Thanks, sponsors, Packaging Corporation of America and Wisenbaker’s Garage.
You or your organization can become a sponsor for the WWALS Boomerang paddle race on the idyllic blackwater Withlacoochee River, Saturday, October 22, 2022, from State Line Boat Ramp into Florida and back upstream into Georgia.
If you clean up before you paddle, you will get a Rivers Alive t-shirt. Continue reading
Update 2022-10-31: Pictures: Alapaha, Dead Rivers, Sink 2022-10-02.
Expedition leader Dennis Price reported on access for this morning’s Sunday: Paddle Sasser Landing to Jennings Bluff, Hike to Dead River Sink, Alapaha River, 2022-10-02.
Getting to Sasser Landing to deposit boats is still simple. From Jennings, Continue reading
Update 2022-10-08: Clean rivers 2022-10-06.
Withlacoochee, Little, and Alapaha Rivers declared safe from Hurricane Ian. Maybe as clean as we’ve ever seen!
Happy boating, fishing, and swimming this weekend! Join us tomorrow on the Alapaha River plus hike to the Dead River Sink.
This is despite yet another small Valdosta sewage spill, this time last Friday on Lake Sheri, which drains into the Withlacoochee River just upstream from I-75.
Friday, September 23, 2022, was also the day WWALS tester Scotti Jay discovered a fish kill in One Mile Branch starting on the VSU campus.
Valdosta has not reported any test results for that day; I don’t know why. Valdosta results for Monday, September 26th are normal. Those are the most recent results Valdosta has published. Continue reading
Update 2023-11-09: GA-EPD Consent Order on Valdosta for One Mile Branch fish kill and sewage spills 2023-09-15.
Valdosta had yet another small sewage spill, this time on Friday, September 23, 2022, into Lake Sheri, which drains into the Withlacoochee River just upstream from I-75.
![[Report and map: Valdosta Lake Sheri sewage spill 2022-09-23]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-09-29--wq/2022-09-23--spill-and-map-valdosta-lake-sheri-sewage-spill.jpg)
Report and map: Valdosta Lake Sheri sewage spill 2022-09-23
Most likely that spill was too small to affect the river, but those poor people who live on Lake Sheri, which already had three sewage spills upstream this summer.
The GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report for Monday, September 26, 2022 shows that 1,250 raw sewage spill as Continue reading
We got quite a bit of trash on a fun morning at Berrien Beach Boat Ramp in Berrien County and across the Alapaha River at Berrien Beach in Lanier County, in the September 24, 2022, River Alive cleanup.
![[Banners, trash, and people at Berrien Beach Boat Ramp and Berrien Beach, Alapaha River 2022-09-24]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-09-24--berrien-beach-cleanup-pictures/many.jpg)
Banners, trash, and people at Berrien Beach Boat Ramp and Berrien Beach, Alapaha River 2022-09-24
The most unusual item was cash. Most of the rest was water, beer bottles, and plastic bags. And the usual used diapers. Plus a bumper. Continue reading
Good news! Valdosta Engineering has added a net to the home-made Valdosta City trash trap in the Lee Street detention pond on One Mile Branch, upstream of Ashley Street, Drexel Park, VSU, Sugar Creek, and the Withlacoochee River.
Bobby McKenzie opened an issue in Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix smartphone app on September 11, 2022. Valdosta officials closeed it twice, but he persisted, reminding them that a year ago in July 2021, at the invitation of WWALS, trash trap company Osprey met with WWALS and Valdosta Stormwater Manager Angela Bray and then-City Engineer Pat Collins, presenting their Litter Gitter, which has a net in addition to a boom. Bobby also sketched the idea on an image of the current Lee St. trap.
Apparently current City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd got the picture, because yesterday Bobby sent a picture of that trash trap with a net on top of it.
Valdosta so far has not said in the Click ‘n’ Fix thread that they have done that, but I’m going ahead and announcing this good news.
Thank you, City Engineer Benjamin O’Dowd, for the net on Valdosta’s Lee Street detention pond trash trap!
And thanks to Bobby McKenzie for his persistence.
Yes, I know Continue reading
Floridians probably already know to be prepared for Hurricane Ian, which seems likely to run right up the Suwannee River. But even if it swerves around you, it’s wide and may affect you anyway.
