Category Archives: NCFRPC

Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-10-17

Update 2025-10-23: Sewer System Repairs and Water Quality Testing by Valdosta Utilities 2025-10-21.

A WWALS water quality sample Friday at the WaterGoat on Sugar Creek tested at the alert limit for E. coli, and higher than the previous week.

This result is consistent with the higher result Valdosta Utilities got for Thursday at GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River, which was also higher than the previous week.

And it is consistent with the results Valdosta Utilities got two weeks ago at Gornto Road on Sugar Creek and at GA 133. That day, October 2, 2025, Valdosta Utilities got even higher results at St. Augustine Road on Hightower Creek.

Yet after October 2 Valdosta Utilities ceased testing Sugar Creek, One Mile Branch, and Hightower Creek, as well as North Valdosta Road on the Withlacoochee River, after the four weeks of testing required by GA-EPD after major spills had expired.

There has been no significant rain for weeks. It is very difficult to explain these high Sugar Creek results as residue of previous sewage spills washing downstream, when there has been no rain to wash it down.

Maybe Valdosta Utilities should look for a sewage leak on Hightower Creek upstream from St. Augustine Road.

And if Valdosta won’t voluntarily continue testing when results are too high, maybe it’s time to ask the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) to require the city to do so.

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

Filthy Sugar Creek Friday, WWALS 2025-10-17, Consistent with GA 133, Valdosta Utilities 2025-10-16

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. Continue reading →

Too much E. coli at the Watergoat, Sugar Creek 2025-10-10, Problematical Withlacoochee River 2025-10-16

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Update 2025-10-19: Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-10-17.

The last water quality test for Sugar Creek that we have is by WWALS for last Friday, and that was a too-high 633 cfu/100 mL E. coli.

For this Thursday, Valdosta Utilities got 480 at GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River, downstream of Sugar Creek, higher than the one-time test limit of 410, and higher than 400 last week. Yet Valdosta Utilities got a pretty clean 120 farther downstream at US 84, lower than 180 last week.

It is likely that Sugar Creek was still too high Thursday. We don’t know, because Valdosta Utilities last week ceased testing Sugar Creek, One Mile Branch, and Hightower Creek, as well as North Valdosta Road on the Withlacoochee River. This was apparently because the four weeks of testing required by GA-EPD after major spills had expired. Never mind that Valdosta Utilities’ last result on Sugar Creek was too high.

WWALS testers got a very clean zero result on the Santa Fe River for Wednesday.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

There’s a chance of storms Sunday afternoon, otherwise it’s supposed to be mostly sunny for the next ten days.

I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, Other than that, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

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

Too much E. coli at Sugar Creek WaterGoat, Problematical Withlacoochee River, 2025-10-16

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Packet: North Central Florida Regional Planning Council 2025-10-23

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The North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC) meets next Thursday, in person and online.

Copies of the meeting notice, directions, agenda, and board packet is on the WWALS website, with images below, plus an illustrative picture of a previous NCFRPC meeting at the same location.

North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Agenda and Packet, Thursday, October 23, 2025

There’s not a lot about water, except the very last item, Regional Joint Mitigation Resiliency Project, on page 71 of the packet. It includes:

The scope of work includes the following activities.

Future Extreme Rainfall Modeling;
Mitigation Needs Assessment, Template and Mitigation Priority Areas and Project List;
Small Area Mitigation Plans;
Regional Resilience Exposure Tool;
Interactive Best Practice Application; and
Stakeholder Engagement.

Continue reading →

Agenda, North Central Florida Regional Planning Council 2025-09-25

It’s curious that there’s nothing on their agenda about the Rivers Task Force meeting with the City of Valdosta, but maybe they covered that last month.

Anyway, the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC) meets next Thursday, in person and online.

North Central Florida Regional Planning Council, Public Notice and Agenda, Thursday, September 25, 2025

A copy of the meeting notice, directions, and agenda is on the WWALS website, with images below, plus an illustrative picture of a previous NCFRPC meeting at the same location. Continue reading →

Slides: Valdosta Utilities Director to Florida River Task Force 2025-08-14

Update 2025-08-25: Overflowing Catch Basin at Valdosta Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant 2025-08-24.

You’ve seen the WWALS videos of the presentation by Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes to the Rivers Task Force.
https://wwals.net/?p=68201

These are the slides he used, obtained from the City of Valdosta with an open records request.

Videos: Florida River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop 2025-08-14

Update 2025-08-25: Slides: Valdosta Utilities Director to Florida River Task Force 2025-08-14.

Update 2025-08-22: Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-08-21.

Valdosta, especially Utilities Director Jason Barnes, did something they really needed to do: they said what has been done to fix their sewer system problems, what they’re doing now, how much money they’ve spent (more than $160 million), and what they plan to spend (more than $69 million).

Florida River Task Force and Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop, August 14, 2025

More happened in that meeting of the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force with Valdosta city officials, the few City Council members who showed up (Tim Carroll and eventually Nick Harden), and Mayor Scott James Matheson for a few minutes.

You can see it all in these WWALS videos of the whole August 14, 2025, meeting at the Valdosta City Hall Annex.

Better communications was the most popular request. For example, this was the third time that the Florida Task Force discovered Valdosta Mayor and Council had some other meeting they had to go to at the same date and time.

Several speakers asked for better notification from Valdosta about sewage spills and bad water quality, including notification for weekend visitors. One Task Force member recommended looking at the website of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), but I’m not finding what they want on there.

I commend the City of Valdosta for being the only Georgia local government I know of that posts its water quality results on its own website:
https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-monitoring

Although if you’re on a phone or tablet you can’t actually see the sidebar with the links to those results.

