Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west.
You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee.
Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer. Continue reading
2020-07-15: Lifted: Florida Withlacoochee River Bacterial Advisory 2020-07-15
WCTV covered the recent bad water quality results in the Withlacoochee River.
We have no new Withlacoochee River data from Georgia or Florida.
Update 2020-07-14 11:30 AM: Valdosta has updated with Friday downstream results: Knights Ferry, 270 cfu/100 mL E. coli; Nankin, 250; State Line, 280. FDEP just updated at 10:57 AM with these much better Monday results: GA 31, 10; CR 150, 20; FL 6, 60. So maybe those WWALS Saturday bad results at Knights Ferry and Nankin already washed downstream.
But we do have a datapoint on the Alapaha River.
![[Naylor Beach, 2020:01:11 14:06:32, 30.9253083, -83.0384972]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2020-06-13--naylor-outback/naylor-beach.jpg)
Photo: Tasha Ekman LaFace, of Naylor Beach, 2020:01:11 14:06:32, 30.9253083, -83.0384972
Amber Spradley, WCTV, 13 July 2020, Withlacoochee River contaminated in parts of South Georgia and North Florida,
VALDOSTA, Ga. (WCTV)—The Florida Health Department issued an advisory last Friday for parts of North Florida near the Withlacoochee River regarding alarming rates of E. coli.
“Right now, the results are not good,” Suwannee [Riverkeeper] John [S.] Quarterman said.
For counts of E. coli, Quarterman says anything less than 410 is okay, but zero is always ideal.
On Saturday, his team discovered numbers as high as 5,233 just west of Clyattville at the Knights Ferry Boat Ramp in Lowndes County.
“Every time this happens, they immediately point and say it’s Valdosta,” Quarterman said. “Well, this time it’s almost certainly not Valdosta.”
The high data was collected just below the city from Knights Ferry Boat Ramp to Madison Blue Spring in Florida.
“You know it’s something that we’re continuing to keep an eye on, but as far as the numbers around the city of Valdosta, those have all stayed relatively low,” the City of Valdosta’s PIO Ashlyn Johnson said.
City crews test the river three times a week for 40 river miles down to the Georgia-Florida line. Since Valdosta’s major sewage spill last December, they’ve seen no alarming contamination rates in the area.
Well, they found nothing alarming Friday down to US 84, but we haven’t yet seen Valdosta’s results for the lower three stations on the Withlacoochee River, and they certainly have seen alarming contamination previously.
![[Dirty Knights Ferry, Nankin, FL 6]](/pictures/2020-07-11--wq/2020-07-05-11--dirtydown.jpg)
Dirty Knights Ferry, Nankin, FL 6
For the complete WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida results and other context, see
wwals.net/issues/testing/.
The rest of the article is about the 7.26 million gallon catch basin at the entrance of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Continue reading
A rare spring in Lowndes County, Georgia. Passing by during #PaddleGA2019, I took these pictures.
Continue readingUpdate 2019-06-08: Reroute due to lack of rain.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hahira, GA, February 13, 2019 — From next to the largest Suwannee River Basin city, Valdosta, to between some of the smallest, Mayo and Luraville, Paddle Georgia brings 300 people this summer to venture for the first time across the state line from Georgia to Florida, on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Suwannee Rivers, June 15 through 21, 2019.
WWALS Withlacoochee River outing 2017-06-24
“Five years ago I suggested our Withlacoochee River to Joe Cook for Paddle Georgia, and he went one better, adding the Suwannee River, past two of the few second-magnitude springs in Georgia, McIntyre and Arnold, and two of the famous first-magnitude Florida Springs: Madison Blue and Lafayette,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman. “Plus Spook Bridge and the orphaned railroad trestle near Madison, with many shoals and rapids at the GA-FL line! Special thanks to The Langdale Company for permission to take out just below Spook Bridge. Personally, I like that this paddle starts at my birthplace in Valdosta, Georgia and ends at my grandmother’s birthplace at the ferry site for Luraville, Florida.”
This event is organized by Paddle Georgia, with catered dinners and buses to and from the rivers. WWALS is assisting, for example by organizing the Spook Bridge takeout, and by pointing out many sites that non-locals might miss, ranging from springs, and Withlacoochee River agates, and the halberd-leaf rosemallow, whose blooms last only one day, to perpetual bothers such as Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Continue reading
Update 2023-12-28: Revised version..
Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west. You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee. Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer.
Irwin County, 1885a, GeorgiaInfo, Rand McNally Map of Georgia, 1885
Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1889, Pg 12., quoted in Ray City History Blog, 18 October 2010, More About Troupville, GA and the Withlacoochee River,
THE WITHLACOOCHEE RIVER.
VALDOSTA, Ga., January 19. -[Special.]- Away up near the northern limit of the great wiregrass section there is a big cypress swamp. They call them bays there. From this bay emerges Continue reading
Aaron Sirmons sent these pictures. He was tipped off by Guy Bryant.
Apparently the church used to use the spring for baptisms. Continue reading
Sabal Trail’s 100-foot gouge makes the old pipeline right of way look like nothing, across Lowndes County, Georgia; pictures
by John S. Quarterman for WWALS on 12 December 2016,
with
videos
and
a
google map.
Troy Access signs start on Nankin Road shortly after you come up from Florida.
Rocky Ford Road is the most obvious pipeline crossing. You can see all the way to it from Barrett Coody Road. Continue reading
The Lowndes County Commission is voting tonight on an easement for the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline through a mercury-contaminated closed landfill.
They only gave one day’s notice, and they didn’t mention the landfill.
Here is the letter (PDF) I just sent them asking them to reject that easement,
to support their own previous unanimous resolution against Sabal Trail,
and to contact state and federal elected and appointed officials and ask them
also to reject Sabal Trail.
You can write them, too, to commissioner@lowndescounty.com.
To: Lowndes County Board of County Commissioners, Continue reading
The invading pipeline would pass within about one mile of Clyattville Elementary School
where it would cross
Clyatt Mill Creek and then Railroad Avenue, at about
30.680638, -83.326501.
This would be after crossing the Withlacoochee River from Brooks into Lowndes Counties just north of US 84, and before crossing Jumping Gulley Creek and the state line into Hamilton County Florida, where the hearing was held in Jennings for WWALS v. Sabal Trail & FDEP.
You can see the general route in the Cover Map. After crossing the Withlacoochee River, Sabal Trail would cross Martin Lane and Tiger Creek, then Continue reading
![[Withlacoochee River labeled Suwanee R. in 1823 Irwin and 1834 Lowndes County maps; current WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/1889-01-29--troupville/many.jpg)
![[Reflections]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2019-06-16--mt-zion-methodist-church-spring/20190616_112644.jpg)
