Update 2020-04-14: Cleaner at State Line, Withlacoochee River 2020-04-12.

The Withlacoochee River looks good, but it’s got E. coli, 17,833 cfu/100 mL at Knights Ferry Boat Ramp, results for Saturday, April 11, 2020.

How bad? Horrible, since 410 is bad and 1,000 is alert level. See also what do these numbers mean. Suzy drew water downstream at Nankin State Line Boat Ramp Sunday, and I’m going to collect some elsewhere today. You can help.

Photo: Suzy Hall, Withlacoochee River at Knights Ferry, Upstream Shoals

Suzy Hall said, “I really thought they were not going to be purple, but they are.”

Photo: Suzy Hall, Withlacoochee River at Knights Ferry, Bad results

Several WWALS members boated the 6.65 river miles from Knights Ferry to Nankin Boat Ramp that same day. I hope they didn’t get much on them.

Photo: Suzy Hall, Withlacoochee River at Knights Ferry, Downstream, Right bank

Apparently the more than half an inch of rain upstream washed something into the river. Almost an inch of rain fell today upstream on the Withlacoochee River, so don’t be surprised if water quality does not improve for some days.

Rain washed something into the river
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida data, see wwals.net/issues/testing/.

This chart shows rain on the Little River, but it probably also fell on Brooks County. I doubt the source of contamination was the city of Quitman. No, it wasn’t the Thursday FOG spill in Valdosta; that one was far too small to cause this, and remember I got only 33 cfu/100 mL downstream of the spill in Cherry Creek. So what is it? Most likely livestock. Yes, we are working on it, and making some progress.

These charts have Madison Health results for Thursday, April 9, 2020, which came in after the previous post. We do not yet have any results for Friday, and I’m guessing Valdosta probably did not collect any water then, because Friday was a holiday.

Quitman and Valdosta to Suwannee River
In the WWALS map of the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail.

Expect that contamination to be running downstream to the state line and probably beyond.

It’s astonishing how quickly river water quality can go from very good to horrible. As I noted in that previous post, “But watch out: Wednesday’s rain may have washed contamination into the river.”

From good to bad
For context and the entire WWALS composite spreadsheet of Georgia and Florida data, see wwals.net/issues/testing/.

We need to find a way to get water quality results after rain and before the weekend. You can help.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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