Tag Archives: Lowndes County GA

Clean Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers; mostly clean Withlacoochee River 2025-10-09

Update 2025-10-18: Too much E. coli at the Watergoat, Sugar Creek 2025-10-10, Problematical Withlacoochee River 2025-10-16.

Update 2025-10-11: Plus Staten Road for Thursday.

WWALS testers found the Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers clean within the past seven days, and the Withlacoochee River mostly clean.

We don’t know about Sugar Creek, because Valdosta Utilities stopped testing after the state-required four weeks beyond a major spill.

GA-EPD finally added the gallons spilled in Valdosta’s big August sewage spills to its Sewage Spills Report. But no new sewage spills have been reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.

It’s supposed to be mostly sunny or sunny for the next ten days.

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

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

[Clean Ichetucknee and Santa Fe, Mostly clean Withlacoochee River, Unknown Sugar Creek, 2025-10-09]
Clean Ichetucknee and Santa Fe, Mostly clean Withlacoochee River, Unknown Sugar Creek, 2025-10-09

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, and Suwannee Rivers 2025-10-02

Update 2025-10-10: Clean Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers; mostly clean Withlacoochee River 2025-10-09.

WWALS testers found the Alapaha, Suwannee, and Santa Fe Rivers clean within the past seven days, and the Withlacoochee River clean upstream and downstream.

But according to Valdosta Utilities Sugar Creek was again filthy, and the Withlacoochee had too much E. coli downstream of Sugar Creek at GA 133. And One Mile Branch was above the 410 one-time-test limit at Wainwright Drive, but not downstream at West Gordon Street. There hasn’t been much rain. Are there still one or more undiscovered sewage leaks in the City of Valdosta?

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

Storms are predicted this weekend, but mostly in the afternoon.

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.

[Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers, Clean Withlacoochee up and down, Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-10-02]
Clean Alapaha, Santa Fe, and Suwannee Rivers, Clean Withlacoochee up and down, Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-10-02

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 →

Pictures: Suwannee River Camps on-land tour 2025-09-27

Many thanks to Edwin McCook, formerly of SRWMD, who invented the Suwannee River Camps, and Nic Brown, who is in charge of them at Florida Parks, as well as Shell Simmons for assisting.

Even more thanks to Lowndes County, Georgia, Chairman Bill Slaughter and Paul Batts of Valdosta-Lowndes County Parks and Recreation Authority (VLPRA) and his wife Melanie for attending.

[Suwannee River Camps, on-land tour 2025-09-27, Dowling Park River Camp, Adams Tract River Camp]
Suwannee River Camps, on-land tour 2025-09-27, Dowling Park River Camp, Adams Tract River Camp

The visitors got to hear from the experts how Florida does it. Many topics were discussed, from access to finances. 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 →

Seven years of sewage spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia 2025-08-14

Update 2025-08-15: Dirty Sugar Creek & Withlacoochee River @ US 84, 2025-08-13, Clean Alapaha River & Withlacoochee River, Upstream & Downstream 2025-08-13.

Who is the Georgia sewage spill winner?

Hint, it’s the most populous city in the Suwannee River Basin in either Georgia or Florida: Valdosta.

Details are below, in which you can see that the number of spills and the amount spilled have decreased, but Valdosta has a long way to go yet. As do less populous places, especially Ashburn, as well as Tifton, Quitman, and Rochelle.

[Seven years of sewage spills, Suwannee River Basin, GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, by WWALS 2025-08-14]
Seven years of sewage spills, Suwannee River Basin, GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, by WWALS 2025-08-14

I hope we will all hear what Valdosta is doing this evening, when the Florida Rivers Task Force meets with Valdosta at 6 PM, at Valdosta City Hall Annex, 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, GA 31601. https://wwals.net/?p=68173 Continue reading →

WCTV: Florida river task force to meet with Valdosta City Council about sewage spill concerns 2025-08-13

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

Michael Clark from WCTV interviewed me by zoom yesterday, and here’s the story. What he quoted that I said:

“This also matters upstream in Georgia, because, for example, Lowndes County, Georgia, is always trying to attract clean industry with the sorts of people who like to oh let me think, paddle, motor, swim, fish. And the Withlacoochee River goes right by Valdosta, so it’s not good for attracting the kinds of businesses and employees they want if there’s a problem with that river,” Quarterman said.

The meeting is 6 PM today at Valdosta City Hall Annex, 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, GA 31601.

It’s not a WWALS meeting, but WWALS invites the public to come.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2285600495227880/

[WCTV story]
WCTV story

WCTV Staff, WCTV, Aug. 13, 2025 at 10:40 PM EDT|Updated around midnight, Florida river task force to meet with Valdosta City Council about sewage spill concerns: Continue reading →

Pictures: Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-22

Update 2025-07-28: More chainsaw from Langdale Park, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-31.

