Years in the making by VLPRA, received in response to a WWALS open records request, this new Parks & Rec. Master Plan adds to the traditional team sports strategy new strategies including “STRATEGY 6: IMPROVE ACCESS AND AMENITIES TO THE COUNTY’S RIVERS,” involving land acquisition and for not just one but for a chain of river camps.
They incorporated all of WWALS Vision for water quality and access in Lowndes County, Georgia 2021-03-01. Continue reading
Update 2021-12-03: Good Withlacoochee River water quality except GA 133 2021-12-02.
The Withlacoochee still tested clean for Saturday. No rain is expected for the next ten days except possibly a bit on Friday. So the rivers will probably stay clean.
Have fun fishing, swimming, and boating this weekend and week.
Jacob and Michael Bachrach tested at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps Saturday, and got clean results at all three.
This confirms our clean report from Wednesday and Thursday WWALS test results.
Also, it’s great that people love our water trail signs, but please stop shooting at them, painting on them, and stealing them. They’re there to help people enjoy the rivers and keep them clean. Continue reading
Update 2021-11-21: Clean rivers still 2021-11-20.
Another clean week! Have fun fishing, swimming, and boating this weekend. Well, swimming if it warms up.
The most E. coli WWALS testers found was 200 cfu/100 mL for Thursday at Folsom Bridge Landing @ GA 122 on the Little River. That’s well below the 400 cfu/100 mL one-time sample limit. Thanks to Elizabeth Brunner for that location and for zeroes at Hagan Bridge Landing on the Withlacoochee River and Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River, both also on GA 122.
Valerie Folsom also got zero for Wednesday at Willacoochee Landing @ GA 135 on the Alapaha River.
Gus Cleary got a very low 33 for Wednesday at Cleary Bluff, downstream from Allen Ramp on the Withlacoochee River.
Thanks to the WWALS testers and to WWALS Testing Committee Chair Suzy Hall for herding the cats.
Valdosta’s Monday upstream results were also clean. Continue reading
Update 2021-11-20: Clean rivers again 2021-11-18.
As far as we know from the water quality results we have, happy swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend!
WWALS ran a skeleton crew this week, because there’s been no rain, and we did not expect any contamination. Didn’t find any, either. Valdosta’s results through Monday also were clean.
![[Chart + Folsom + Lakeland; Hagan, charts, Cleary Bluff; Map: Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-13--wq/many.jpg)
Chart + Folsom + Lakeland; Hagan, charts, Cleary Bluff; Map: Swim Guide
Are there any database programmers in the house? We have far too many manual steps collecting the numerous sources of water quality data and rainfall into the WWALS composite spreadsheet, and also over to Swim Guide and Georgia Adopt-A-Stream. We hear Valdosta suffers from the same delay in getting data into their online table. If anybody wants to help collect these sources from various formats, record them in a database, and pull them back out into various other formats, please contact us.
Or maybe you’d like to get trained to join our testing crew?
This week, Gus Cleary tested both Sunday and Wednesday at Cleary Bluff, downstream from Allen Ramp on the Withlacoochee River, and got good results each time. (Gus would like zero every time, but that’s not likely.)
Upstream, Elizabeth Brunner got clean results for Thursday on GA 122 at Folsom Bridge on the Little River, Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River, and Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River. Continue reading
Update 2021-11-13: Clean rivers 2021-11-13.
All pretty clean for Thursday and Wednesday samples on the Little, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers, but there were big rains Friday, so expect the same kind of contamination today and tomorrow that happened a week ago after similar rains. I’d wait a few days before boating, swimming, or fishing in the Withlacoochee River.
![[Chart, Folsom, Hagan; Lakeland, Cleary Bluff; Knights Ferry, Nankin, State Line; Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-04--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Folsom, Hagan; Lakeland, Cleary Bluff; Knights Ferry, Nankin, State Line; Swim Guide
None of the WWALS results for Thursday were zero, but they’re all well below the 410 cfu/100 mL one-time limit.
