Suddenly, all the fecal coliform readings are down. Was there a first flush from the rain on November 14 that caused the high readings of that day, and all that washed down the rivers within a week?
At US 41 (North Valdosta Road), the Withlacoochee River was actually in minor flood several of the intervening days, according to the USGS US 41 (Valdosta) Gauge. Continue reading
Twenty five times the state limit for Fecal coliform could be a problem. What got into the Alapahoochee River last week?
If you want to help find out what’s getting into our rivers, you can Continue reading
Was there rain Wednesday? That might explain the sudden spikes at US 41 on the Withlacoochee River, at GA 133 on the Little River, and at State Line on the Withlacoochee River. We can guess that the rains Thursday and Friday (today) have washed away whatever that very odd spike was at the state line.
Thanks to Valdosta Utilities and Valdosta City Clerk Teresa Bolden for sending this Wednesday’s Valdosta water quality testing data before the end of Friday. For more contact, see https://wwals.net/issues/vww/.
It’s a very odd spike, because Continue reading
Valdosta’s bacterial counts are always low at State Line Ramp (Mozell Spells), where we moved the WWALS Boomerang paddle race from Georgia to Florida and back.
Things were generally better last week in the Withlacoochee Basin, except for the Little River at GA 133, just above Troupville Boat Ramp. Continue reading
Fecal coliform went down last week to 195 at US 41 and 200 at GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River, right at the Georgia limit of 200 cfu/100 ml, while rising slightly at US 41 and at the GA-FL line at the Madison Highway Horn Ferry Bridge, according to Valdosta’s testing.
Wednesday of this week, we still don’t know, because Continue reading
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.
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
Water quality is worse upstream of Valdosta’s Withlacoochee WTP and far downstream of its Mud Creek WTP, according to Valdosta’s most recent data, received last week in response to a Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) request from WWALS. This is the recent data I mentioned in the tour of Valdosta WTPs.
Does this data mean Valdosta is perfect and will never spill again? Nope. But it does mean there’s more than one source of fecal coliform and E. coli. We need to find those other sources, which is one reason WWALS is starting a water quality testing program.
Valdosta’s smaller WTP is in the Alapaha River Basin.
The WTP is the image left of top center, St. Augustine Road is the green diamond top left, Johnson Road is the grey diamond below and left of top center, and GA 135 Alapahoochee is the grey diamond bottom right.
100 and 10 are good readings for Fecal Coliform and E. coli, upstream of the Mud Creek WTP. Continue reading
Thanks to Valdosta Utilities Director Darryl Muse and staff for the Tour of Valdosta wastewater treatment plants Wednesday. Afterwards, I got them to sit down in a conference room and say again the most important points. They said what they had done to prevent future spills like the big ones this year.
Counterclockwise from front: Utilities Director Darryl Muse, Public Information Officer Ashlyn Becton, Environmental Manager Scott Fowler, Mud Creek WTP Superintendent Mud Creek
Stanley K. Martin.
We also elicited Valdosta Utilities’ view on the letter establishing the Middle and Lower Suwannee River and Withlacoochee River Task Force, which was mainly Continue reading
WCTV came to Hagan Bridge Landing at GA 122 on the Withlacoochee River to interview Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman about what Madison County and 10 more Florida counties are doing about Valdosta sewage spills into local rivers. Don’t forget the Tour of Valdosta wastewater treatment plants 9:30 AM this morning, Wednesday, October 3, 2018.
Emma Wheeler, WCTV, 2 October 2018, North Florida communities look to solve sewage spills in Valdosta, Continue reading
Here is most of a year’s river water quality testing data from the city of Valdosta, on a Water Reporter 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