Tag Archives: Lakeland Boat Ramp

Filthy Sugar Creek 2026-03-12

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Sugar Creek is filthy again, according to a WWALS sample of Thursday.

All the Withlacoochee River results we have are clean, but the most recent are from Monday, so we don’t know what conditions are like now.

The Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers tested clean for Thursday samples.

No new sewage spills have been reported this week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

So happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend, but I’d avoid the Withlacoochee River downstream from Sugar Creek.

Come join us today, Saturday, at the WWALS Booth at Azalea Festival 2026-03-14, in Drexel Park, on One Mile Branch, in Valdosta, Georgia.

This image is an illustration. Scroll down for the details.

[Filthy Sugar Creek, Clean Alapaha River 2026-03-12, Clean Santa Fe River, Withlacoochee unknown]
Filthy Sugar Creek, Clean Alapaha River 2026-03-12, Clean Santa Fe River, Withlacoochee unknown

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee Rivers 2026-01-28

Update 2026-02-03: High Springs sewage spill, Railroad Ave. near SE Douglas Street 2026-02-02.

WWALS got good river results on Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers for Wednesday, and on the Santa Fe River for Thursday.

Valdosta Utilities also got good E. coli results for the Withlacoochee for Wednesday.

We have no new creek test results.

No new sewage spills have been reported this week in Georgia or Florida. The Florida Pollution Notices map is even finally working!

So if you can it being really cold, and you can find a river with enough water, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

This image is an illustration. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee Rivers 2026-01-28, Very cold this weekend, But happy paddling!]
Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Withlacoochee Rivers 2026-01-28, Very cold this weekend, But happy paddling!

Alapaha River

Please welcome back WWALS tester Kimberly Godden Tanner. For Wednesday she a very good 33 cfu/100 mL at both Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach for Wednesday.

Santa Fe River

WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler for Thursday at Mills Dock, a bit upstream from Poe Springs Ramp, bot a quite clean 100, with 4.7 C air temperature and 17.0 C water temperature.

Withlacoochee River

Valdosta Utilities for Wednesday got 360 at GA 133 and 50 at US 84, both below the 410 one-time test limit.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall for Wednesday got a perfect zero (0) for State Line Boat Ramp, aka Mozell Spells.

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe Rivers; dirty Sugar Creek and One Mile Branch, filthy Hightower Creek 2025-12-04

Update 2025-12-13: Clean Rivers and Creeks, except Hightower Creek 2025-12-11.

The Withlacoochee River tested pretty clean this week, as did the Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers.

But One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek tested dirty, and Hightower Creek tested filthy.

It appears there is still some other source of sewage upstream of St. Augustine Road into Hightower Creek.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week for the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

The weather prediction for Saturday and Sunday is rain.

So if you can find a river with enough water, and you don’t mind cold and rain, happy paddling, motoring, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, & Santa Fe Rivers 2025-12-04, Dirty Sugar Creek & One Mile Branch, Filthy Hightower Creek]
Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, & Santa Fe Rivers 2025-12-04, Dirty Sugar Creek & One Mile Branch, Filthy Hightower Creek

Sugar Creek and its feeder creeks

We’re only seeing these creek results from Valdosta Utilities because they’re in the fourth week of the month 12 required testing after their November 2024 sewage spills. There won’t be any more tests in that series after this week.

https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/nov-2024-overflow-testing-results

Maybe it’s time for Valdosta to take up a more regular schedule for testing its creeks, as well as the Withlacoochee River both upstream and down. This would be to the advantage of the City of Valdosta, because such results help find sewage spills, and they also demonstrate when the creeks and rivers are clean, and when there are problems that are not Valdosta’s fault.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall got 566 cfu/100 mL E. coli at the WaterGoat on Sugar Creek, down near the Withlacoochee River. Which matches the 600 Valdosta Utilities got a bit upstream at Gornto Road. Both results are above the one-time 410 test limit.

Farther upstream, Continue reading →

Lakeland Boat Ramp, Alapaha River 2025-11-12

Yesterday on the way back from Waycross I looked at Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River.

[Lakeland Boat Ramp, Alapaha River 2025-11-12, Water very low, Lower than recommended]
Lakeland Boat Ramp, Alapaha River 2025-11-12, Water very low, Lower than recommended

The water level was 77.74 NAVD 88 or 1.64 feet from bottom. on the Statenville Gauge.

