Tag Archives: US 84

Santa Fe River Clean, Withlacoochee Clean Upstream, Bad Downstream 2026-01-22

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

Valdosta Utilities got bad E. coli results downstream at GA 133 and US 84 for Thursday.

We have no new creek test results.

I wonder if some of the contamination I detected Sunday on feeder creeks just upstream from Langdale Park Boat Ramp had not washed downstream to GA 133 and beyond by Thursday. Or did something else come down Hightower Creek and Sugar Creek into the Withlacoochee River?

No new sewage spills have been reported this week in Georgia or Florida.

So if you can find a river with enough water, happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend before the big freeze next week.

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

[Santa Fe River Clean, Withlacoochee Clean Upstream, Withlacoochee Bad Downstream at GA 133 & US 84, 2026-01-22]
Santa Fe River Clean, Withlacoochee Clean Upstream, Withlacoochee Bad Downstream at GA 133 & US 84, 2026-01-22

Withlacoochee River

Please welcome back WWALS tester Cindy Vedas. For Thursday she got:

  • a very clean 33 cfu/100 mL at Franklinville Landing, “Looks great at this location.”
  • a perfect zero (0) at Staten Road, “River looks good here.”
  • and 66 at Langdale Park Boat Ramp, “River not flowing much at all. New No Hunting signs are posted.”

Valdosta Utilities for Thursday got 770 at GA 133 and 650 at US 84, both above the 410 one-time test limit.

Santa Fe River

WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler for Wednesday at Mills Dock, a bit upstream from Poe Springs Ramp, bot a very clean 33, with 6.2 C air temperature and 17.0 C water temperature. And a beaver!

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 River and most creeks; Dirty Hightower Creek 2025-12-17

Update 2026-01-01: Hightower Creek still dirty; Alapaha River clean 2025-12-31.

The Withlacoochee River tested clean upstream and down this week, and Sugar Creek and One Mile Branch in Valdosta tested pretty clean.

But Hightower Creek remained dirty in Valdosta Utilities’ result.

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

Downstream on the Withlacoochee River near the Suwannee, WWALS tester Russ Tatum got a near-perfect 33 cfu/100 mL E. coli. All these results are for Wednesday.

No new sewage spills have been reported in the past week for the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida. FDEP’s Pollution Notice reporting is still half broken: see below.

After a little drizzle yesterday, no rain is predicted for the next ten days.

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 River and most creeks; Dirty Hightower Creek, 2025-12-17]
Clean Withlacoochee River and most creeks; Dirty Hightower Creek, 2025-12-17

Valdosta Utilities sampled its creeks again this week after its August 23, 2025 20,000 gallon sewage spill into One Mile Branch at Wainwright Drive. Valdosta has since replaced both manholes at Wainwright Drive with taller ones, so maybe that is finally starting to have an effect of reduced sewage in the creeks.
https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/river-stream-water-quality-data/august-2025-sanitary-sewer-spills

Thanks again for those tests, and thanks for posting results earlier this week.

Also, Valdosta could take back up testing the Withlacoochee River down to the state line, plus Okapilco Creek, as they stopped doing after the four years required in the 2020 GA-EPD Consent Order. 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.

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 Rivers and Creeks, except Hightower Creek 2025-12-11

Update 2025-12-19: Clean Withlacoochee River and most creeks; Dirty Hightower Creek 2025-12-17.

The Withlacoochee River tested pretty clean this week, as did the Santa Fe River, and the Ichetucknee River for Friday last week.

Even Valdosta’s problem Sugar Creek and One Mile Branch tested OK.

But Hightower Creek was bad in Valdosta Utilities’ result, although the WWALS result the same day at the same site was OK.

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 Georgia or Florida, although FDEP’s Pollution Notice reporting is half broken: see below.

No rain is predicted for the next ten days.

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, Santa Fe Rivers, Mostly Good 2025-12-11, OK One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek, But not Hightower Creek]
Clean Withlacoochee, Santa Fe Rivers, Mostly Good 2025-12-11, OK One Mile Branch and Sugar Creek, But not Hightower Creek

Sugar Creek and its feeder creeks

For Thursday at St. Augustine Road on Hightower Creek, Valdosta Utilities got Continue reading →

Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River upstream; downstream and Alapaha River OK 2025-11-20

Update 2025-11-25: Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-11-22.

Update 2025-11-23: Valdosta sewage spill into Sugar Creek –WCTV 2025-11-20.

Apparently the small Valdosta sewage spill into Sugar Creek Wednesday affected that creek and the Withlacoochee River more than expected.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall for Wednesday got TNTC (Too Numerous to Count) at the WaterGoat, just before the river. Downstream on the river, Valdosta Utilities for Thursday got 2,670 at GA 133 and 1,035 at US 84, both higher than the 1,000 alert limit for E. coli.

Yet WWALS tester Russ Tatum got zero (0) for Wednesday at Holly Point, on the Withlacoochee River in Florida a few miles upstream from the Suwannee River.

