Tag Archives: Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail

Clean Sugar Creek 2025-09-06

Update 2025-09-12: Clean Withlacoochee River downstream 2025-09-11.

WWALS tester Suzy Hall sampled Sugar Ceek Saturday at Gornto Road, and got a pretty clean 300 cfu/100 mL, which is less than the 410 one-time test limit.

This is the same place Valdosta Utilities got way-too-high 3,800 a week ago on Sunday August 31. Then they stopped sampling, because that was the end of the required seven days after their pair of major spills the previous weekend.

Gornto Road is 0.44 miles upstream from the Withlacoochee River. Valdosta Utilities did sample twice more (Monday and Tuesday) at GA 133, 2.5 river miles downstream from Sugar Creek. They got too-high 540 for Monday and OK 180 for Tuesday.

But only now because of Suzy’s sampling do we know that Sugar Creek itself is back within normal range for E. coli, including at the Watergoat, a bit more than halfway from Gornto Road to the river.

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

Clean Sugar Creek, Saturday, September 6, 2025, In WWALS testing, Upstream from Withlacoochee River

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

There’s a 40% chance of storms Monday and Tuesday, so something might wash into the creeks and rivers then. Or not.

Meanwhile, this is what we know now.

The WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida water quality results, rainfall, and sewage spills is here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SVezEtnmNw2-byIvfA2exUsK-3je9N5Iir5se2nPY1o/

The following image is a current excerpt from that spreadsheet. Continue reading →

New manhole at Wainwright Drive on One Mile Branch 2025-08-31

Update 2025-10-23: Sewer System Repairs and Water Quality Testing by Valdosta Utilities 2025-10-21.

Update 2025-09-03: Better Withlacoochee River, Worse Sugar Creek 2025-09-01.

Congratulations to Valdosta Utilities for taking action on a chronic sewage spill location!

Scotti Jay reported Sunday that he had noticed that morning an excavator at the Wainwright Drive manhole on One Mile Branch, where spills continue into Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River.

Scotti wrote, “Upon a closer look, the old manhole is gone. A new, updated and uplifted manhole now exists. I will wait to celebrate after the next storm. Strangely, the pine tree, whose roots were a problem in the old manhole, is also still there. So, let’s hope it holds water.”

New manhole, Wainwright Drive, One Mile Branch, 2025-08-31

Monday, Sara Jay sent a picture, attributed as a “screenshot from the Ring doorbell camera online community.” If anybody know a more precise source, please let us know. Continue reading →

Stopped: Overflow from Valdosta Withlacoochee Wastewater Treament Plant 2025-08-27

Update 2025-08-27: Filthy Sugar Creek, OK One Mile Branch, Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-08-26.

We received this update from Valdosta this morning at 11:19 AM:

Withlacoochee WPCP Overflow Stopped as of August 27
Update as of August 27, 2025, 9:30 a.m. The overflow at the Withlacoochee WPCP has stopped. It is estimated that approximately 1,500,000 gallons of stormwater diluted wastewater to the wetland adjacent to the plant. All required agencies have been notified.

Stopped: Overflow from Valdosta Withlacoochee Wastewater Treament Plant, Monday, August 27, 2025

That’s optimistic saying that a 1.5 million gallon spill is contained in the adjacent wetlands.

I don’t see any water quality test results posted on Valdosta’s website yet, even though after each of the two weekend major spills Valdosta is required by their wastewater permit to test daily upstream and down each day for a week, then weekly for four weeks.

Maybe we’ll see some results soon from Madison Health downstream in Florida.

Meanwhile, neither of these Valdosta major spills have yet appeared in the GA-EPD Sewage Spills Report.
https://wwals.net/issues/vww/ga-spills/

Update 2025-08-27: Well, they were in there Monday, but still without total gallons. See: Filthy Sugar Creek, OK One Mile Branch, Clean Withlacoochee River 2025-08-26.

The rest of today’s Valdosta PR text Continue reading →

WWALS Booth at The Happening, VSU Front Lawn 2025-08-28

VSU students, come to our informational booth about water issues, events, and outings.

WWALS members, you can help at the booth.

When: 1 PM, Thursday, August 28, 2025

Put In: VSU Front Lawn

WWALS Booth at The Happening at VSU, VSU Front Lawn, Thursday, August 28, 2025

One Mile Branch runs through VSU. Downstream is the notoriously spilling Wainwright Drive manhole, on the way to Sugar Creek and the Withlacoochee River.

For more about The Happening at VSU, see:
https://www.valdosta.edu/student/student-life/special-events/the-happening/ Continue reading →

Little River Labor Day Paddle, Reed Bingham St Pk West Ramp 2025-09-01

Join us for a 7-mile round trip paddle up the Little River at Reed Bingham State Park. We’ll meet at the boat ramp on the west side of the park and paddle up to the Red Roberts Landing bridge and back to the launch. Everyone must wear a PFD while paddling.

When: Gather 9 AM, launch 9:15 AM, end 12:45 PM, Monday, September 1, 2025

Put In: Reed Bingham Sate Park West Ramp, 542 Reed Bingham Rd, Adel, GA 31620. Take I-75 Exit 39, turn west on GA 37, right on Evergreen Church Road (CR 99), left on Reed Bingham SP Road (CR 221), in Colquitt County.