Our recommendations are Lowest boatable: 78.1; Highest safe: 85.1.

So if you want to paddle, I suspect you will spend some time dragging your boat.

If you have a motorboat, good luck getting the trailer submerged. Continue reading →

Clean Santa Fe and Alapaha Rivers and Withlacoochee Downstream; Problem Sugar Creek 2025-10-22

Update 2025-10-30: Clean Santa Fe, Alapaha, Withlacoochee Rivers; Sugar Creek mixed 2025-10-30.

WWALS got very clean results for the Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers for Thursday and Wednesday.

Also for Wednesday, a WWALS sample of Sugar Creek at the WaterGoat got lower results than Valdosta’s Tuesday upstream Sugar Creek samples.

I hear there was a water main break upstream on Hightower Creek. Maybe that or something else washed something into Sugar Creek and on out.

As noted yesterday, Valdosta will continue to test Sugar Creek for at least the next two weeks. And the Withlacoochee River for Tuesday both at US 41 (upstream from Sugar Creek) and at GA 133 (downstream).

No sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in the past week in Georgia or Florida.

It might rain Monday. Otherwise the long dry spell continues indefinitely.

So I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it. Other than that, happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean Alapaha River 2025-10-23, Clean Santa Fe River 2025-10-22, Clean Withlacoochee Downstream & Problem Sugar Creek 2025-10-21]
Clean Alapaha River 2025-10-23, Clean Santa Fe River 2025-10-22, Clean Withlacoochee Downstream & Problem Sugar Creek 2025-10-21

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Beatty Branch smelled like cattle manure, controversial Sugar Creek, clean Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers 2025-05-25

Update 2025-10-03: Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers 2025-10-02.

WWALS testers found the Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers clean this week.

Upstream of the Withlacoochee River, WWALS got surprisingly high E. coli results on Cat Creek and Beatty Branch for Thursday samples. Beatty Branch water at Cat Creek Road smelled like cattle manure. More tests will be necessary to see where that is coming from.

WWALS found Sugar Creek OK. But Valdosta once again got much higher results for Sugar Creek, Meanwhile, Valdosta and WWALS results upstream at US 41 and Langdale Park were pretty close together. And this week’s WWALS Sugar Creek results are similar to last week’s WWALS results. We’ve never seen this kind of discrepancy between Valdosta and WWALS results before.

Downstream on the Withlacoochee GA 133 was OK by Valdosta, which is strange considering Valdosta’s Sugar Creek results.

Valdosta had a tiny 2,000-gallon sewage spill onto dry land Monday at its Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). No other new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

Downstream from the WWTP at US 84 was OK by Valdosta. A WWALS test was even better farther downstream on the Withlacoochee River, near the Suwannee River.

There was no rain for a week before these samples, but it rained later Thursday, and more rain is predicted this weekend. So more contamination may wash into the waterways.

I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, But if you can beat the rain, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Beatty Branch smelled like cattle manure, controversial Sugar Creek 2025-05-25, clean Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers, Withlacoochee clean downstream]
Beatty Branch smelled like cattle manure, controversial Sugar Creek 2025-05-25, clean Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers, Withlacoochee clean downstream

Follow this link for the WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The image below is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2025-09-04

Update 2025-09-08: Clean Sugar Creek 2025-09-06.

Update 2025-09-07: Reorganized for intelligibility.

Water quality results from WWALS and Valdosta Utilities agree: the Withlacoochee River is clean again, upstream and down, as of Wednesday.

And WWALS tests say the Alapaha River is clean as of Thursday.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

No rain is predicted until Monday.

So happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

This image is an overview. Scroll down for the details.

[Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-09-03, Clean Alapaha River 2025-09-04]
Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-09-03, Clean Alapaha River 2025-09-04

Or join us inside tomorrow evening, 5-9 PM this Saturday, for a sit-down dinner with drinks and a silent auction in the WWALS River Revue and the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest, at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta, Georgia.

The WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SVezEtnmNw2-byIvfA2exUsK-3je9N5Iir5se2nPY1o/

The following image is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet.