The only place I know with composite water quality testing results (Valdosta, WWALS, and any Florida results) is on the WWALS website, including a weekly water quality report:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/

WWALS collects each working day the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report and posts differences from the previous day for the Suwannee River Basin, and for the state:
https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills/

Several people asked what was being done to deal with stormwater before it becomes an infiltration and inflow problem for Valdosta’s sewer system. The answer was that Engineering is always working on it. OK, fine, let’s see that project list.

One speaker requested more attention to trash. There is much more Valdosta can do about trash. See The Real Trash Problem is the Producers, and How to Stop It 2023-12-23.
https://wwals.net/?p=63786

As one Florida resident pointed out, even treated wastewater still has PFAS and other contaminants in it.

Task Force Chair Rick Davis asked Valdosta to resume testing for fecal contamination three times a week at all the locations that the 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order required for four years. Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman discussed three cases where water quality testing found fecal contamination sources that were then speedily dealt with. The most the city said was they would have internal discussions about more testing.

Valdosta did their own news post about the Thursday’s meeting: Rivers Joint Task Force Meeting Highlights City’s Progress on Water Safety and Quality.

More of the story was published by Stew Lilker, Columbia County Observer, August 16, 2025, N. FL’s Withlacoochee River Task Force met with Valdosta officials on Thursday to be updated on the formerly spill-prone Valdosta utility system. Continue reading →

Rescheduled: Florida River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop 2025-08-14

Update 2025-08-01: OK Withlacoochee River, Cleaner Sugar Creek, Dirty Beatty Branch 2025-07-30.

Buried in the middle of a reminder of the cancellation of the previous workshop:

“The Joint Workshop has been rescheduled for August 14, 2025 at 6:00 p.m.”

That message doesn’t say where, but I have confirmed with Scott Koons that it will be in the same place:
Valdosta City Hall Annex, 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia.

Florida River Task Force and Valdosta City Council, Joint Workshop, Rescheduled: 2025-08-14, 6 PM

As I noted when the meeting was originally scheduled, back in 2020, this Task Force of the dozen downstream Florida counties was instrumental in getting a Consent Order on Valdosta by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD). Continue reading →

Jobs and Comprehensive Plans at NCFRPC 2024-07-25

I don’t see anything in the agenda about the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force that the NCFRPC reactivated in May after Valdosta’s April sewage spills. Maybe they are meeting separately and have nothing to report yet.

Also, in the statewide metrics of https://thefloridascorecard.org/ I don’t see anything about water: not drinking water, river water, springs, levels, flows, E. coli, nitrates, cyanobacteria, nothing.

But on the agenda are several county Comprehensive Plan updates, so those could be interesting.

North Central Florida Regional Planning Council 2024-07-25, Metrics, Jobs, and Comprehensive Plans

Received this morning:

Council Members, Interested Persons, and News Media,
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MEETING STARTS AT 7:00 P.M.
Please be advised that there will be a Hybrid Meeting in-Person at Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, Suwannee Room, 213 Southwest Commerce Boulevard, Lake City, Florida, and via Communications Media Technology for the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council on Thursday, July 25, 2024 at 7:00 p.m.
Continue reading →

Gainesville: North Central Florida Regional Planning Council 2024-05-23

Update 2024-05-24: Clean Withlacoochee, Santa Fe, and Ichetucknee Rivers 2024-05-22.

Years ago, the dozen downstream Florida counties formed a task force about Valdosta sewage spills. See for example https://wwals.net/?p=51455

Due to recent events, it appears that task force will get reactivated this Thursday, at the monthly meeting of the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council (NCFRPC).

See for example https://wwals.net/?p=64677 and for background see https://wwals.net/issues/testing/

NFRPC in Gainesville, Thursday, May 23, 2024, M&L Suwannnee & Withlacoochee River Task Force Reactivation

When: 7 PM, Thursday, May 23, 2024

Where: Drury Inn and Suites, Orange Blossom Room/Sweetwater Room, 4000 Southwest 40th Boulevard, Gainesville, Florida
Note the meeting will be in Gainesville, not the usual Lake City location.

Or online: https://meet.goto.com/408138813
DIAL IN NUMBER: Toll Free: 1.866.899.4679
ACCESS CODE: 408-138-813

Includes: VII. B. Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force Reactivation

-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/

North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan in SRWMD presentation to NCFRPC –Columbia County Observer 2023-10-09

Thanks to Stew Lilker for recording and analysis of a presentation about water planning in the Suwannee and St. Johns River Basins.

To answer his question: No, there won’t be enough water, unless water withdrawals are limited, which neither of the Suwannee nor St. Johns River Water Management Districts seem inclined to do.

Please sign the petition to get Right to Clean and Healthy Waters on the ballot:
https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org

SRWMD, NFRWSP

Stew Lilker, Columbia County Observer, October 9, 2023, North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan: Just a Suggestion – Will There Be Enough Water in the Future?

Updated – October 11, 2023 2:55 am – mixed SRWMD slide deck with Observer audio for a clean presentation by Amy Brown, Ph.D. Downloading the slide deck (pdf) keeps all links at the end of the presentation live.

COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (the east side of the Suwannee River Water Management District and the top half of the St. Johns River Water Management District) is being updated. The Plan focuses on the sustainability of resources. It is just a plan, and water users “are not required to implement” any options identified in the Plan.

Well, slide 24 seems to indicate some requirements. Maybe local governments don’t have to implement exactly what NFRWSP says, but I’d bet they will be strongly recommended to do so. Continue reading →

WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

A healthy watershed with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable water.