Category Archives: creeks

Pictures: Troupville to Spook Bridge, Withlacoochee River, Mayor’s Paddle 2021-03-27

Third scheduled time was the charm for the Second Annual Mayor’s Paddle, Withlacoochee River, Troupville Boat Ramp to Spook Bridge. In addition to the nice writeup in the Valdosta Daily Times, here are some pictures. Only two or three people capsized, nobody was mad, and everybody had a good time.

Troupville Boat Ramp, WWTP Outfall, Spring Branch, Lunch banners, Spook Bridge Landing, VSU CORE, Ride

The 2022 version will be the Chairman and Mayor’s Paddle, coming up Saturday, January 29, ~~2021~~ 2022. Stay tuned. Update 2021-10-28: Chairman and Mayor’s Paddle: Troupville to Spook Bridge, Withlacoochee River, 2022-01-29.

Thanks to The Langdale Company for access at the lunch spot and at Spook Bridge. Thanks to the Boys and Girls Club for shuttling. Thanks to Steve Miller for his ATV for shuttling people up from the river at Spook Bridge to the road. Thanks to Bobby McKenzie for leading the outing.

We found some landmarks, such as where the Valdosta, Moultrie, and Western (VMW) Railroad used to cross the Withlacoochee River. Continue reading →

River gauges, Comprehensive Plan, Planning Commission: Three Lowndes County Meetings 2021-10-25

In Lowndes County, Georgia, three meetings today and tomorrow affect water, including the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers, upstream from Florida:

5:30 PM Monday 2021-10-25: Continued funding for two river gauges at the Lowndes County Commission
5:30 PM Monday 2021-10-25: No agenda posted for Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
5:30 PM Tuesday 2021-10-26: No agenda posted for Public Hearing to Review and Transmit the 2021 Comprehensive Plan Update by Lowndes County Commission

That’s right: two of the meetings are at the same time today, and two of the meetings have no agendas posted. What we know so far is below. For detailed updates of these Lowndes County meetings, follow Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE):
http://www.l-a-k-e.org

If there are especially interesting water developments, I will also post here for WWALS.

Character Area Map, River Gauges

Comprehensive Plan Update

5:30 PM Tuesday 2021-10-26: No agenda posted for Public Hearing to Review and Transmit the 2021 Comprehensive Plan Update by Lowndes County Commission

Address: 327 N. Ashley Street, 2nd Floor Commission Chamber, Valdosta, GA 31601

This is the meeting that could have the most effect on water. No agenda is posted, and no updates to the Lowndes County Character Area map since the one shown here, which was prepared for a September 28th meeting.

We’ll find out at 5:30 PM this Tuesday whether the Character Area Map for Lowndes County will change. Two sources tell me that it won’t for this update of the Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan, except for some tinkery fixes not in the northwest part of the county.

But many of us thought Continue reading →

All clean: Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2021-10-21

2021-10-29: Big rains and big contamination 2021-10-28.

WWALS Thursday water quality samples all tested clean, just in time for the WWALS Boomerang paddle race tomorrow, at State Line Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River.

Happy boating, swimming, and fishing on the Withlacoochee, and on the Alapaha and Little Rivers, too, according to the data we have.

Chart, Little River, Alapaha River; Withlacoochee River; Map: Swim Guide 2021-10-21

Valdosta data through Monday upstream and Friday downstream concurs. Plus there’s been no rain all week, so there’s been nothing to wash cow or hog manure into Okapilco Creek or anything else anywhere else. And no sewage spills have been reported. Continue reading →

Pictures: Family fun cleanup, Sugar Creek, Onemile Branch, Little and Withlacoochee Rivers 2021-10-09

Saturday’s River and Creek Cleanup went well. Here are pictures from Troupville Boat Ramp up from Land Between the Rivers on the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers, from Sugar Creek at the Salty Snapper, and from Drexel Park on Onemile Branch.

Troupville, Sugar Creek, Chairman and Mayor doing work, Drexel Park

Thanks to recent cleanups by Valdosta Stormwater, Sugar Creek wasn’t bad, but we found plenty of trash between the Salty Snapper parking lot and the creek, and Scotti and Sara hauled up from the woods a tire with rim and a satellite dish.

Thanks to Stafford, the owner of the parking lot on St. Augustine Road at Hightower Creek, keeping it much cleaner, there should be less trash coming down Sugar Creek.

Thanks to weeksly cleanups by Lowndes County Litter Control, Troupville Boat Ramp itself was pretty clean, but there was no shortage of trash to pick up downstream at Land Between the Rivers. Thanks to landowner Helen Tapp for getting her hunting lease to hold off for the day.

You don’t see this very often: Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter and Valdosta Mayor Scott James doing actual work together.

