Two WWALS testers got very bad results for Friday on Sugar Creek in Valdosta and for Holly point on the Withlacoochee River down near the Suwannee.
Best to avoid the Withlacoochee River for a few more days at least, because of E. coli. Also, the Withlacoochee and the Alapaha are in Action Stage, so too high anyway.
Better luck with the Suwannee or Santa Fe Rivers, or the Ichetucknee if any park entrances are open there.
Remember, many parks and put-ins remain closed after Hurricane Helene. So check before you go.
Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River 2024-11-08 Ongoing spills in Valdosta after flash flood
The good news: very little more rain has fallen since the Wednesday flash flood.
The bad news: still no report of the remaining sewage spills stopping, and still no sewage spill warning signs in Valdosta.
Chart: Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River 2024-11-08
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 ProtectionRain: From USGS and UGA and other gauges.
One of the ongoing sewage spill sites is at the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant, so bad news.
The other ongoing is at Wainwright Drive on One Mile Branch, site of numerous previous spills, now with two (2) manholes spewing sewage. Scotti Jay wrote yesterday, “No signs at Wainright or Baytree as of 3:30 pm.”
Map: Wainwright Drive Manhole, One Mile Branch
in the WWALS
map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.
One Mile Branch is upstream from Sugar Creek, where WWALS tester Suzy Hall reports for her Friday sample, “As suspected based on some visual observations of covered manhole(s) and presumably bubbling pipes along with Sara and Scotti’s observations nearby, I present to you a not surprising example of TNTC. Gross.”
Plates, Sugar Creek 2024-11-07
TNTC is Too Numerous to Count. That usually means higher than 5,000 cfu/100 mL, where 1,000 is the alert limit.
Sugar Creek @ Withlacoochee River 2024-11-07
We may get more precise numbers from Valdosta when they start posting their required test results after a major spill.
Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River 2024-11-07
Russ Tatum reported for Holly Point on the Withlacoochee River, downstream from Allen Ramp, near the Suwannee River.
Map: Holly Point, Withlacoochee River,
in the WWALS
map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.
He got 12 + 12 + 7 = 31 / 3 = 10.3 * 100 = 1,033 cfu/100mL, “The River has come up about 4 feet and looks nasty in the bucket! Cloudy and beige colored. Hoping it moves through quickly. I have another sample today in the incubator.”
Plates, Holly Point, Withlacoochee River 2024-11-08
This contamination and flooding was largely caused by the foot of rain on Valdosta from the fringe of Hurricane Rafael.
Map: CoCoRAHS Lowndes, Lanier Counties 2024-11-07
That massive amount of rain water still has the Withlacoochee River in Action Stage, and the Alapaha River at Statenville in Action Stage.
Map: NOAA River Gauges 2024-11-10
in the
National Water Prediction Service.
Water quality testing training and funding
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.
-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/