VALDOSTA – Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson and 40-plus city and Lowndes County residents gathered Saturday for a three-hour trip down the Withlacoochee River. 

The Mayor’s Paddle is a fundraiser and kayaking experience that started in 2020 via a partnership with WWALS Watershed Coalition.

“Last year, we formed it just to have a conversation with the cities and municipalities to our south, and to anybody who loved the river here,” Matheson said. “It was our way of saying we’re fully and only committed to keeping this waterway clean and useful for everybody in the area.”

It was never meant to be a dumping ground, Matheson said. Suwannee Riverkeeper John Quarterman agrees with the notion.

Once a month, WWALS tests the water quality for 80 miles of the river. The group tested the water just last Thursday and found the water clean.

Valdosta had a problem with chronic sewer spills, Quarterman said in a past interview. Fortunately, he added, there hasn’t been a big one since 2019.

There’s been the occasional smaller spill like the one on Mildred Street in early January, but so far the city has kept spills from happening too frequently.

Still, WWALS places a watchful eye on Valdosta and its neighboring cities. For Quarterman and Matheson, the paddle is a chance to review how the city’s utilities infrastructure is holding up.

Matheson said in 2020 the city made promises that it’s kept up to this day. Take for instance the catch basin that was finished in October, he said.

“That’s seven and a half million gallons and that was a feat of engineering – the pipes and the pumps that go underground,” Matheson said. “We did 35 more manhole rehabs (too).”

In 2020, the City of Valdosta approved more than $100 million in improvements which included back-up generators and/or back-up pumps at 35 of the 37 lift stations, said Darryl Muse, city utilities director.

“We have about $450,000 of additional power resiliency being built into the Remer Lift Station right now, and about $1.5 million being put into the water treatment plant,” Muse said.

Valdosta has 23,000 sewer connections throughout and it’s the utilities department’s job to make sure they don’t negatively impact the environment.

Six to eight million dollars are invested annually into the river’s infrastructure allocated by the city’s capital improvement plan.

In 2021, Muse said utilities is installing manhole monitoring equipment, planning to generate a hydraulic model for the sewer system and initiating devices to detect sewer system anomalies.

Matheson said he was proud of the Paddle turnout. The Paddle had a similar turnout of about 40 people last year.

Paddle events such as the Mayor’s Paddle are sponsored by WWALS, free to members and $10 for non-members.

Having the mayor support the event brings a wider variety of people out, so WWALS can raise more funds for its regular processes. For example, water quality testing costs money, Quarterman said.

“Each of the kits for the tests are about $400, then each test costs right about $10 and that’s for the materials for that one bacterial test,” he said. “The other tests, there are chemicals that are eventually used up or get too old and you have to replace them.”

The fundraiser and membership money also go toward things such as printing and regular marketing expenses.

Quarterman said it’s all worth it because paddlers will get to see the river’s thriving environment. A plethora of fish species live within the river, but the water’s dark coloring doesn’t allow them to be seen.

One animal you’ll always see are turtles, he said.

“You’ll often see birds – buzzards, there’s a whole flock of them down here,” Quarterman said. “Sometimes you’ll see a great blue heron, which we really like because it’s our totem animal. And we almost never see alligators on this stretch but it’s possible.”