Started in 100F heat index, finished in a rainstorm, but Phil Hubbard and I got passage cleared through three big deadfalls and a little one, and started on another.

More of these chainsaw cleanups. Join us next time!

[Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-22, 100F heat index, thunderstorm, Still got several deadfalls]
Langdale Park Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-07-22, 100F heat index, thunderstorm, Still got several deadfalls

The Withlacoochee River was too low to even get the WWALS jon boat in the water at Langdale Park Boat Ramp, where we rerouted to be upstream of the continued high E. coli in Sugar Creek.

Either outboard would have been of little use, anyway.

So we used one of the Suwannee Riverkeeper fleet of canoes. Thanks to Bob and Sue Raffaele, who donated the Old Town Camper canoe to WWALS 2021-05-29. And thanks to Dr. Dennis Marks for linking us up.

As the rain started to fall, Phil asked, how many miles did we get? Well, about a third of a mile. But we got more deadfalls cleared in that stretch than anybody else did.

While I was the one taking videos and Phil did indeed to most of the chainsaw work, I also chainsawed with two different saws.

Don’t worry: we left plenty of deadfalls for habitat. We cut passage, not everything out of the river.

We collected a bit of trash. Anybody who wants to collect more in this stretch can now get through to do so. And they can come along next chainsaw cleanup and pick up trash then.

Thanks to Wild Green Future for the grant that paid not only for the two outboard motors that we did not use this time, but also for the 86lb-thrust trolling motor and the LiFePO4 batteries that we did use to get back up the river quickly in the thunder and lightning. No pictures of that; we were busy trying to get to port. Continue reading →

Two Valdosta sewer projects from new municipal bonds, plus one from user fees @ VCC 2025-04-10

This should help Valdosta get ahead of sewer spills, maybe even fix sewer lines before they break. And maybe use competitive bids instead of sole-source emergency contracts.

Back at the April 10, 2025, Valdosta City Council meeting, two agenda items were for Professional Design Services Proposals financed from the recently-approved $67 million in municipal bonds. Both are related to the sewer line near Knights Creek that notoriously has spilled sewage multiple times.

Knights Creek runs into Mud Swamp Creek just below the Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (MCWTP) and on to the Alapahoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers.

[Two Valdosta sewer projects from new municipal bonds, plus one from user fees @ VCC 2025-04-10]
Two Valdosta sewer projects from new municipal bonds, plus one from user fees @ VCC 2025-04-10

That’s $485,010 for Continue reading →

Little River Deadfalls upstream from Morven Road 2025-04-26

Ken Lowe tried paddling up from Miller Bridge and found these deadfalls, presumably blown down by Hurricane Helene.

[Little River Deadfalls, upstream from Morven Road, towards Folsom Bridge, --Ken Lowe 2025-04-26]
Little River Deadfalls, upstream from Morven Road, towards Folsom Bridge, –Ken Lowe 2025-04-26

They start about 2/3 of a mile up, and the last one is about 1 1/4 mile up.

It’s only 3 1/4 miles all the way from the private Lawson Mill Pond Landing up to Folsom Bridge, so that’s more than a third of the way there. Most likely there are more deadfalls the rest of the way.

This is all west of Hahira, Georgia. The Little River here is the border between Brooks and Lowndes Counties, Georgia.

We’ll see about getting these deadfalls scheduled for a chainsaw cleanup. Continue reading →

Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2025-06-21

Update 2025-06-25: Pictures: Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2025-06-21.

Update 2025-06-20: It’s going to be hot, probably 92F in the afternoon with 100F or higher heat index. Bring lots of water. Even better, citrus juice. Wear a hat and long sleeves, or sunscreen. There will be springs to cool off in, but much of the time we’ll be paddling in the hot sun.

Join us to paddle by many springs and sinks in Madison and Hamilton Counties, Florida, on the Withlacoochee River, including first-magnitude Madison Blue Spring.

It’s not far, 5.39 river miles, but full of springs.

When: Gather 10 AM, launch 11 AM, moonrise 10:40 AM, sunset 8:34 PM, end 2 PM, Saturday, June 21, 2025

Put In: Florida Campsites Ramp, 2137 NW 47th St, Jasper, FL 32052, in Hamilton County, Florida.

GPS: 30.501128, -83.242411

[Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2025-06-21, Springs including Madison Blue]
Florida Campsites to Allen Ramp, Withlacoochee River 2025-06-21, Springs including Madison Blue

Continue reading →