Tag Archives: US 84

Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2024-08-29

Update 2024-09-02: Bad Alapaha WTP Outflow 2024-08-30.

The Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers tested clean for Wednesday and Thursday.

No new sewage spills were reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Georgia or Florida. We did hear of a fish kill in Lakes Rowell and Sampson far upstream of the Santa Fe River, apparently on Friday, August 23. People are investigating.

There’s been little rain for a week, so no contamination is expected. The weather prediction shows chance of storms starting Monday, but not for the weekend.

Santa Fe Lake, The lower Santa Fe, and the Suwannee River at Fargo and downstream from the Santa Fe are in Action Stage, and the Santa Fe at TREPO is still in flood.

The Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers are now below Action Stage. The Alapaha is actually getting too low.

So happy fishing, swimming, and boating this weekend.

Be sure to join us Saturday, September 7, 2024, for the WWALS River Revue, 5-8 PM at the Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta. It’s a sit-down fundraising dinner with speakers from Florida and Georgia, a silent auction, and the Suwannee Riverkeeper Songwriting Contest.
https://www.betterunite.com/WWALS-wwalsriverrevue2024

[Clean Withlacoochee & Alapaha Rivers 2024-08-29 No sewage spills and No rain]
Clean Withlacoochee & Alapaha Rivers 2024-08-29 No sewage spills and No rain

Continue reading →

Withlacoochee and Alapaha River clean 2024-08-21

Update 2024-08-31: Clean Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers 2024-08-29.

The Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers tested clean for Wednesday.

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

There’s been little rain for a week, so no contamination is expected. The weather prediction shows chance of storms for the next few days, but those usually happen in the afternoon.

The Santa Fe and much of the Suwannee River are still in flood or Action Stage.

The Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers are now below Action Stage, although still a bit high.

So happy fishing, swimming, and boating this weekend.

Maybe you’d like to join us Sunday for Jon boat Withlacoochee River Chainsaw Cleanup, Langdale Park Boat Ramp 2024-08-25.

[Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha Rivers, 2024-08-21 Happy fishing, swimming, and boating]
Clean Withlacoochee, Alapaha Rivers, 2024-08-21 Happy fishing, swimming, and boating

For the Withlacoochee River, the City of Valdosta got very good results for Wednesday at both GA 133 and US 84.

Also for Wednesday, for the Alapaha River Kimberly Godden Tanner got zero (0) E. coli at Lakeland Boat Ramp and Naylor Park Beach.

She noted, “Both locations are looking great.” Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee River 2024-08-14

Update 2024-08-23: Withlacoochee and Alapaha River clean 2024-08-21.

The Withlacoochee River tested clean.

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

There’s been little rain for a week, so no contamination is expected. The weather prediction is no rain until Sunday afternoon.

The Santa Fe and much of the Suwannee River are still in flood or Action Stage. We hear Gibson Park at the Alapaha River Confluence is closed. The Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers are now below Action Stage, although still high.

So happy fishing, swimming, and boating this weekend.

Maybe you’d like to join us tomorrow for Upstream Withlacoochee River from Troupville Chainsaw Cleanup 2024-08-17.

[Clean Withlacoochee River 2024-08-14 Little rain lately. None until Sunday evening.]
Clean Withlacoochee River 2024-08-14 Little rain lately. None until Sunday evening.

Withlacoochee River

The City of Valdosta results for Wednesday are 20 cfu/100 mL E. coli, which is very good, at both GA 133 and US 84.

Also for Wednesday, Russ Tatum got 33 cfu/100 mL at Allen Ramp and Holly Point. “Clean results! The water is still high but dropping slowly. It never came out of the banks here. It is tanic, slightly silty but mostly clear.” Continue reading →

Partly clean Withlacoochee River 2024-08-01

The Withlacoochee River tested dirty at GA 133 but clean downstream.

Heavy rain apparently washed something in.

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

But in Georgia, Ashburn was at it again, with 290,000 gallons of raw sewage into Hat Creek and the Alapaha River, reported more than a week late. See separate post.
https://wwals.net/?p=65523

The weather prediction for the next ten days is thunderstorms or chance of storms, but most likely in the afternoon. If it’s like that past ten days, the rains will be here and there.

Many of the rivers are pretty high now. But if you can find one that is low enough, happy fishing, swimming, and boating this weekend. Continue reading →

Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers 2024-06-27

Update 2024-07-05: Bad Franks Creek, unknown rivers, after much rain 2024-07-03.

The Withlacoochee River tested clean for Wednesday and Thursday, and the Santa Fe River for Monday.

Retesting upstream and downstream from the previous One Mile Branch Valdosta Williams Street anomolous results found little to no E. coli.

No sewage spills were reported in the past week in the Suwannee River Basin in Florida or Georgia.

The rivers are almost all down to good boating and fishing levels; maybe too low in some areas.

There was rain on the Withlacoochee River in several places over several days, so some contamination may have washed in.

Other than that, happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend!

[Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers, but rain 2024-06-27]
Clean Withlacoochee and Santa Fe Rivers, but rain 2024-06-27

Cindy Vedas tested three upstream Withlacoochee sites Thursday.

