2020-07-04: Clean Little and Withlacoochee Rivers to GA-FL line 2020-07-03

More good news: the Little River at Troupville Boat Ramp tested good Saturday, and the Withlacoochee River tested good last week and Sunday.

Photo: Suzy Hall, Troupville and State Line Boat Ramps

Thanks to Suzy Hall for the weekend testing. You can help by donating to the WWALS water quality testing program.

Photo: Suzy Hall, Troupville Boat Ramp with foam 2020-06-27

Suzy Hall took samples both in the foam and in the main flow of the Little River at Troupville Boat Ramp Saturday, June 27, 2020. She got 33 cfu/100 mL in the flow and 66 in the foam, both well below the 126 long-term average limit for E. coli.

Photo: Suzy Hall, State Line Boat Ramp 2020-06-28

Results were even better at State Line Boat Ramp Sunday: zero (0) E. coli. Can’t get better than that.

So good, Suzy took down the yellow WWALS Caution signs there and at Nankin. Above you see the WWALS Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail (WLRWT) signs at State Line Boat Ramp.

As usual on a weekend, there were people on State Line Boat Ramp.

There were also people at Nankin Boat Ramp. The WWALS WLRWT signs are still there, too, but pretty badly shot up.

Really, folks, is there nothing else to shoot at?

Clean most recent results
For the complete WWALS composite spreadsheet of water quality results from all sources, as well as other context, see https://wwals.net/issues/testing/.

The most recent Valdosta results are for Friday. They were clean at North Valdosta Road, and slightly elevated at GA 133 and US 84. So apparently the rains just before that did wash a little E. coli into the waterways. Nonetheless, all those resutls were well below the 410 one-time limit.

Except of course that odd 580 Fecal coliform, but we go by E. coli.

Clean for a week

Going back to last Monday, all the Valdosta results and the Tuesday and Thursday Madison Health results were good. There was another odd Valdosta Fecal coliform result last Monday, but once again we go by E. coli.

So all the Withlacoochee River Swim Guide “beaches” remain green, and I’ve updated Troupville Boat Ramp on the Little River also to be green.

Map: Swim Guide

Upstream on the Little River, Folsom Bridge @ GA 122 and Cook County Boat Ramp @ GA 76 are still showing green for historical results because we have not gotten a bad result there in recent weeks.

Knights Ferry Boat Ramp on the Withlacoochee River is showing yellow, because although the most recent result we have is good, from last Monday, there were bad results before that. Chances are Knights Ferry Boat Ramp also has good water quality, but we don’t have recent data to confirm that.

Rain is predicted any day this week, and we’ll see what happens then.

In other news, the USGS Adel Little River gauge at GA 37 has started recording rainfall again.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

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