It was a ten!
It was a fine spring day for thirteen miles on the Alapaha River from Mayday to Statenville. Cypress, oaks, pines, tea-colored water, and a sandy lunch spot.
See it in these pictures by Gretchen Quarterman.
The water level was about 9 feet or 85.1′ NAVD88 on the Statenville Gauge. That’s higher than our old recommended maximum, so we’re raising the max to 10 feet (86.1′ NAVD88). Continue reading
Update 2022-05-13: Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha, Ichetucknee, Santa Fe all clean 2022-05-12.
Another clean river week! All the WWALS test results for Thursday and Wednesday are good.
It did just rain cats and dogs, but only briefly. We can’t know yet, but my guess is there wasn’t enough rain to wash much contamination into the rivers, not even down Okapilco Creek. I would paddle this weekend, or swim, or fish.
If you’re not doing that, come on down to the Salty Snapper for the WWALS Withlacoochee River cleanup. Continue reading
Update 2022-05-06: Clean Rivers 2022-05-05.
Happy swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend!
Come on down to Reed Bingham State Park tomorrow for the BIG Little River Paddle Race.
All the WWALS results for Wednesday and Thursday and the Valdosta results up to Monday agree: all the tested locations are clean of E. coli. No sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida, and no rain is predicted. Continue reading
Update 2022-04-28: Clean rivers again 2022-04-28.
Happy Earth Day, and good swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend!
All the test results we have are fine for this weekend. There have been no new sewage spills reported in Georgia or Florida. And no rain is predicted for a week.
All the WWALS test results for Wednesday and Thursday were well down in clean green levels.
The most recent results we have from Valdosta are for Monday. They got too high on Okapilco Creek after the Sunday rains (presumably the usual cattle manure). But Valdosta got OK results downstream on the Withlacoochee River for Monday.
Valdosta’s Friday results corroborate what we reported last time. Continue reading
Come to the Gaskins Forest Education Center near Alapaha, Georgia, for an education opportunity about the piney woods and WWALS and the Alapaha River Water Trail.
When: Setup 12 PM, festival starts 1 PM, ends 5 PM, Saturday, April 23, 2022
Put In: Gaskins Forest Education Center, 3359 Moore Sawmill Rd., Alapaha, Georgia 31622.
Free: This event is free.
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
Event: facebook
![[Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman from 2018 festival]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-23--day-in-the-woods/many.jpg)
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman from 2018 festival
Update 2022-04-22: Clean Rivers 2022-04-21.
Due to little rain, the Withlacoochee, Little, and Alapaha Rivers tested clean for last week. There has been significant rain since then, so conditions may have changed. As in E. coli may have washed down Okapilco Creek from cattle manure or from other creeks from other sources. There have been no new sewage spill reports for Georgia or Florida for the Suwannee River Basin.
Apologies for the late WWALS test results report. There were communication confusions during the holiday weekend.
Thanks to Elizabeth Brunner for testing her usual three GA 122 sites Thursday, at Folsom Bridge on the Little River, Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River, and Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River. Thanks to Gus Cleary for testing Wednesday his usual Cleary’s Bluff below Allen Ramp on the Withlacoochee River. And thanks to Sara and Scotti Jay for testing the Withlacoochee River Friday at Spook Bridge, Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps.
The most recent data we have from Valdosta is from last Monday upstream and Friday a week ago downstream. The Valdosta data for week before last corroborates our previous WWALS report. Continue reading
Update 2022-04-15: Clean Rivers 2022-04-15.
Best to avoid the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers this weekend. In very unusual results, all three were too high in E. coli at GA 122, and the Withlacoochee was way too high at Nankin Boat Ramp.
The Ichetucknee tested clean for Tuesday at TREPO’s Hodor Park.
You might try lakes that are not downstream from likely rivers, such as Banks Lake and Grassy Pond, and maybe Reed Bingham State Park, but we have no data on those lakes.
In good news, no sewage spills have been reported in Georgia or Florida. Of course, certain cities (Quitman, Ashburn) almost always report a week or more late, so stay tuned on that.
The most recent data we have from Valdosta is for Monday upstream, which was before the Wednesday and Thursday rains. So WWALS data is what we have to go on, and the WWALS results are pretty bad. Continue reading
This was a nice, short, one-mile paddle on the Alapaha River from Hotchkiss Road Landing beyond US 84, past the then-future site of Naylor Boat Ramp. All on the Alapaha River Water Trail (ARWT). Thanks to Chris Graham for leading this paddle.
![[Hotchkiss Road Landing, Shoals, Naylor Beach, US 84 bridge, Alapaha River]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2014-08-24--alapaha/many.jpg)
Hotchkiss Road Landing, Shoals, Naylor Beach, US 84 bridge, Alapaha River
Update 2022-05-12: Pictures: Pafford’s Landing cleanup 2022-04-16.
Join us for a cleanup at the white sand beach of Pafford’s Landing on the Alapaha River east of Lakeland, Georgia. This is one of the WWALS events celebrating Earth Day 2022.
When: Gather 9 AM, end 12 PM, Saturday, April 16, 2022
Put In: Pafford’s Landing, east of Lakeland, GA, on the south side of GA 122 and GA 37, into the woods, on the right bank (west side) of the Alapaha River, in Lanier County, on the WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail.
Bring: Cleanup materials will be provided, but if you’ve got a trash picker, bring it along. No boat is required, but if you want to bring one, you can use it.
Free: This outing is free to everyone!
We recommend you support the work of WWALS by
becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join
![[Pafford's Landing ARWT signs, beach with view of bridge]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-16--cleanup-paffords-landing/many.jpg)
Pafford’s Landing ARWT signs, beach with view of bridge.
Update 2022-04-06: Location of Quitman sewage spill 2022-03-20.
Surprisingly after significant rain, all tested locations were pretty clean, including Nankin and State Line Boat Ramps on the Withlacoochee River. So as far as we know, this weekend is good for boating, fishing, and swimming. Me, I’d prefer the Alapaha over the Withlacoochee this weekend.
Oh, last Tuesday Quitman got around to reporting a sewage spill that happened nine days later. It’s long gone now.
Tests Wednesday downstream by WWALS and upstream by Valdosta were pretty clean. Samples Thursday upstream by WWALS were pretty clean. And samples Friday at Nankin and State Line Boat Ramps were also pretty clean. All were below the 126 cfu/100 mL E. coli average sample limit.
We also saw four Wednesday samples by the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), at Reedy Creek and Cow Creek on GA 129 (both enter the Alapaha River downstream from US 84 and Naylor Boat Ramp), and J. Frank Culpepper Road and GA 135 on the Alapahoochee River (which enters the Alapaha River downstream from Statenville Boat Ramp and slightly upstream of Sasser Landing @ CR 150 in Hamilton County, Florida. All those were well below 126, as well. Continue reading
![[Collage]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/gretchen/2019-03-23--wwals-alapaha-mayday/many.jpg)
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-05-05--wq/many.jpg)
![[Chart, rivers, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-28--wq/many.jpg)
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-21--wq/many.jpg)
![[Chart, River, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-15--wq/many.jpg)
![[Chart, rivers, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-07--wq/many.jpg)
![[Chart, river, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-04-01--wq/many.jpg)