2003 Accomplishments

Co-hosted our First Annual Back to the Chattahoochee Race and Festival for 200 racers and more than 30 participating organizations.

Hosted or co-sponsored 6 river cleanups, 7 adopt-a-stream workshops, 1 instream flow workshop, and handled 297 calls to UCR’s Citizen Response HOTLINE.

As a leader of the Georgia Water Coalition, helped defeat legislation introduced in the 2003 General Assembly which would have allowed the marketing of the state's water for private gain. Promoted an objective, well-funded statewide water planning process.

Helped pass state legislation and regulations to reform Georgia's erosion control programs, and also aided in the negotiation of the federal "general permits" to control stormwater from construction sites which were issued in August 2003.

Actively supported Atlanta's engineering and financial plans to upgrade its sewer system, and convened an advisory panel to assist the city with its water quality monitoring program.

Helped defeat a bill promoted by the Georgia DOT during the 2003 General Assembly which would have exempt the state agency from stream buffer protection requirements.

Analyzed Tristate water allocation proposals for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin and identified flaws that could significantly impact water quality, ecology and recreation. Used this information to engage stakeholders and generate support for additional investigation.

Successfully completed a two-year, model program to control industrial stormwater pollution problems in the highly urban Proctor Creek watershed, which included water quality sampling, community meetings, assessment of industries, and site-specific cleanups.

Completed a fish consumption project to help the state in its efforts to educate at-risk populations about eating contaminated fish in the upper Chattahoochee.

Won a major legal victory when a Hall County Superior Court judge reversed an earlier ruling and found in our favor that the state had inappropriately issued a wastewater permit to Gwinnett County to discharge 40 million gallons per day of treated sewage into Lake Lanier.

Working with the U.S. EPA, kicked off our pilot "Watershed Patch Project" in the headwaters region of the Chattahoochee River for more than 1200 students to learn about their local waterways. Includes a new teacher/student manual available to all Keeper programs.

Developed a "Waters to the Sea" interactive CD-ROM project for the Chattahoochee River Basin to be used by schools during the 2004 school year to reach thousands of students in the Chattahoochee watershed.

Brought 2000 students aboard our floating classroom on Lake Lanier and provided other hands-on watershed education programs for 500 students throughout the Chattahoochee watershed.

Promoted regional water management through active participation in the development of wastewater, stormwater and water supply plans by the 16-county Metro Atlanta Water Planning District and secured important environmentally-friendly amendments to the final plans.