Tag Archives: Johnson Road

Retrieving PFAS samplers, Mud Swamp Creek 2024-10-29, Withlacoochee River 2024-11-23

Update 2024-11-30: Bad Sugar Creek, clean Withlacoochee River 2024-11-26.

Hurricane Helene destroyed three out of four PFAS samplers, and kept us from retrieving the fourth until long after time.

[Hurricane Helene demolished PFAS samplers, Withlacoochee River 2024-11-23, Mud Swamp Creek 2024-10-29]
Hurricane Helene demolished PFAS samplers, Withlacoochee River 2024-11-23, Mud Swamp Creek 2024-10-29

Back on September 14 and 15 we deployed four PFAS samplers, upstream and downstream from two wastewater treatment plants, on the Withlacoochee River and on Mud Swamp Creek.

These are a new design that you leave in the flowing water for 28 days thereabouts, then retrieve, and effectively they were taking a sample a day.

But then came Hurricane Helene.

Thanks to Gee Edwards and Phil Royce for helping on the Withlacoochee River Saturday, after the chainsaw cleanup. Especially thanks to Phil for the tow back when the 9.9 hp outboard quit. We’ll investigate what is its problem this time.

We put the upstream sampler slightly up from Valdosta’s Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) Outfall.

That was the only one we actually could retrieve. Continue reading →

PFAS Sampling Deployment, Withlacoochee River 2024-09-14, Mud Swamp Creek 2024-09-15

Update 2024-11-27: Retrieving PFAS samplers, Withlacoochee River 2024-11-23.

This weekend we deployed four PFAS samplers, upstream and downstream from two wastewater treatment plants, on the Withlacoochee River and on Mud Swamp Creek.

These are a new design that you leave in the flowing water for 28 days thereabouts, then retrieve, and effectively they’ve been taking a sample a day.

If you encounter them, please leave them be.

[PFAS Sampling Deployment, Waterkeeper Alliance Program, Withlacoochee River 2024-09-14, Mud Swamp Creek 2024-09-15]
PFAS Sampling Deployment, Waterkeeper Alliance Program, Withlacoochee River 2024-09-14, Mud Swamp Creek 2024-09-15

Continue reading →

Four weeks of fecal coliform 2018-10-09 2018-09-19 to 2018-10-09

This is why we alway say “as near as we can tell” or “according to the latest data” or words to that effect. The last data we had last week said fecal coliform at GA 133 on the Little River was below the state limit. But the actual most recent data, from last Tuesday, just received today, shows 610, which is three times the state limit of 200 cfu per 100 mililiters.

Graph, Withlacoochee Basin

Meanwhile, on the Withlacoochee River, the count went up at US 41 and down at GA 133, with both still well above the state limit. But downstream of Valdosta and its Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WTP), at US 84 and at Horn Bridge at the GA-FL line, counts that were already within the limit Continue reading →

Valdosta water quality testing data 2018-09-12

Here is most of a year’s river water quality testing data from the city of Valdosta, on a Water Reporter map:

Valdosta stations, Map

Click on any of the colored diamonds for graphs. Scroll right to see more graphs. Click on any graph to see every datapoint. Clearly fecal coliform (FCOLI) and E. coli (ECOLI) have significant spikes way beyond the Georgia state limit of 200 cfu/100 ml.

However, as we already saw on the spill followup data map, often, even usually, FCOLI and ECOLI are just as bad or worse upstream Continue reading →

Followup water quality data after big Valdosta 2018 spills 2018-09-21

Here is (at least some of) the water quality testing data Valdosta was required to collect after its major spills of June in the Withlacoochee River basin and August in the Alapaha River basin. Maybe Valdosta is right that neither of these spills got into waterways, but something sure did, according to this data. Curiously, in both cases the worst fecal coliform readings were upstream from the spill location.

Mud Creek WTP after the 13 August 2018 spill

Below at Johnson Road, Mud Creek WTP
Downstream at Johnson Road on Mud Creek from the Mud Creek WTP after the August spill

There’s only one datapoint (the yellow dot) on that graph below the Georgia safe limit for fecal coliform of 200 colony forming units per 100 milliliters of water (cfu/100 ml). You’d think it would be better upstream, right? Continue reading →