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8/16/2024
WT Staff
 August 16, 2024 1220 pm EDT
Flood update: Savannah River back in the channel near Cylo, locally heavy rainfall forecast for the north
Forty-one reference sites in the monitored streamflow network of the USGS are still in active flood mode Friday including six in south Georgia.
Atlantic basin major rivers continue to overflow in Chatham, Atkinson and Charlton Counties, the Gulf of Mexico drainage area flooding in Clinch County. In Chatham County, Savannah River is no longer out of the channel near Cylo, six inches below flood stage at this update. Ogeechee River continues to spill near Eden, down to less than a foot over the channel and steadily receding.
Little Satilla River remains in flood stage near Offerman, just three inches over the channel now, spilling approximately 33 cubic feet per second to the lowest elevations along the way. Downstream, the Satilla River is still in flood stage at the monitoring site named for Atkinson County, still running close to three feet above the channel and sending more than two thousand cubic feet per second out to the flood plain.
St Mary's River is a foot and a half out near MacClenny, FL, down a foot overnight. Downstream at Folkston Landing in Georgia, St Mary's is 5 feet over the 7 ft channel, also down a foot overnight. Gulf of Mexico feeder Suwannee River is within an inch of the flow depth reported here twenty four hours ago, still more than a foot above flood stage at US441 near Fargo.
Municipal and private groundwater wells in Chatham, Atkinson, Charlton and Clinch Counties have been impacted by this flood and will require intervention to restore potability when the flood waters have fully receded. Wells supplying public utilities are managed as per the Safe Drinking Water Act, boil water advisories are in place until the flood subsides and tests confirm potability of the water supply. For those on private wells, the flood water must fully recede from around the well head before the surrounding surface area, casings and the water itself can be sanitized. Advice for disinfecting wells from Georgia Coastal Health here.
Watch for water advisories in your local area whenever water service has been disrupted or the water pressure drops for any reason. Flush stagnant water from the lines by running the water for several minutes after service is restored. As a precautionary measure for drinking water, maintain water for minimum of one minute at a rolling boil to sanitize potential microbiological contamination.
Hazardous Weather Outlook issued 338 am August 16 by NWS Peachtree City
Isolated to scattered thunderstorms are possible this afternoon
across portions of north Georgia. Some storms may become strong
to severe and capable of producing isolated damaging wind gusts,
frequent lightning, and locally heavy rainfall supportive of
isolated instances of flash flooding. A Slight (level 2 out of 4)
Risk of excessive rainfall and a Marginal (level 1 out of 5) Risk
of severe weather are in effect.
On Saturday and Sunday, isolated to scattered thunderstorms are
possible across a majority of the state. A Marginal Risk (level 1
out of 5) of severe weather is in effect both days. The primary
hazards associated with the strongest storms each day will be
damaging wind gusts, frequent lightning, and locally heavy
rainfall.
Impacting Baldwin-Banks-Barrow-Bartow-Bibb-Bleckley-Butts-Carroll-Catoosa-
Chattahoochee-Chattooga-Cherokee-Clarke-Clayton-Cobb-Coweta-
Crawford-Crisp-Dade-Dawson-DeKalb-Dodge-Dooly-Douglas-Emanuel-
Fannin-Fayette-Floyd-Forsyth-Gilmer-Glascock-Gordon-Greene-
Gwinnett-Hall-Hancock-Haralson-Harris-Heard-Henry-Houston-Jackson-
Jasper-Jefferson-Johnson-Jones-Lamar-Laurens-Lumpkin-Macon-
Madison-Marion-Meriwether-Monroe-Montgomery-Morgan-Murray-
Muscogee-Newton-North Fulton-Oconee-Oglethorpe-Paulding-Peach-
Pickens-Pike-Polk-Pulaski-Putnam-Rockdale-Schley-South Fulton-
Spalding-Stewart-Sumter-Talbot-Taliaferro-Taylor-Telfair-Toombs-
Towns-Treutlen-Troup-Twiggs-Union-Upson-Walker-Walton-Warren-
Washington-Webster-Wheeler-White-Whitfield-Wilcox-Wilkes-
Wilkinson Counties
Georgia: from Coastal Health Region
There are 56 Beach Advisory signs posted along the Georgia coast at popular access points on Tybee, St. Simons, and Jekyll Islands. These signs show the current advisory status of a beach based on the result of the most recent water sample. Our data has shown that elevated bacteria levels are frequently associated with specific weather events, especially heavy rains and strong winds. Significant levels of rainfall increases runoff from surrounding uplands and may contribute to elevated bacteria levels in adjacent waters. Similarly, high winds along with heavy surf conditions will often resuspend sediment loads in the water column and may increase bacteria levels.
