Who knows the Ockolocoochee River? No, not the Ochlockonee River; that’s a bit to the west.
You do know the Ockolocoochee River as the Little River, of the Withlacoochee, of the Suwannee.
Here is news from 1889 that also includes the boat that didn’t survive from Troupville to Ellaville, which was apparently not a paddlewheel steamer. Continue reading
Update 2024-01-14: Video: Fannie Gibbs Begins WWALS Webinars 2024-01-11.
Hahira, Georgia, December 26, 2023 — WWALS Webinars is a new monthly series of lunchtime talks via zoom about topics related to the Suwannee River Basin.
On Thursday, January 11, 2024, from noon to 1PM, we are starting with Fannie Marie Jackson Gibbs of Brooks County, Georgia, long active in issues near the Little and Withlacoochee Rivers, especially involving African-American family history. She will talk about the ongoing sewage problems in Quitman, the annual Juneteenth celebrations she organizes at Reed Bingham State Park Lake where WWALS brings boats, family history, and anything else she wants to discuss.
![[Fannie Gibbs in a boat at Reed Bingham State Park, Junteenth 2020]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2024-01-11--wwals-webinar-gibbs/many.jpg)
Fannie Gibbs in a boat at Reed Bingham State Park, Junteenth 2020
“We thank Fannie Gibbs for speaking at WWALS River Revue 2023 in September, and we welcome her back to speak longer in this first WWALS Webinar,” said WWALS President Sara Jay Jones.
“I’m honored to have worked with Fannie for many years, and I hope you will all zoom in to hear what she has to say,” said Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuf-igpjsuG9JKDeCUtmqgxujGcIkFZIz3 Continue reading
It was a good time at the WWALS booth at the Brooks County Skillet Festival.
![[Collage @ Brooks County Skillet Festival 2023-10-21]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-21--brooks-county-skillet-fest-pictures/many.jpg)
Collage @ Brooks County Skillet Festival 2023-10-21
Thanks to Jan Powell, Kimberly Tanner, and her Brazilian exchange student for assisting WWALS E.D. Gretchen Quarterman and Suwannee Riverkeeper John S. Quarterman at the WWALS booth.
Quitman is on Okapilco Creek, which runs into the Withlacoochee River. The Withlacoochee, and, upstream, the Little River form the east border of Brooks County with Lowndes County.
There are more pictures below.
For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see Continue reading
Food and fun in a park. Maybe you’d like to help at the WWALS booth, at the Brooks County Skillet Festival.
![[Fog on the Little River at Miller Bridge, WWALS Booth, Skillet Festival 2022-10-15]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-10-21--skillet-fest/many.jpg)
Fog on the Little River at Miller Bridge, WWALS Booth, Skillet Festival
2022-10-15
When: 9 AM, Saturday, October 21, 2023
Put In: Brooks County Courthouse, 100 Screven Street, Quitman, Georgia 31643
It was a fun time last year at the Brooks County Skillet Festival at the courthouse in Quitman, Georgia.
![[Skillet Fest, WWALS Booth, fog on the Little River at Miller Bridga 2022-10-15]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2022-10-15--skillet-festival-pictures/many.jpg)
Skillet Fest, WWALS Booth, fog on the Little River at Miller Bridga 2022-10-15
Thanks to Amy and Doug Jackson and Sara Jay Jones and everyone else who helped Gretchen Quarterman at the WWALS booth.
Skillet Fest is back this weekend, Saturday, October 21, 2023. Y’all come! Continue reading
Update 2023-09-15: No water quality test results this week; Adel sewage spill two weeks ago 2023-09-14.
Update 2023-09-09: Upstream Alapaha River results.
In samples taken Thursday, WWALS testers found the Withlacoochee River filthy upstream of the Little River Confluence, at Franklinville, US 41, and GA 133.
FYI: Franklinville is upstream from Valdosta, so it’s not them this time.
So it’s a good thing we cancelled tomorrow’s Langdale Park to Sugar Creek Chainsaw Cleanup on the Withlacoochee River.
The Little River and the Alapaha River tested clean.
Update 2023-09-09: Except at the outflow creek from the Alapaha, GA, WWTP, where Heather Brasell got way-too-high 1,900 E. coli. However, she got zero for the Alapaha River just upstream from Sheboggy Boat Ramp at US 82; can’t get much better than that.
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-09-07]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-09-07--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-09-07
On the Little River, the Withlacoochee River downstream of the Little River Confluence, and the Alapaha River, happy swimming, fishing, and boating, as long as you don’t mind the rivers being high and fast.
We are still short-handed for WWALS volunteer water quality testers.
Maybe you’d like to become one.
Sign up here:
https://wwals.net/?p=47084
Three new sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia, all from Continue reading
Update 2023-08-29: 8,400 gallons of sewage into Dukes Bay Canal, Valdosta, GA, due to unknown obstruction 2023-08-28.
Inquiring minds (Suzy’s) wanted to know how many times Valdosta spilled sewage this year.
Answer: nine reported, five into Knights Creek, which goes to the Alapahoochee and Alapaha Rivers, two into Hightower Creek, which goes into Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River, one into One Mile Branch, also Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River, and one into Cherry Creek, directly into the Withlacoochee River.
