: Clean Withlacoochee, New Rivers; Dirty Sugar Creek 2025-02-06
For context, see: https://wwals.net/issues/testing

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.

Water quality testing training and funding

Suzy Hall reviewed the results. Such review is part of every WWALS tester’s ongoing training.

WWALS Water Quality Testing Trainer Gretchen Quarterman delivered more water quality testing materials to testers.

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/

Maps

Map: Kell Road, Jordan Road, W Golden Road Bridges 2025-02-04

tyty

Ty Ty Creek @ US 319, 2025:02:02 13:46:22, 31.3220253, -83.6227569

New125

GA 125, Tifton, GA, New River of Withlacoochee 2025:02:02 12:57:22, 31.3607025, -83.4281311

franklinville

Franklinville, Withlacoochee River @ Frankinville Road 2025-02-06

staten

Staten Road, Withlacoochee River @ Staten Road 2025-02-06

LPBR

Langdale Park Boat Ramp, Withlacoochee River @ North Valdosta Road 2025-02-06

 -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/

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