Update 2022-02-04: Clean Rivers 2022-02-03.

Good news! All tests pretty clear for the Little, Alapaha, and Withlacoochee Rivers for Wednesday and Thursday. So if you want to boat, fish, or swim in that cold snap tomorrow, or Sunday, the water quality is good so far as we know, with little E. coli. No rain is predicted until mid-week, so nothing else should wash into the rivers.

Oh, and Ashburn had another sewage spill on January 16th, but it does not seem to have affected Alapaha River water quality.

Chart, Rivers, Swim Guide

Gus Cleary’s Wednesday test downstream from Allen Ramp at Cleary Bluff was as clean as Valdosta’s upstream tests at US 41, GA 133, and US 84. Thanks to Scott Fowler of Valdosta Utilities for that upstream Wednesday data.

Elizabeth Brunner’s GA 122 tests of Thursday samples at Folsom Bridge on the Little River, Hagan Bridge on the Withlacoochee River, and Lakeland Boat Ramp on the Alapaha River, were also all good.

Good River Water Quality, Charts 2022-01-16
For context and the entire WWALS spreadsheet of water quality data, rainfall, and sewage spills, see
https://wwals.net/issues/testing

Thanks to Joe Brownlee and Georgia Power for a generous grant for water quality testing equipment and materials.

You or your organization could also donate to the WWALS volunteer water quality testing program.

This Tuesday, January 25, 2022, Ashburn got around to reporting a 30,000 gallon sewage spill into Hat Creek that happened nine days earlier on Sunday, January 16th.

Ashburn Spill, Charts 2022-01-16

That produced the amusing phenomenon of the same wastewater treatment plant in Ashburn being reported as in the Suwannee River Basin for that spill, yet in the Ocmulgee River Basin for the previous 40,000 gallon January 3 spill, by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA-EPD). I advised GA-EPD of that error, and today they corrected the earlier spill to be in the Suwannee River Basin.

So I’ve set the most green for clean on Swim Guide that we’ve seen in a while.

Clean Rivers, Swim Guide 2022-01-27

The individual images are on the WWALS website.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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