Later, they told everyone they were working together to purchase Helen’s land to add to the existing park to form a bigger nature park with a Troupville River Camp. Continue reading →

Clean rivers again 2021-10-07

2021-10-15: Good Little, Withlacoochee Rivers, bad Alapaha River 2021-10-14.

Another clean week on the Little, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, according to all the water quality test results we have. So happy swimming, boating, and fishing!

There was some rain today, which could wash some contamination into the rivers. But it wasn’t nearly as much rain as before previous contamination events.

Chart, Little, Alapaha, Withlacoochee Rivers, Swim Guide

And the water levels are coming down to where they should be just right for WWALS Boomerang paddle race, coming up in two weeks at State Line Boat Ramp. Continue reading →

A trash source success: parking lot on St. Augustine Road, Valdosta

Valdosta, GA, October 7, 2021 — Other businesses can do what Stafford did, and our creeks and rivers will be a lot cleaner! That will make Valdosta, Lowndes County, and every place downstream, more attractive to new and existing businesses, and healthier for people who live here.

After many times cleaning up trash from Sugar Creek near the Withlacoochee River, WWALS member Bobby McKenzie went upstream in Valdosta, found some sources, and one of the big ones listened. Other businesses can follow this example: put trash cans in parking lots, empty them, and keep them swept.

Parking lot, Hightower Creek

Bobby tells the story:

We identified hundreds of pounds of trash being thrown into the tree line just feet from Hightower Creek. The parking lot owner is Valdosta Mall Corners c/o Stafford Development Company (Stafford). Continue reading →

Sugar Creek Valdosta Stormwater bug-bitten cleanup 2021-09-30

Bobby McKenzie noticed somebody had been there, so I wrote to Valdosta Stormwater Director Angela Bray, “Thanks for another Sugar Creek logjam cleanup; Are we guessing correctly that it was you and Valdosta Stormwater?”

She answered:

You guessed right!
I only took a picture of the trash we picked up. We forgot mosquito spray so we had to get in and out as quick as possible! 🙂
The creek is definitely dropping but makes it super slippery.

Bags of trash in boat

Thanks to Valdosta Stormwater for cleaning up the Sugar Creek trashjam twice in one month! It’s good to see they’re having the full experience, like we have for more than a year now, cleaning up this repeating logjam of trash. For much more about the problem, its upstream sources, and how it can be fixed, see the post about their previous cleanup.

You are all invited to come help clean up Sugar Creek on Saturday, October 9, 2021, at this same location behind the Salty Snapper on Gornto Road, just upstream from the Withlacoochee River. Continue reading →

Lowndes County Litter Control, rivers and highways 2021-06-10

WWALS Member Bobby McKenzie saw the Lowndes County Little Control truck in the wild, at Nankin Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River.

Gotta give mad props to Lowndes County, GA for the Litter Control crew!
The boat ramps in Lowndes have been surprisingly clean lately! I ran across these folks today while out testing water. If you’ve been paying attention to the trash we’ve been cleaning up out of the rivers and trashed local spots in other counties…this is a much appreciated sight!

These boat ramps have been notoriously trashed in the past. Glad to see Lowndes stepping up!

Lowndes County Litter Control at Nankin Boat Ramp. Photo: Bobby McKenzie, who was an intern for WWALS at the time.

You can help, too, at the big river and creek cleanup this Saturday, October 9, 2021, with WWALS sites downstream from Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River and on Sugar Creek at the Salty Snapper just upstream from the Withlacoochee River. Continue reading →

All Clean, Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2021-09-30

Update 2021-10-08: Clean rivers again 2021-10-07.

All clear for swimming, boating, and fishing on the Withlacoochee River, and also the Little and Alapaha Rivers, by all the water quality results we have available.

Of course, conditions could change, but no rain is predicted until Monday. So there’s nothing to wash any cattle manure down Okapilco Creek, or any trash down Sugar Creek (more on that in a later post). And no sewage spills have been reported.

Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide

Valdosta results up through Wednesday concur with WWALS Wednesday and Thursday results: all well below the 410 one-time E. coli test result limit. Continue reading →

All clear, Withlacoochee River 2021-09-22

Update 2021-10-01: All Clean, Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2021-09-30.

All WWALS test results for Wednesday were clean in Georgia and Florida, but Valdosta got bad results at US 84 on the Withlacoochee River.

Yet there has been no significant rain since Tuesday, so in the opposite of last time, I’m going to say that E. coli has probably washed downstream and gotten diluted by now.

Make your own decisions, but I would boat on the Withlacoochee River this weekend. And the Alapaha River yet again seems clean. The Little River, probably, according to the one site we tested.