No new information has been found pertaining to bluegreen algae reports in Georgia since our last update. Georgia Environmental Protection Division does accept reports from the public of suspicious algal blooms. As we receive updates from EPD, the results will be found here.
WT HAB Tracker
from the satellite monitoring program of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science(NCCOS) and State sources where available
New York
The latest image of Lake Champlain was captured August 15, a cloud obscured image at unknown wind speed. The previous image August 14 is a clear view of northeast Baie Missisquoi appears full of bluegreen algae at extreme high concentration 1 to 3 million cells per 100 ml on both sides of the international border. This bloom reaches south as far as the channel from North Hero Island to Isle la Motte, the south portion of the bloom at 900 thousand cells per 100 ml. St Albans Bay HAB is partially cloud obscured, we see the inner shoreline edge at 1 million cells per 100 ml. Lake Carmi appears clear with no HAB activity; Shelburne Pond is still rocking 2 million cells concentration in Vermont. See our latest report here.
One hundred and sixty-three active HABs are confirmed by NYS authorities Friday morning, down from 171 yesterday. First HABs of the season have been confirmed for Java Lake, Lake Clear and Gorton Lake. New bluegreen reports have come on for Honeoye, Hyde, Chautauqua and Red House Lake, all experiencing a new wave of HABs, some of these water bodies coming out of the 2024 archives after a period of no bluegreen activity. Reports made prior to Aug 1 have gone to the archives. See the impacted water bodies list here.
Lake Erie west basin
The latest image from NCCOS was captured August 15 at wind speed 7.7 mph, mostly cloud obscured with a partial view of the southwest water between clouds. This visible part of the Lake Erie HAB presents a concentration 1 million cells around North Maumee Bay to 600 thousand cells per 100 ml north of Monroe, Michigan shoreline. The Aug 14 image is clear, taken at a lower wind speed, revealing the full extent of the HAB with extreme high concentration hot spots up to 6 million cells per 100 ml, see the satellite image here.
Louisiana: The latest upload from the NCCOS was captured August 15 at higher wind speed 7.9 mph. This image is mostly cloud obscured, a view of Lakes Verret and Palourde, as well as water laying between Bayou Shaffer and Avoca Island Cutoff, the concentration down slightly, 700 thousand cells per 100 ml.
The Aug 14 image shows Lac des Allemands with extreme high concentration hot spot in the west bay along shore up to 3 million cells. Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas are clear again, no HAB activity observed. Lake Fields is showing a high concentration HAB, 1 million in the north half and 2 million cells in the south half. Check out the latest satellite image from NCCOS here.
California: WTCAL connected with Director of EPA for Big Valley Pomo Tribe for an update on Clear Lake. Sarah Ryan has been heading up the HAB surveillance program at Clear Lake, a popular tourist destination north of San Francisco. Big Valley EPA has been engaged in studying and tracking bluegreen growth, communicating with the local population and tourists, communicating with California Water Quality Monitoring Board and directly to the public for more than a decade.
During this time, Big Valley has been investing in regular lab testing for cyanotoxins, aquiring an astute understanding of their water body, including the specific genera of cyanobacteria present at any given time, along with the most critical factor, the levels of various cyanotoxins present in conditions where a bloom is present, and in conditions where no bloom is observed.
Big Valley tests for specific liver toxins and neurotoxins based on first geno-typing the bloom itself. Regular cyanotoxin surveillance in Clear Lake makes this one of a very small number of water bodies in the USA for which we can match a HAB observation (whether by ground-based imaging and reporting or satellite imaging) to a toxin level. This work is in progress, more to follow.
The weekly bluegreen update from California Water Quality Monitoring Boards anticipated last week Friday, August 9 has not been posted as of this report.
The latest HAB Recent Bloom report is dated August 2, seven water bodies are posted with DANGER level advisories, including Lago Los Osos, Lake Chabot, Lake Anza, Discovery Bay, Contra Loma Reservoir, Big Break Regional Shoreline and Copsey Creek. Three water bodies have been posted with HAB Warning level advisories, including Discovery Bay, Tahoe Keys and San Luis Reservoir's Dinosaur Point Boat Launch. Caution advisories have been activated for another 31 sites. See the California HAB tracker report with advisories by watershed region, HAB DANGER and WARNING advisories are pinned to the map with bluegreen tags, the full list is here.
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