Here is an emergency management report from Lowndes County, Georgia, around 80 miles inland from the Gulf. Even here, even if Ian goes east along the Atlantic coast, there may be significant rain and wind. And of course if Ian goes over the Okefenokee Swamp, water will come down the Suwannee River.
EMA Director Ashley Tye reported at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session Monday morning, September 26, 2022. For up-to-date reports, see the National Hurricane Center.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
Basically be ready by Wednesday evening. Could arrive anytime after that. Exact track still unknown.
-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/
Update 2023-11-09: GA-EPD Consent Order on Valdosta for One Mile Branch fish kill and sewage spills 2023-09-15.
Update 2022-10-01: Good Water Quality, Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2022-09-29.
Update 2022-10-01: Equipment next to One Mile Branch at VSU was put there by Valdosta to route around a sinkhole.
The City of Valdosta says “a fuel spill may be a contributing cause” of the One Mile Branch fish kill.
Meanwhile, WWALS finds E. coli counts too high even upstream of the fish kill, but more than doubling in the fish kill.
WWALS rescheduled our Chainsaw cleanup, which was supposed to be this morning, on the Withlacoochee River downstream from Sugar Creek, which is downstream of One Mile Branch.
I recommend everyone else also avoid One Mile Branch, Sugar Creek, and the Withlacoochee River from Sugar Creek at least down to the Little River Confluence, until there is some resolution of this fish kill, the high E. coli counts, and the alleged fuel spill.
Scotti Jay collected water samples Friday and Sara Jay plated them. The results are:
Drexel Park Bridge: 966 cfu/100 mL
One Mile Branch Waterfall: 1,100 cfu/100 mL
West Gordon Street: 2,566 cfu/100 mL
The Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (GA-AAS) one-time sample limit for E. coli is 410. The GA-AAS alert limit is 1,000. Continue reading
Rescheduled due to fish kill.
We need volunteers to pick up trash while a few people chainsaw some deadfalls.
We aim to collect the trashjams we didn’t have room for last time, and to chainsaw the remaining Withlacoochee River deadfalls between Sugar Creek and the Little River Confluence. Then we’ll paddle up the Little River to take out at Troupville Boat Ramp.
Unlike last time, we’re scheduling seven hours for the shuttle, for chainsawing and trash collecting, and for the four-mile paddle. With luck, nobody will get stuck this time.
All dependent on the weather, of course. Could be hurricane season finally by then, or could be plenty low to make this easy.
When: 9 AM to 4 PM, Sunday, October 16, 2022
Put In: Meet at the back of the Salty Snapper parking lot, 1405 Gornto Rd, Valdosta, GA 31602.
![[Trashjam, deadfall, chainsaws]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-09-25--chainsaw-withlacoochee/many.jpg)
Trashjam, deadfall, chainsaws,
2022-07-30; Photos: John S. Quarterman.
Update 2022-10-01: Good Water Quality, Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2022-09-29.
Update 2022-09-25: High E. coli near One Mile Branch fish kill, and maybe fuel spill 2022-09-23.
Thursday WWALS test results are very good. The most recent Valdosta test results from Valdosta are for Monday, and they are also good.
But Friday WWALS found a fish kill in One Mile Branch starting at Valdosta State University. That is upstream from Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River. Later today we should have some E. coli test results from One Mile Branch.
Ashburn had yet another sewage spill a week ago into Hat Creek upstream on the Alapaha River, and High Springs had a spill Thursday a week ago near the Santa Fe River. Both were so small they probably had no detectable effect on river water quality.
So I would swim, boat, and fish in the Withlacoochee River downstream from the Little River Confluence. But I would avoid the Withlacoochee River from there up to Sugar Creek. Continue reading
![[Flyer]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-10-22--boomerang/WWALS-Boomerang-Flyer-2022-0001.jpg)
![[Signs to Alapaha River]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-10-02--sasser-jennings-dead-alapaha/many.jpg)
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-09-29--wq/many.jpg)
![[Before and after]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-09-28--valdosta-trash-trap-net/many.jpg)
![[One Mile Branch sites]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-09-23--one-mile-branch-fish-kill-e-coli/many.jpg)
![[Chart, River, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-09-22--wq/many.jpg)