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Upper
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper: Safeguarding Georgia’s resources
By
Pamela A. Keene
Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper takes all things
water seriously. Aside from being a partner with the Lake Lanier
Association and other organizations in various legal actions to
protect the lake, UCR is a strong public advocate for the Upper
Chattahoochee, officially from the river’s headwaters in the north
Georgia Mountains through Harris County below West Point Dam, an
area of about 4,000 square miles.
The Chattahoochee begins with a tiny spring several
hundred yards below the Appalachian Trail in the southeast corner of
Union County. In addition to Lake Lanier, parts of six counties are
included in the Headwaters region – White, Habersham, Lumpkin,
Dawson, Forsyth and Hall counties. Lanier is one of 14 main stem
reservoirs on the Chattahoochee River – the first major impoundment
on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river system, which is
managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The river flows southwesterly through Georgia to
merge with the Flint River in Lake Seminole on the Florida border,
where its name changes to the Apalachicola as it meanders through
north Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. The headwaters of the
Chattahoochee River, which drain into Lake Lanier above Atlanta,
comprise the smallest watershed, or drainage area, which provides a
major portion of water supply for any metropolitan area in the
country.
“I simply love padding on the river, seeing how
beautiful it is and realizing, that without this river, much of
north Georgia and metro Atlanta would not exist as it does today,”
said Sally Bethea, UCR’s founding director and riverkeeper since
1994.
In 2011, UCR continued its active environmental,
education and legislative goals; advocating for the river in legal
actions and legislation; analyzing hundreds of water samples and
removing 23 tons of trash from waterways; educating nearly 4,000
students and teachers in partnership with Elachee Nature Science
Center; restoring and/or protecting nearly 16,000 linear feet of
streambank; and adding more than 1,000 new members to bring the
organization’s membership to nearly 5,500.
Here, at a glance are a few of UCR’s major
projects/goals for 2012:
• Expand its successful Neighborhood Water Watch
Program to the Gainesville-Hall area; training volunteers to test
local waterways weekly for bacteria levels that UCR then analyzes
using EPA-approved equipment.
• Bring at least 3,800 students and teachers onboard
its floating classroom – the Chota Princess II -- with a goal of
including 800 underserved youth on these voyages of discovery.
• Continue monitoring nutrient levels in the lake
during the growing season to inform the state’s cleanup lake plan
and expedite its implementation to begin this year.
• Present its appeal of Forsyth County’s sewage
discharge permit to the Georgia Court of Appeals with hopes of
securing sufficiently stringent pollution limits in the state permit
to safeguard the river and those who use the Chattahoochee River
National Recreation Area.
• Update its Filling the Water Gap report released in
March 2011 and which focuses on water conservation successes and
missed opportunities in metro Atlanta.
• Oppose new reservoirs that cannot be justified,
harm watersheds without adequate compensation, and whose purpose is
primarily to promote new development.
• Increase the organization’s membership to 6,000,
with an emphasis on diversity and people in the watershed who live
outside Atlanta.
The UCR was founded in 1994 by Rutherford and Laura
Turner Seydel as an environmental advocacy organization dedicated
solely to protecting and restoring the Chattahoochee River Basin —
drinking water source for 3.5 million people.
“We are not opposed to every reservoir but we think
they are a last option,” Bethea said. “We should invest in the
lower-cost, quicker options — efficiency and conservation.”
More info:
www.chattahoochee.org, 404-352-9828
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