We have Valdosta downstream results through last Friday. Once again Valdosta results corroborate WWALS results. It’s interesting that last Thursday’s rain contamination had reached Nankin but not State Line by last Friday morning. The Valdosta Okapilco Creek results indicates much of that contamination is probably the usual cattle manure runoff coming out of Brooks County. It’s still lower than the results from last year under similar conditions, so whatever the cattle farmers are doing seems to be working, with room for more improvement. Continue reading
Update 2022-01-09: Pictures: Dead River Sink 2021-11-07.
Saturday is rain all day and cold, so we’re going for 2PM this Sunday, November 7, 2021, when it should be 60 degrees with zero percent chance of rain.
Join us for an approximately three-mile hike down the Dead River to the Dead River Sink, where the Alapaha River goes underground much of the year. We will be led by Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price of Hamilton County, Florida. He will explain the geology, and how unusual this place is: there’s nothing like it in Florida (or Georgia).
This is a hike: no boat is needed. (Also, SRWMD has made a road right to the Sink, if you don’t want to hike.)
Also, time permitting, on the way out we will park at Jennings Bluff Cemetery and look at the nearby Jennings Bluff Spring.
![[Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-07-10--hike-dead-river-sink/many.jpg)
Karst limestone cracks by the Alapaha River, Dead River, Sink, Dennis J. Price
When: Gather 2:00 PM, launch 2:15 PM, end 5:15 PM, Sunday, November 7, 2021
Put In: Jennings Bluff Launch. From Jennings, Hamilton County, FL, travel south on US 41 to NW 25 Lane; turn left; travel east to NW 82 Court and the entrance into the Suwannee River Water Management District’s Jennings Bluff tract; turn left and follow road to canoe launch.
GPS:
30.567183, -83.038911
You’re aiming for the Jennings Bluff Tract entrance. Continue reading
See the Alapaha River for yourself, in these 360-degree views, on Earthviews, taken in August 2021 by WWALS member Bobby McKenzie.
That’s 19.17 river miles, on August 10, 2021. Continue reading
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-21--wq/many.jpg)
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
Update 2021-10-22: All clean: Withlacoochee, Little, Alapaha Rivers 2021-10-21.
Something we’ve never seen: the only too-high result is on the Alapaha River for Thursday. We’ve never seen a reading at Lakeland Boat Ramp that high.
The Little and Withlacoochee Rivers tested good for Thursday, which is what we expected since there has been no rain for days.
So in the reverse of what we often say, avoid the Alapaha River and swim, fish, and paddle on the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers this weekend, according to the best data we have.
Still looking good for the WWALS Boomerang paddle race from Georgia into Florida and back, coming up in one week at State Line Boat Ramp.
![[Chart + Little + Alapaha River, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-14--wq/many.jpg)
Chart + Little + Alapaha River, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide
You can also see in the charts that Valdosta’s upstream results for last Friday showed extremely high Fecal coliform for US 41 (upstream from Valdosta), GA 133, and US 84, and way-too-high E. coli for GA 133. That somewhat helps explain why our plates for that Thursday (October 7th) for Knights Ferry Boat Ramp showed high background Fecal coliform colonies.
No, we don’t know what it is. There have been no sewage spills reported this past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia. Most likely it is some sort of manure runoff, this time coming from far upstream on the Withlacoochee River. Continue reading
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]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-10-07--wq/many.jpg)
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
![[Collage]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-31--vlpra-master-plan-full/many.jpg)
![[Chart, River, Swim Guide Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-20--wq/many.jpg)
![[Chart, River, Swim Guide Map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-11-18--wq/many.jpg)
![[Willacoochee Landing, overhanging branches, GA & FL RR, mile marker, beach, Lakeland Boat Ramp; ARWT map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2021-08-19--earthviews-alapaha-river/many.jpg)