Little Choctawhatchee River at Highway 123

$500 Puts Your Two Line Ad Here Through Oct 1 2015 Call 334-807-1365 for More Info $ Go to Monitoring

This site itself is lightly used for recreation but is an entry point for paddlers travelling down the Little Choctawhatchee River past the remains of the Old Power Dam to the Choctawhatchee River and the boat ramp at Clayhatchee or beyond.

Historical data for the site is available at the Alabama Water Watch website under Site Code 04007028. There have been data with moderate levels of bacteria and observations suggesting even higher levels reported by paddlers and fishermen.

Until fairly recently the Little Choctawhatchee River had high bacteria counts every time there was a good rain event. Smaller rain events delivered and still deliver bacteria from livestock in tributaries not far upstream. Large storms caused and may still cause bacteria from sewer overflows to enter the stream. Although the offending Beaver Creek WWTP is closed there has not yet been enough data collected to rule out problems from sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) and while improved the warning system for SSOs is still inadequate. Folks using this site should avoid using it for swimming immediately after and up to perhaps 48 hours after a large rain event.

WATER QUALITY

Passed water quality tests 60-95% of the time
Historical Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on August 30th, 2018. Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on at

For water quality icon legend, click:

CURRENT WEATHER

10°C

Chance of heavy rain

Report Pollution

MONITORING FREQUENCY

SOURCE INFORMATION

S. EPA.

Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper will monitor these sites for E. coli from May to September. If resources allow these sites will at a minimum be monitored once prior to each major summer holiday. If additional resources are available these 5 will be monitored five times a month in May, June, July, August, September to check for contamination. All data will be reported to the media. Sites that fail to meet water quality standards will be reported to county health departments, the local watershed management authority, posted to the blog on the Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper website and reported directly to members of Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper and the Wiregrass Canoe and Kayak Club.

Sites that fail to meet water quality standards will be tested approximately once a week until they meet water quality standards. If they continue to fail to meet water quality standards, efforts will be made to post the sites as failing or have them posted. Sites that meet water quality standards in the early testing period will be tested prior to each major summer holiday. If at any point they fail to meet water quality standards, they will be tested as above.

According to ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
WATER DIVISION – WATER QUALITY PROGRAM, for incidental water contact and whole body water-contact recreation, the bacterial quality of water is acceptable when a sanitary survey by the controlling health authorities reveals no source of dangerous pollution and when the geometric mean E. coli organism density does not exceed 126 colonies/100 ml nor exceed a maximum of 298 colonies/100 mL in any single sample in non-coastal waters.

Our sites are GREEN when E. coli do not exceed a maximum of 199 colonies/100 ml in any single sample.

Our sites are normally YELLOW when the E. coli in a single sample is between 200 and 298 E. coli colonies per 100 mL in a single sample. When the E. coli in a single sample is near 298 colonies per 100 mL AND there are reasons that increases the concern about this site it may be set at RED!

Our sites are RED when the E. coli in a single sample exceeds a 298 colonies/100 mL in any single sample.

WATER QUALITY GRAPH