Hightower Creek still dirty; Alapaha River clean 2025-12-30

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
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.

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/