Valdosta spilled 1,182,221 gallons of raw sewage, accounting for 61.93% of the total 1,908,971 gallons spilled in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia and Florida so far in 2023.
I would like to thank Valdosta Utilities Assistant Director Jason Barnes for calling the day after that most recent spill, to note that Utilties found the spill, he had personally been out there and got it stopped that same evening, and they tracked the amount with SCADA. Plus it was reported to the public and to GA-EPD the day after it happened. All that is improvement.
Of course, the only good number of spills is none, as I told WTXL after a previous spill.
![[Sewage spills and WWALS water trails]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-08-25--all-spills/many.jpg)
Sewage spills and WWALS water trails
Runner-up was tiny Ashburn, with 673,400 gallons, or 35.28% of the total, mostly spilled into Hat Creek, which goes into the Alapaha River, with some into Ashburn Branch, which goes into the Little River. Ashburn has had a chronic sewage spill problem for many years, and needs to get a grip. Ashburn did get some ARPA money to work on that, so maybe there will be improvement.
Also-rans included Continue reading
Update 2023-07-29: Clean Withlacoochee River, filthy Crawford and Sugar Creeks 2023-07-28.
Update 2023-07-22: Valdosta sewage spills bad for people, wildlife, economy –Suwannee Riverkeeper on WTXL.TV 2023-07-21.
The Alapaha, Little, and Withlacoochee Rivers tested good for Thursday in WWALS sampling. But there are ongoing effects from a couple of Valdosta sewage spills, plus a new one from Quitman.
Valdosta Utilities tells us of some disturbing results on Sugar Creek, downstream of the Valdosta spill of July 17th and upstream of the Withlacoochee River. (I would publish those test results, but I do not have them in writing.)
Because of those results, we have converted tomorrow’s cleanup paddle to an on-land cleanup.
If you do paddle this weekend, I recommend the Little or Alapaha Rivers, or the Ichetucknee, Santa Fe, or Suwannee.
Also, Quitman had a 12,500 gallon sewage spill on July 11th that was just reported today. That goes into Okapilco Creek into the Withlacoochee River.
No other sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida.
![[Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-07-20]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-07-20--wq/many.jpg)
Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide Map 2023-07-20
The most recent results we have from Valdosta are for Monday upstream and Wednesday a week ago downstream. For Monday Valdosta got way-too-high results for US 41, GA 133, and US 84 on the Withlacoochee River. WWALS got a much better result for Thursday at US 41. We did not test at GA 133 or US 84, expecting to get Valdosta’s Wednesday results. No such luck.
FYI, GA 133 is on the route the Valdosta Mayor and City Council member were supposed to paddle with us tomorrow. You’d think Valdosta would have tested and reported in a timely manner before that. But they did not.
Meanwhile, Valdosta’s followup testing after its July 6, 2023, 194,251-gallon raw sewage spill into Knights Creek keeps showing way too-high Fecal coliform and E. coli downstream on Knights Creek, which is upstream of the Alapahoochee, Alapaha, and Suwannee Rivers. I have to wonder whether Valdosta has had more spills that it has not reported, possibly because it does not know about them. Continue reading
Update 2023-07-07: Clean Little and Withlacoochee River 2023-07-06.
Thanks to GA-EPD for clarifying the county, watershed, and location of the June 27, 2023, Quitman sewage spill of 3,000 gallons of raw sewage into a drainage ditch.
![[GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, Google Streetview, 1401 GA-333, Quitman, GA]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-06-27--quitman-sewage-spill/many.jpg)
GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report, Google Streetview, 1401 GA-333, Quitman, GA
Specifically, thanks to Dillon Rodenbaugh of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD) for getting these things fixed, after I reported them. Continue reading
Absentee landlords are letting trash get into Valdosta streets and creeks. What is the City of Valdosta doing about it?
Somebody named Gary McMillan reported two Litter issues on December 6, 2022 and January 6, 2023 through Valdosta’s Click ‘n’ Fix app. Both locations are slighlty uphill from One Mile Branch, which flows into Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River, upstream from the proposed Troupville Nature Park.
![[Trash near Baytree Drive and One Mile Branch map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/2023-01-06--valdosta-litter/many.jpg)
Trash near Baytree Drive and One Mile Branch map
City Marshalls in each case said they did something, which is good. But they closed out each ticket before reporting the actual outcome.
Both properties are owned by absentee landlords, who also own many other lots throughout Valdosta.
It’s time for the City of Valdosta to enforce its trash ordinances on property owners, especially absentee landlords.
Gary McMillan reported issue 13786041 on December 6, 2022:
Large amount of litter along Baytree Dr. and Jo Ree St. Some trash/litter is associated with a spilling bag of garbage. Much is not associated with the bag, but is typical of this neighborhood.Continue reading
![[Withlacoochee River labeled Suwanee R. in 1823 Irwin and 1834 Lowndes County maps; current WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail map]](https://www.wwals.net/pictures/1889-01-29--troupville/many.jpg)