For Franklinville Road at Tyler Bridge, she got Continue reading →

Quitman: Noncompliance, 9 effluent violations, 5 sewage spills, 11 monitoring violations, 1 reporting violation –GA-EPD Nov 2022 – Oct 2023

Update 2024-06-17: GA-EPD has said why they did not return followup water quality testing results.

Update 2024-06-11: Quitman, GA, utility maps 2022-01-03.

Update 2024-06-07: Filthy Franks Creek, clean Withlacoochee and Alapaha Rivers, despite Ashburn spill 2024-06-05.

Back on December 27, 2023, I sent what I thought was a routine request to the city of Quitman, Georgia, for state-required followup testing after a major sewage spill.

After four requests to Quitman and two to GA-EPD, I finally got a response from GA-EPD this Wednesday, five months later.

This foot-dragging was quite surprising, since previously I had sent such requests to Quitman and they had their former sewer system contractor send the test results within the statutory three days of the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA).

[Quitman, GA, Noncompliant for Nov 2022 - Oct 2023 --GA-EPD, 9 effluent, 5 spills,, 11 monitoring, 1 reporting]
Quitman, GA, Noncompliant for Nov 2022 – Oct 2023 –GA-EPD, 9 effluent, 5 spills,, 11 monitoring, 1 reporting

The GA-EPD response still did not contain the followup test results, but it did show GA-EPD had already taken action for that an other Quitman sewage spills, effluent violations, monitoring violations, and a reporting violation.

Update 2024-06-17: GORArequest.Water@dnr.ga.gov answered on June 7, 2024 my followup questions of that same day:

John,

The LON was sent November 7, 2023. The spill report indicates 5,000 gallons spilled into a drainage ditch. The volume did not exceed 10,000 gallons, so stream monitoring would not be required. EPD’s database has been updated to revise the volume from 12,000 gallons to 5,000 gallons.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks

This is the subject sewage spill, according to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD)’s Sewage Spills Report of July 21, 2023. Continue reading →

Bad water quality upstream Withlacoochee River 2023-08-07

Update 2023-08-18: Rivers clean again 2023-08-17.

Valdosta reported bad water quality at US 41 for Friday, and for there, GA 133, and US 84 for Monday.

I’d avoid that stretch of the Withlacoochee River until better results are reported by Valdosta or by WWALS. WWALS will sample again Thursday, as usual.

[Bad upstream Withlacoochee River water quality 2023-08-07]
Bad upstream Withlacoochee River water quality 2023-08-07

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

There was spotty rain last weekend and before, but what is washing into the Withlacoochee River? More testing is needed to determine that. WWALS is looking into that.

This data about bad Fecal coliform and E. coli appears on Valdosta’s website and we add it to our WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality, rainfall, and sewage spills, as well as to the smartphone app Swim Guide

[Bad Water Quality, Upstream Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide 2023-08-07]
Bad Water Quality, Upstream Withlacoochee River, 2023-08-07, Swim Guide
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

For comparison, here is a map of public landings in the same testing area. Continue reading →

Very bad water quality at US 41 and GA 133 Monday 2023-07-31

Update 2023-08-09: Bad water quality upstream Withlacoochee River 2023-08-07.

Update 2023-08-07: 2023-08-07: Valdosta City Council approved match for a GA-EPD seed grant that WWALS told them about 2023-07-27.

Update 2023-08-02: Reschedule Retry Sugar Creek to Troupville Chainsaw Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2023-08-19.

Valdosta’s Withlacoochee River water quality results for Monday, July 31, 2023 were very bad at US 41 (North Valdosta Road) and GA 133. Bad was 12,000 cfu/100 mL of E. coli at US 41, which is twelve times the alert limit of 1,000.

There was intermittent rain over the weekend upstream from Valdosta, which probably washed contamination into the river.

Judging by the previous WWALS creek tests, most likely that contamination came down Cat Creek. More testing is needed to find out what it is.

[Problem spots and context 2023-07-31]
Problem spots and context 2023-07-31

Those locations are north and west of Valdosta. Continue reading →

Videos: US 84 to Mayday, Alapaha River 2016-05-07

Here are some previously-unpublished videos of a string of rapids on the Alapaha River between US 84 and Mayday.

[River Bend Rapids, Overhanging branch dunk, Cow Shoals, Cow Creek, Fallers Award at Mayday, Alapaha River, 7 May 2016]
River Bend Rapids, Overhanging branch dunk, Cow Shoals, Cow Creek, Fallers Award at Mayday, Alapaha River, 7 May 2016

They include Continue reading →

New week river water quality update 2023-02-06

Update 2023-02-10: Clean rivers before rain 2023-02-09.

Here’s an update between our weekly WWALS water quality reports.

Three more downstream WWALS Withlacoochee River test sites matched the upstream ones for Thursday, February 2nd, as predicted.

However, not as predicted, Valdosta got too-high upstream results for Friday, February 3rd, at GA 133 and US 84 (but not at US 41). So apparently the drizzle of rain that Thursday did wash something into the river. However, Valdosta’s results for Monday at the same sites are all good, so whatever it was, it was short-lived.

And Rochelle, Georgia, got around to reporting another small far-upstream sewage spill in the Alapaha River basin.

[Chart, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide, 2023-02-02]
Chart, Withlacoochee River, Swim Guide, 2023-02-02

The additional downstream sites I sampled last Thursday were the Continue reading →