Tag Archives: Hagan Bridge Landing

Construction materials dumped at Hagan Bridge, Withlacoochee River @ GA 122 2026-06-26

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Update 2026-06-29: Construction trash removed from under Hagan Bridge @ GA 122, Withlacoochee River 2026-06-29.

Update 2026-06-26: Lowndes County Code Enforcement says they have started an investigation and they’ll handle cleanup.

If the Withlacoochee River rises much more, all this trash could be swept downstream.

I don’t think we want antifreeze or plastic pipes or even random plywood and wood slats in the river.

[Construction materials dumped at Hagan Bridge, Withlacoochee River @ GA 122, First reported 2026-06-25]
Construction materials dumped at Hagan Bridge, Withlacoochee River @ GA 122, First reported 2026-06-25

So I have reported this trash dump to Lowndes County Code Enforcement so they can see if they can determine who put it there.

And also to Lowndes County Public Works, in hopes their litter crew can come collect it.

Remember, you can report trash, sewage spills, or anything else that could affect waterways:

https://wwals.net/report/

We were alerted to this trash by a post by Johnnie D Smith on June 25, 2026, in the facebook group Lowndes County, Georgia Voices.

 -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/

Continue reading →

Withlacoochee Trickle, Hagan Bridge Landing @ GA 122 2025-11-17

I went to see the Withlacoochee Trickle at Hagan Bridge Landing on GA 122 east of Hahira.

You could jump across it.

We need rain.

[Withlacoochee Trickle, Hagan Bridge Landing, 2025-11-17, GA 122 east of Hahira, Lowndes County, GA]
Withlacoochee Trickle, Hagan Bridge Landing, 2025-11-17, GA 122 east of Hahira, Lowndes County, GA

On the Skipper Bridge Gauge, the level was 122.52 feet NAVD88 (2.22 feet from bottom). Our recommended levels are Lowest boatable: 122.6′, Highest safe: 131′.

You could paddle through the trickle, but I doubt you’d get through much of the 5 river miles to Franklinville Landing without having to climb over or under or chainsaw through deadfalls from Hurricane Helene.

Here’s a video:

https://www.facebook.com/Wwalswatershed/videos/1175008301254844

https://youtu.be/G0ZZ95eZi4k Continue reading →

Pictures: Hahira Honeybee Parade 2023-10-07

Thanks to Cindy Vedas for paddling the Eddyline Sandpiper raffle kayak in the Hahira Honeybee Festival parade.

Raffle tickets are $100, and the winner will be drawn when 30 are taken.

[Cindy Vedas in kayak, Paddling, Train depot, WWALS booth @ Hahira Honeybee parade 2023-10-07]
Cindy Vedas in kayak, Paddling, Train depot, WWALS booth @ Hahira Honeybee parade 2023-10-07

Thanks to WWALS booth volunteers Kimberly Tanner, Jo Ford, Rindy Kennedy, Jan Powell, Gee Edwards, Michael Bachrach, and anybody else I have neglected to name.

Thanks especially to WWALS Executive Director Gretchen Quarterman for organizing the WWALS booth.

There are more pictures below.

See also Kimberly Tanner’s facebook video of the WWALS parade float from the WWALS booth, and the Friday pictures.

 -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/

Continue reading →

Pictures: Hahira Honeybee Friday 2023-10-06

Update 2023-10-09: Pictures: Hahira Honeybee Parade 2023-10-07.

More volunteers came later, to the Hahira Honeybee Festival.

[Booth, antique cars, Hahira City Manager, Hahira Honeybee Festival 2023]
Booth, antique cars, Hahira City Manager, Hahira Honeybee Festival 2023

Come see us today!

WWALS members can help at the booth.

And if you get there before noon, you can be in the parade! Continue reading →

Clean Rivers, filthy Sugar Creek 2023-10-05

The Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers all tested good for Thursday, October 5, 2023.

But Sugar Creek was way too high in E. coli. Is Valdosta still leaking sewage from that River Street spill?

Yet downstream at GA 133 the Withlacoochee River was good.

There has been no rain this week.

So happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

Except Langdale Park, which is still walk-in only.

[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-10-05]
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-10-05

If you want to get trained to be a WWALS water quality tester, please fill out the form:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084

The most recent Valdosta results we have are for Monday upstream (good) and the Friday five weeks ago, September 1st, downstream (not bad).

Valdosta’s last week upstream results corroborated what WWALS saw after last week’s rain.

In the last week, no new sewage spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

Thanks to Kimberly Tanner for testing the Alapaha River at Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach: both showed very little E. coli.

Thanks to Gretchen Quarterman for testing State Line and Nankin Boat Ramps and Folsom Bridge Landing @ GA 122 on the Little River.

Thanks to Heather Brasell for testing upstream on the Alapaha River last Saturday. Continue reading →

Mostly Clean Rivers 2023-09-28

Update 2023-09-30: Clean Alapaha River 2023-09-28.

The only place on the Withlacoochee River that tested bad for Thursday was the most stagnant location: Langdale Park Boat Ramp.

There was significant E. coli in the other locations, as well as in the Alapaha Little River at Troupville Boat Ramp, but none of the others were above the 410 cfu/100 mL one-time test limit.

There was rain Tuesday, but effects of that seem to have been mostly gone by Thursday.

So I’d avoid Langdale Park, which you can’t drive into anyway.

