Update 2020-12-14: Still clean Withlacoochee River 2020-12-12.

Despite Adel’s Monday spill and a Valdosta water main burst Wednesday, all Withlacoochee River water quality results through Thursday are clean. Happy boating, swimming, and fishing this weekend! Of course, there could be rain and something washed in then, but none is currently predicted. All the WWALS “beaches” are green on Swim Guide.

We did get an odd result at Gibson Park on the Suwannee River last Saturday, though.

Clean Withlacoochee River, odd Gibson Park, Suwannee River

Josh and Angela Duncan got pretty clean results at Knights Ferry, Nankin, and State Line Boat Ramps Thursday, December 10, 2020. Madison Health got clean at State Line, Sullivan Launch, and FL 6 Tuesday, and Valdosta got clean results at US 41, GA 133, and US 84 Monday and Wednesday.

Tifton spill 2020-12-07, yet clean downstream 2020-12-10
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida water quality results, rainfall, and spills, see:
https://wwals.net/issues/testing/

Fortunately, whatever has been getting into the Withlacoochee River upstream of GA 133 did not repeat this week (at least through Wednesday), although it was bad last Friday. Everybody including the Lowndes County Sheriff, Lowndes County Utilities, Valdosta Utilities, and of course WWALS, is looking for the culprits.

Once again Suzy Hall got odd results at Gibson Park on the Suwannee River, just upstream from the Alapaha River Confluence.

Gibson Park, Suwannee River 2020-12-05

One Petrifilm out of three showed many colonies of E. coli.

Plate 1, Gibson Park, 2020-12-05

Last time she tested there, her Petrifilms showed an odd color that after much discussion we all determined to be background coliforms, not E. coli. Something odd is going on in the Suwannee River upstream from Gibson Park.

However, downstream of both the Alapaha and Withlacoochee Rivers at Anderson Spring Launch, Suzy got zero E. coli; can’t be better than that.

Here’s a map showing these rivers from Tifton in the upper left to Anderson Spring Landing bottom center.

Map: Adel to Anderson Spring
in the WWALS map of all public landings in the Suwannee River Basin.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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