Also for Wednesday, WWALS tester Heather Brasell got OK results for the Alapaha River at Sheboggy Boat Ramp at US 82. WWALS testers Bob Mills and Kurt Hurzeler got good tentative results at their Santa Fe River site upstream from Poe Springs.

Of course, the high results could be due to the so far unknown source upstream of St. Augustine Road on Hightower Creek.

No other sewage spills have been reported in the Suwannee River Basin in the past week in Georgia or Florida, so far as we can tell, although FDEP’s Pollution Reports web page and map are both not working corectly. At least we didn’t get any emailed reports for Florida this week.

No rain is expected for the next ten days.

So I’d avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it. Other than that, happy paddling, swimming, fishing, and boating this weekend. If you can find enough water to do those things. Maybe far downstream on the Withlacoochee or Suwannee Rivers.

Or join us tomorrow for Knights Ferry to Nankin Clean Up, Withlacoochee River 2025-11-22.

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

[Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River upstream, downstream and Alapaha River OK, 2025-11-20]
Filthy Sugar Creek and Withlacoochee River upstream, downstream and Alapaha River OK, 2025-11-20

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 →

Sewer System Repairs and Water Quality Testing by Valdosta Utilities 2025-10-21

Update 2025-10-24: Clean Santa Fe and Alapaha Rivers and Withlacoochee Downstream; Problem Sugar Creek 2025-10-22.

Two kinds of good news today on the telephone with Valdosta Utilities Director Jason Barnes:

  1. They’re making progress on the manholes and the sewer line at Wainwright Drive on One Mile Branch, and they’re posting that progress online.
  2. They did test Sugar Creek this week, and they will test again the next two weeks. The results are not great, and they are considering further tests until the results decrease to acceptable levels.

[Sewer System Repairs and Water Quality Testing by Valdosta Utilities, 2025-10-21]
Sewer System Repairs and Water Quality Testing by Valdosta Utilities, 2025-10-21

Valdosta Utilities is posting updates to on-going projects here:
https://www.valdostacity.com/utilities/administration

You can get there from valdostacity.com via Departments in the main menu, then Utilities, then Administration.

These are basically the slides Jason Barnes presented to the Florida River Task Force on August 14, 2025. Plus updates.

Slide 10 of 11 shows among other things “Remer 30″ Phase 1,” which is to replace the problem stretch of sewer line running to the notorious Wainwright Road manhole. This project has already started. Continue reading →

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

Update 2025-10-19: Filthy Sugar Creek 2025-10-17.

The last water quality test for Sugar Creek that we have is by WWALS for last Friday, and that was a too-high 633 cfu/100 mL E. coli.

For this Thursday, Valdosta Utilities got 480 at GA 133 on the Withlacoochee River, downstream of Sugar Creek, higher than the one-time test limit of 410, and higher than 400 last week. Yet Valdosta Utilities got a pretty clean 120 farther downstream at US 84, lower than 180 last week.

It is likely that Sugar Creek was still too high Thursday. We don’t know, because Valdosta Utilities last week ceased testing Sugar Creek, One Mile Branch, and Hightower Creek, as well as North Valdosta Road on the Withlacoochee River. This was apparently because the four weeks of testing required by GA-EPD after major spills had expired. Never mind that Valdosta Utilities’ last result on Sugar Creek was too high.

WWALS testers got a very clean zero result on the Santa Fe River for Wednesday.

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

There’s a chance of storms Sunday afternoon, otherwise it’s supposed to be mostly 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.

[Too much E. coli at Sugar Creek WaterGoat, Problematical Withlacoochee River, 2025-10-16]
Too much E. coli at Sugar Creek WaterGoat, Problematical Withlacoochee River, 2025-10-16

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 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 →

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 →

Filthy creeks, Clean downstream Withlacoochee River 2025-09-17

Update 2025-09-26: Beatty Branch smelled like cattle manure, controversial Sugar Creek, clean Alapaha and Santa Fe Rivers 2025-09-25.

Valdosta Utilities for Thursday got sky-high E. coli on One Mile Branch, Hightiwer Creek, and especially Sugar Creek at Gornto Road, as well as too high at GA 133.

This time upstream at US 41 was good, as was downstream at US 84, and even better in a WWALS test farther downstream on the Withlacoochee River, near the Suwannee River.

For the second time recently, a WWALS test on Sugar Creek does not agree with Valdosta results. We will have to do more testing to sort that out.

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

It hasn’t rained in days, and no rain is predicted for the next five days.

So avoid Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River near it, and happy paddling, boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend.

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

[Filthy Creeks 2025-09-18, Clean downstream Withlacoochee River]
Filthy Creeks 2025-09-18, Clean downstream Withlacoochee River

Or join us tomorrow for Rivers Alive Trash Pick Up, Alapaha River, Mayday Landing 2025-09-20.
https://wwals.net/?p=68386

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 →