It's time to go 'Back to the Chatt' with our 10th annual river race & festival!
Paddlers of all ages and skill levels will take to the water for our 10th Annual Back to the Chattahoochee River Race and Festival on Saturday, June 9. The race course begins at Garrard Landing Park on Holcomb Bridge Road and ends at Riverside Park in Roswell, the site of the FREE family-friendly festival, with music and awards presentation.
Organized and presented by UCR in partnership with the National Park Service, Fulton County, and the city of Roswell. Race begins at 9 a.m. and includes open and recreational categories, various age divisions, solo and tandem canoe divisions, as well as kayak and sea kayak divisions. Paddlers wanting a competitive race will traverse the ten-mile course, while recreational paddlers will take the 8-mile course. Both include exciting Class I-II rapids and conclude at Riverside Park. Timing officials will be provided by Georgia Canoeing Association.
The festival at Riverside Park, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., welcomes racers and others to enjoy live music, Riverside Park’s “spray ground,” face painting, and other family-friendly activities, as well as vendors and an array of environmental exhibits. LEARN MORE HERE.
Chattahoochee ranked No. 3 on American Rivers' 'most endangered' list
Faced with threats from two boondoggle reservoir projects, the Chattahoochee River was ranked third on the American Rivers' annual Most Endangered Rivers list released May 15. The Chattahoochee is threatened by the proposed Glades Reservoir (in the headwaters) and the Bear Creek Reservoir (downstream of Atlanta).
Building new large reservoirs to meet water supply needs in the Southeast does not make sense. The project applicants use grossly inflated projections of future water demand to justify the need for reservoirs. Moreover, the projects are far too expensive and would lose a lot of water to evaporation.
“These dams are being sold as critical water supply projects, but they have always been planned as amenity lakes to benefit private landowners," said Sally Bethea, Executive Director and Riverkeeper of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. "When one considers the inflated water supply demands that are based on unrealistic population growth scenarios, and price tags in the hundreds of millions at a time when local governments are struggling, these projects are sham water planning efforts that will benefit a small group of private landowners at the expense of taxpayers and the environment.”
For more on the list, read the press release here. To read the 17-page letter that UCR and partner organizations submitted identifying issues the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must consider, click here.To read more about the Glades project, click here.
Take action here. The list sparked widespread media coverage throughout Georgia, including by the AJC and WABE, as well as this editorial in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
River Revival nets $50,000 to support our programs!
We welcomed more than 600 guests for our 16th Annual River Revival on May 4 underneath the Big Tent at Park Tavern in Piedmont Park! Guests grooved to the music of Burnt Bacon, Julia Haltigan and River Rock Star Award honoree Ben Sollee before a rousing end-of-night performance by Atlanta's own Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics (pictured). We also honored Atlanta singer-songwriter Gareth Asher and veteran rocker and environmental journalist Johnny Colt with our River Rock Star Award. 99X's Mike Kee served as MC for the evening, which also featured food, beer and wine from Park Tavern and beer from SweetWater Brewery.
Guests also bid on an exciting array of items in our silent auction. In a twist this year, we limited the live auction to a "fund the need" auction for our Floating Classroom. Thanks to all who bid on this and our other items! All guests who purchased tickets automatically earned one-year memberships to UCR; we encourage new members to explore our website for upcoming events and volunteer opportunities.
SweetWater will kick off its annual Save the Hooch Campaign later this month; the annual fundraising effort will run from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July.
Georgia Water Coalition's 'Dirty Dozen' exposes worst offenses
On Nov. 5, Georgia’s leading water protection group named its “Dirty Dozen” for 2011, exposing the worst offenses to Georgia’s waters. Representing more than 300,000 Georgians, the Georgia Water Coalition announced the list at a celebration marking its 10th year of advocating for clean water.
Two Chattahoochee watershed issues were included on the list — the state’s failure to monitor the minimum flow in the river at Atlanta to ensure that water quality standards are met at all times below the city, and the proposed Glades reservoir in Hall County that would negatively impact downstream communities and public coffers.
“Too often in Georgia, the fox is watching the hen house,” said UCR’s Sally Bethea, a former member of the state's Department of Natural Resources Board and who was removed during a purge in 2007 that also eliminated three other dedicated conservationists. “Some of the problems on this list have been happening for decades, and the agency that is supposed to fix the problems can’t, or won’t. The failures go deeper than lack of funding.”
In spite of ruling in favor of Georgia, tri-state resolution remains uncertain
Last summer, a federal court validated Georgia’s access to Lake Lanier for water supply. The Corps of Engineers now has until the end of summer to determine the extent to which the agency can operate Lanier for water supply without impairing other authorized purposes, including flood control, navigation, and hydropower.
What has not been decided is how much Georgia will get for water supply. In fact, we remain no closer to reaching a deal with Alabama and Florida over how to allocate the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basin than we were decades ago when the dispute began. Learn more about the tri-state water conflict here.
Making matters worse is Georgia’s ongoing emphasis on building environmentally destructive and expensive reservoirs. During these tough economic times, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on new reservoirs is fiscally irresponsible.
Instead, we should work to reduce our demand by conserving more. To learn what you can do to help, visit UCR’s “No Time to Waste” page.
As a leader of the Tri-State Conservation Coalition and a member of the ACF Stakeholders, UCR will continue to advocate for water conservation and healthy river flows that protect fish, wildlife, recreation, and downstream communities, as well as metro Atlanta's drinking water.
Paddlers of all ages and skill levels will take to the water for our 10th Annual Back to the Chattahoochee River Race and Festival on Saturday, June 9. The race course begins at Garrard Landing Park on Holcomb Bridge Road and ends at Riverside Park in Roswell, the site of the FREE family-friendly festival, with music and awards presentation. 
Faced with threats from two boondoggle reservoir projects, the Chattahoochee River was ranked third on the American Rivers' annual Most Endangered Rivers list released May 15. The Chattahoochee is threatened by the proposed Glades Reservoir (in the headwaters) and the Bear Creek Reservoir (downstream of Atlanta).
We welcomed more than 600 guests for our 
On Nov. 5, Georgia’s leading water protection group named its 
Last summer, a federal court validated Georgia’s access to Lake Lanier for water supply. The Corps of Engineers now has until the end of summer to determine the extent to which the agency can operate Lanier for water supply without impairing other authorized purposes, including flood control, navigation, and hydropower. 
