Valdosta has fallen down to only monthly water quality testing, instead of their former weekly schedule.
They’ve also dropped their two state line stations, so the GA-FL Line trace on this graph ends in December 2018.
Readings have risen since their January sampling, with Valdosta’s US 84 sampling station above the Georgia state limit at 265 cfu/100 ml of E. coli. Continue reading
Update 2019-01-25: Added an HTML table of all spills in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia since the beginning of 2015.
WWALS Science Committee Chair Tom Potter made this committee report to the WWALS Quarterly Board Meeting of January 2019:
The Science Committee has focused on monitoring sewage spills from Municipalities in the region. The primary data is the online database provide by the GA EPD. The agency regularly compiles spill volume, date, and, location across the state and posts the information on-line.
WWALS played a central role in convincing EPD to provide this data in a timely manner and has regularly posted spill data on the WWALS website, wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills/. This a substantial improvement over prior reporting systems and is contributing to timely reporting of conditions that may adversely impact water quality and recreational uses of streams and rivers.
The following graph summarizes reported spill data in Quitman, Tifton and Valdosta and Continue reading
Three weeks in a row! The Valdosta river water quality testing data WWALS obtains through a weekly open records request shows all stations tested below the Georgia state limit last Wednesday.
However, like the week before, there are no data for Continue reading
There’s good news in response to the weekly open records request from WWALS to Valdosta: all stations reporting are well within the Georgia state limit for bacterial levels. There’s also some puzzling news.
The puzzling news is that Continue reading
The irony: Valdosta’s warning sign is still up at Troupville Boat Ramp after its six spills weekend before last, yet Valdosta’s own weekly water quality testing stations almost all measured below the state limits for Fecal coliform and E. coli.
The exception was at Continue reading
Not just Valdosta: Tifton spilled two places, and Quitman one, in the most recent rains. Those cities were not in the data available online from GA-EPD yesterday, but they are in the online data today.
But Valdosta spilled the most sewage and from the most locations: six places, not just the one Valdosta told the public. Plus we finally have a total for the previous WWTP spill, and all the others from the beginning of December, and those totals are not pretty.
Photo: Julie Bowland, of Valdosta sewage spill sign at Troupville Boat Ramp, 21 December 2018.
That Valdosta sewage spill sign is stuck loosely into a hole WWALS dug to plant our Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) signs, which someone has yet again pulled up and thrown into the river, but I digress….
First let’s look at the city people in Florida ignore: Tifton, Georgia, the second largest city in the Suwannee River Basin (that’s right: in both Georgia and Florida). Tifton had Continue reading
Update 2021-09-11:
New URL for GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report:
https://epd.georgia.gov/watershed-protection-branch/sewage-spills-report
Well, this is a welcome Christmas present, GA-EPD!
Online posting of the statewide Georgia spreadsheet of sewage spills:
https://epd.georgia.gov/sewage-spills-report
Sewage Spills Report
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) provides information on municipal and industrial sewage spills reported to EPD. The list covers the most recent 30-day period and is updated each business day.
Note: A “zero” in the quantity field indicates Continue reading
Bacterial levels at all stations Valdosta tests dropped this week, according to the Wednesday 12 Dec 2018 test results returned for a WWALS open records request.
The only station above the 200 cfu/100 ml Fecal coliform limit was at Continue reading
Another mysterious rise of bacterial counts at Horn Bridge, at Mozell Spells, near State Line Ramp, Withlacoochee River, in the latest data from Valdosta, from Wednesday, December 5, 2018, obtained as usual through open records request.
The Alapahoochee River at the GA-FL line measured ten times the EPA limit on Fecal coliform again this Wednesday, November 28, 2018.
It does not seem to be coming downriver from Valdosta. Continue reading