Other than that, happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-09-28]
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-09-28

If you want to get trained to be a WWALS water quality tester, please fill out the form:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084

The most recent Valdosta results we have are for Monday upstream (good) and the Friday four weeks ago, September 1st, downstream (not bad).

No new sewage spills were reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida in the past two weeks.

Thanks to Kimberly Tanner for testing the Alapaha River last week at Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach: both showed zero E. coli. Can’t get better than that. Continue reading →

WWALS at Hahira Honeybee Festival 2023-10-06-07

Update 2023-10-07: Pictures: Hahira Honeybee Friday 2023-10-06.

Join us with 30,000 of our closest friends at the Hahira Honeybee Festival.

WWALS members can help at the booth Friday and Saturday, and maybe be in the parade on Saturday!

[WWALS Booth and in parade at Hahira Honeybee 2022, and Honeybee Linemen 2023]
WWALS Booth and in parade at Hahira Honeybee 2022 and Honeybee Linemen 2023

That’s in Hahira, Georgia, population 3,384, between the Little River at Folsom Bridge and the Withlacoochee River at Hagan Bridge on the WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, which Hahira supports with a resolution. Continue reading →

Bill Gates did nothing to stop fertilizer nitrates leaching into springs and rivers –Suwannee Riverkeeper via NBC News 2021-06-08

Update 2022-09-14: Bill Gates responds on MSNBC to my criticisms of his farm policies 2022-09-13.

Update 2021-06-18: Bill Gates, farms, rivers, springs (Vox story).

The story doesn’t say BMAP, but it does get at the heart of the problem the Basin Management Action Plans don’t actually solve, and Bill Gates did not, either.

April Glaser, NBC News, 8 June 2021, updated 9 June 2021, McDonald’s french fries, carrots, onions: all of the foods that come from Bill Gates farmland: Gates does not appear to count his farming investments as the nation’s largest farmland owner as part of his broader strategy to save the climate.

The reporter had never heard of Riverkeepers before, and now here’s one on NBC News.

Algae bloom

But some farmers whose land is adjacent to that of the Gateses have expressed disappointment that despite the couple’s wealth, they have not done more to preserve the environment. Quarterman also serves as the Suwannee Riverkeeper and advocates for conservation of the intricate network of springs and rivers in the region, where water from the swamps of Georgia flow into Florida before they release into the Gulf of Mexico. He said that this is where large tracts of rich farmland is used to raise livestock and grow many of the vegetables that end up in grocery aisles up and down the East Coast.

[John Quarterman stands by the Withlacoochee River in Georgia. Matt Odom / for NBC News]
John Quarterman stands by the Withlacoochee River in Georgia. Matt Odom / for NBC News

All that farming has led to large water withdrawals from Florida’s aquifer system and requires fertilizer, which leaches through the ground into waterways, emptying nitrogen that has led to destructive algae blooms and severe loss of fish and marsh habitats.

In the video segment, she also mentions manatees.

He hoped Gates would have Continue reading →

Bad Friday and Saturday water quality results, Withlacoochee River 2020-07-11

Update 2020-07-14: Bad Friday and Saturday water quality results, Withlacoochee River 2020-07-11.

Not looking good downstream on the Withlacoochee River. Madison Health unusually tested on a Friday, and found too-high E. coli results at Florida 6, just above Madison Blue Spring: 414 cfu/100 mL. Saturday, WWALS results at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp were horrible: 5,233. Nankin Boat Ramp results were merely too high: 600. State Line Boat Ramp was within acceptable limits Saturday, but that contamination probably washed down that far by Sunday and well into Florida by this morning.

[Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide]
Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide

Thanks to WWALS testers Michael and Jacob Bachrach for collecting those downstream Withlacoochee River samples, and to Suzy Hall for providing the results. See also What do these numbers mean?

[Dirty Knights Ferry, Nankin, FL 6]
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/.

Friday Conn got 2,100 on Crooked Creek at Devane Road. Remember, Crooked Creek runs into Okapilco Creek downstream of US 84. That 2,100 is actually lower than many results we’ve seen at that location, and Crooked Creek has much less flow than Okapilco Creek. So that number is not enough to account for the 5,233 downstream of Okapilco Creek on the Withlacoochee River at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp the next day. Did it come from somewhere else, such as upstream on Okapilco Creek?

This map may help with understanding where all these places are.

[Landings, Suwannee River Basin, WWALS Map]
Landings in Suwannee River Basin, WWALS Map

However many places the E. coli came from, there is reason to believe that the most likely sources are cattle.

[Little River, Swim Guide]
Little River, Swim Guide

Meanwhile on Saturday, upstream WWALS testers Conn Cole and John S. Quarterman found good results on the Little River at GA 76 (Cook County Boat Ramp) and GA 122 (Folsom Bridge Landing), as well as at GA 122 on the Withlacoochee River (Hagan Bridge Landing). Friday Conn Cole aso got good results on Okapilco Creek at US 84.

Plus, Valdosta’s Friday results for US 41, GA 133, and US 84 are all good. Valdosta did get a high Fecal coliform result for US 41, but we go by E. coli. Thanks to Valdosta PIO Ashlyn Johnson for getting these Valdosta Friday results published this morning.

Back downstream, you don’t even have to count the blue-with-bubbles colonies to see Continue reading →

Hagan Bridge, Withlacoochee River 2020-03-26

The water was a bit high at the Withlacoochee River Hagan Bridge Landing, east of Hahira on GA 122.

[2020-03-15]
2020-03-15

On Sunday, March 15, the Skipper Bridge USGS Gauge showed about Continue reading →