GPS: 31.16703, -83.54647

Little River, Labor Day Paddle, Reed Bingham State Park, West Ramp, 2025-09-01

Continue reading →

Videos: Bradford Road @ Berrien County Planning Commission 2025-08-21

Update 2025-09-08: Rescheduled, Public Notice for Public Hearing, Bradford Road subdivision 2025-09-18.

Here are WWALS videos of the hour in which several speakers brought up the lack of an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan and many other subjects at the Berrien County Planning Commission. This Public Hearing was about a proposal to put a ten-house subdivision on agricultural land on Bradford, Strawder, and Old Valdosta Roads.

Tabled: Bradford Road @ Berrien County Planning Commission 2025-08-21, No Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan

Lisa Sumner spoke first, about that Plan, and last, specifically wanting to know why were we meeting, since county ordinances require the Plan to be submitted. After much discussion among Commission and Staff, they moved to adjourn. Before the vote, Della Gladieux asked if people would get to speak next month. Yes, they said, people who had not already spoken.

Meanwhile, you can speak in other ways, such as signing the petition against this subdivision of ten houses on agricultural land:
https://chng.it/kKDVsN92xT

People who live in Berrien County can also call or write your Planning Commissioner or Berrien County Commissioner. Anyone can come to that next Planning Commission meeting, which will probably be September 18, since they seem to meet on the third Thursday of the month, at 201 North Davis Street, Nashville, GA 31639.

See for yourself in these WWALS videos of each spaaker, followed by a WWALS video playlist.

Overflowing Catch Basin at Valdosta Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant 2025-08-24

Update 2025-08-27: Stopped: Overflow from Valdosta Withlacoochee Wastewater Treament Plant 2025-08-27.

Valdosta’s Withlacoochee WWTP catch basin is overflowing again, into Spring Branch to the Withlacoochee River.

Seems like the catch basin is not big enough.

Overflowing Catch Basin, at Valdosta Withlacoochee, Wastewater Treatment Plant, Sunday, August 25, 2025

Received 9:30 PM, Sunday, August 24, 2025, and currently on Valdosta’s website. We also got the same release at 9:10 PM, Sunday, August 24, 2025.

Sanitary Sewer overflow at the Withlacoochee WWTP
On Sunday, August 24, 2025, the City of Valdosta Utilities Department and City Management were notified that the secondary Equalization (EQ) Basin at the Withlacoochee Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) had begun to overflow.

The Utilities Department immediately mobilized the appropriate divisions to assess and respond. The overflow was determined to be the result of excessive Infiltration and Inflow (I&I), which caused a hydraulic overload of the sanitary sewer collection system. This condition followed a significant weather event in which the City of Valdosta received more than eight inches of rainfall within a 48-hour period.

WPCP operators have worked tirelessly Continue reading →

Pictures: Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River, 2025-08-16

We found surprisingly little trash at the Withlacoochee River below Franklinville Road, but plenty of yellowjackets and deadfalls. Also, Cat Creek stinks like sewage.

Franklinville Cleanup, Withlacoochee River 2025-08-16, Yellow Jackets and Chainsaws, Deadfalls, and Cat Creek Stinks

Thanks to Cindy Vedas for organizing this expedition, and for bringing lunch.

Thanks to landowner Robbie McMillan for access, including mowing a path down to the Withlacoochee River at the Hahira-Moody AFB power line, for swimming, and for chainsawing.

I actually did most of the chainsawing this time, from my kayak, but there are no pictures of that.

Early on, I was chainsawing an opening in the brush towards Tyler Bridge, when something started stinging me. I backed off, but they followed me: Southern Yellowjackets, Vespula squamosa. Continue reading →

WTXL TV: Berrien County subdivision delayed as soil permit question stalls planning commission 2025-08-21

Update 2025-08-26: Videos: Bradford Road @ Berrien County Planning Commission 2025-08-21.

We all spent an hour at a Berrien County Planning Commission meeting that should not have been held, because the applicant had not submitted a Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan as required by county ordinances. There are many other objections to plopping a subdivision onto agricultural land on a dirt road.

WTXL TV: Berrien County subdivision tabled a month, Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan 2025-08-21

Malia Thomas, WTXL TV, August 21, 2025, Berrien County subdivision delayed as soil permit question stalls planning commission: Neighbors say a new subdivision threatens farmland as well as increases risks of floods after rain,

VALDOSTA, GA. (WTXL) — Neighbors in Berrien County say a proposed subdivision could forever change the farmland and heritage they’ve built over generations.

The planning commission tabled its recommendation after uncertainty over permits and county bylaws.
Neighbors argue the Bradford Road project would harm farmland, heritage, and community ties.
Watch the video below for more details on the project and the next steps.
Continue reading →

Pictures: Longer chainsaw from Langdale Park, Withlacoochee River, 2025-08-03

We chainsawed 1.32 miles down the Withlacoochee River from Langdale Park Boat Ramp to the bottom edge of the park, which is exactly 1/2 the way to Sugar Creek.

We’ll probably need a visa to exit the park through that massive deadfall.

In addition to numerous other deadfalls, we saw three wasp nests and Three Mile Branch.

Wasps and Deadfalls, Longer chainsaw 2025-08-03, Langdale Park, Withlacoochee River

Thanks to Phil Hubbard for organizing this chainsaw cleanup and for doing most of the chainsawing.

There’s even rare accidental proof that I chainsawed. And yes, I did have another sharper chain.

We are still clearing passage through deadfalls (trees across the river) from Hurricane Helene and that fell down afterwards. We will be back in a few weeks. Continue reading →

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