2022-06-17: WWALS Thursday tests clean, but Valdosta bad Wednesday results for US 41 and GA 122, Withlacoochee River 2022-06-16.
All tested clean: Little, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe Rivers, for Thursday. Sure, those were only a few test sites on each river. But there’s been little rain, none predicted, and no sewage spills reported. So happy swimming, boating, and fishing this weekend.
Thanks to Continue reading
Update 2022-06-11: Five Rivers Clean 2022-06-09.
Seventh week: all rivers clean! Happy swimming, fishing, and boating in the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers.
For example, tomorrow morning, Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2022-06-04.
Of course, there can be undetected local water quality problems (see below). But all the WWALS sites tested Thursday got clean results. While there is a prediction of rain today and tomorrow, if it’s like what we’ve been seeing, it will be light and won’t wash much contamination into the river. No sewage spills have been reported in Georgia or Florida in the past week. So have a good weekend.
The most recent results we have from Valdosta are for Wednesday upstream and Wednesday of last week downstream. Those were all clean, too.
But earlier contamination was detected in Valdosta results. Continue reading
Update 2022-06-03: Clean Rivers 2022-06-02.
All tested sites Thursday were clean on five rivers: Little, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Ichetucknee, and Santa Fe Rivers. No sewage spills have been reported in Georgia or Florida in the Suwannee River Basin for the last week. It hasn’t rained much, and no rain is predicted for the weekend.
So happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend!
The most recent results we have from Valdosta are for Monday upstream and Wednesday of last week downstream. Those were all clean, too. Continue reading
Update 2022-05-28: Clean All Rivers 2022-05-26.
Happy swimming, fishing, and boating on the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers this weekend.
There has been no rain and no sewage spills reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida. All WWALS sampling sites tested clean. No significant rain is predicted, so no cattle manure is likely to wash down Okapilco Creek, nor even much trash down Sugar Creek. So this is about as unqualified as we can get on a positive river quality report.
Thanks to Elizabeth Brunner for her 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
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
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
Update 2022-04-02: Surprisingly Clean Withlacoochee River 2022-04-01.
Swimming, fishing, boating, not recommended on the Withlacoochee River this weekend, due to E. coli tested by WWALS at Nankin and State Line Boat Ramps for Thursday. It may all wash away soon, or it may not.
Also note that after the previous weekend’s heavy rains, Valdosta tested high Fecal coliform upstream at US 41 and GA 133. Probably that will also show up in Valdosta Friday results when we get them. In between, Valdosta upstream results were OK, but then it rained hard Wednesday and Thursday. Continue reading
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