[Chart: Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-09-03 and Alapaha River 2025-09-04]
Chart: Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-09-03 and Alapaha River 2025-09-04
For context, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing
Previous WWALS water quality reports are here:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/#results

The numbers in the chart boxes indicate E. coli levels as colony-forming units per 100 mililiters (cfu/100 mL), according to Georgia Adopt-A-Stream bacterial monitoring protocols:
Zero (0) is what we want to see, and often we do, on the Alapaha and upstream on the Suwannee Rivers.
From 1-125 is within long-term average limits according to U.S. EPA and Georgia and Florida state agencies.
From 126-409 long-term is not good, and is likely to make some people sick.
From 410-999 is likely to make some people sick; try not to get that water on you.
From 1,000 and up: high alert; best not to get close to that water without gloves; wash clothes afterward.

The letters before the numbers indicate the source of the datapoint, as in W100 means 100 cfu/100 mL found by a WWALS tester.

W: WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS), Suwannee Riverkeeper
V: Valdosta, GA
L: Lowndes County, GA
Q: Quitman, GA
SGRC: Southern Georgia Regional Commission
SRWMD: Suwannee River Water Management District
FDOH: Florida Department of Health
FDEP: Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Rain: From USGS and UGA and other gauges.

Withlacoochee River

WWALS tester Cindy Vedas got Continue reading →

Dirty Sugar Creek & Withlacoochee River @ US 84, 2025-08-13, Clean Alapaha River & Withlacoochee River, Upstream & Downstream 2025-08-14

Update 2025-08-22: Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-08-21.

Update 2025-08-18: Videos: Florida River Task Force and City of Valdosta City Council Joint Workshop 2025-08-14.

Sugar Creek still tested bad for E. coli Wednesday, but not as bad as last week. The Withlacoochee River was bad at US 84, but OK at US 41 and upstream, and downstream near the Suwannee River.

The Alapaha River tested clean for Thursday.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

There’s a chance of storms through Monday, but mostly in the afternoon.

So if you can get in and out before the rains, avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, and happy swimming, fishing, paddling, and boating this weekend.

[Dirty Sugar Creek & Withlacoochee River @ US 84, 2025-08-13, Clean Alapaha River & Withlacoochee River, Upstream & Downstream 2025-08-14]
Dirty Sugar Creek & Withlacoochee River @ US 84, 2025-08-13, Clean Alapaha River & Withlacoochee River, Upstream & Downstream 2025-08-14

Or join us tomorrow (Saturday) upstream from Valdosta in Lowndes County, Georgia, for Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16.

Withlacoochee River upstream

Continue reading →

Filthy Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River dirty upstream but clean downstream, clean Alapaha River 2025-07-17

Update 2025-07-25: Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River after rain 2025-07-23.

Best to stay away from Sugar Creek, and the Withlacoochee River near it, although downstream near the Suwannee River the Withlacoochee tested clean.

The Alapaha River tested clean.

As noted yesterday, the Valdosta Sugar Creek sewage spill finally showed up yesterday in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report. That was the only sewage spill reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, and no new sewage spills were reported in the past week in Florida.

No rain is predicted for this weekend, so avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River upstream, and happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing.

[Filthy Sugar Creek, Clean Alapaha River 2025-07-17, Withlacoochee River dirty upstream, but clean downstream]
Filthy Sugar Creek, Clean Alapaha River 2025-07-17, Withlacoochee River dirty upstream, but clean downstream

Depending on water levels and river contamination, join us Tuesday for Chainsaw again upstream from Troupville towards Sugar Creek, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-22.
https://wwals.net/?p=67969

Those interested in Sugar Creek or sewage spills, come to Florida River Task Force meeting with Valdosta City Council 2025-07-30.
https://wwals.net/?p=67990

Alapaha River

WWALS tester Kimberly Godden Tanner tested her usual two Alapaha River sites at Lakeland Boat Ramp on GA 122 and Naylor Park Beach at US 84, and got zero (0) E. coli for both.

“Both sites looked great,” she said.

Sugar Creek

Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-06-19

Update 2025-06-27: Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-06-26.

WWALS and Valdosta Utilities got good E. coli results on the Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers.

We don’t know about Sugar Creek; nobody tested that this week.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

There’s some chance of rain for the next four days.

Since these recent tests were after previous rains, apparently we’re past first flush. That means whatever was in the woods has washed out now, so more rain may not cause much contamination.

So as near as we can tell, happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend, if you can beat the rain!

[Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-06-19, Happy swimming, paddling, boating, and fishing]
Clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers 2025-06-19, Happy swimming, paddling, boating, and fishing

Maybe join us tomorrow for spring hopping, Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2025-06-21.
https://wwals.net/?p=67572 Continue reading →