Water Quality Monitoring

Neighborhood Water Watch (NWW) is a fast-paced community driven collaborative program between CRK and neighborhood groups, schools, and people in our watershed. The goal is to work together to assess and improve water quality in urban streams, while protecting human health in neighboring communities. Concerned residents from all reaches of the Chattahoochee River basin bring water samples from over 200 stream stations to CRK's laboratories, as part of NWW. Water samples are promptly analyzed for turbidity, conductivity, optical brighteners, and E. coli. Any threats indicated are addressed by CRK, as we work with local governments, neighborhood groups, and leaders to stop public health threats and restore our streams.

The mission of the BacteriAlert program is to collect water samples at three Chattahoochee River locations in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (Medlock Bridge, Powers Ferry and Paces Ferry) to assess how safe the water is for swimming, wading and boating. Results are posted on the USGS BacteriAlert webpage within 24 hours of data collection.

Since 2008, at 15 river locations downstream of Atlanta, CRK has monitored dissolved oxygen levels—a key indicator of a river's health. This initiative is driven by our growing concern that low water levels in summer—which can result in low dissolved oxygen levels—may be harming the river's ecosystem and water quality, as well as impacting the health of the communities and wildlife dependent upon it.

CRK conducts monthly monitoring of nutrient levels in Lake Lanier, West Point Lake, and Lake Walter F. George (Lake Eufaula) between April and October. Because our sampling and quality-assurance plans are approved by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), our data is used by EPD and others to make important regulatory decisions.

In 2018, we launched our Chattahoochee Aquatic Sensor System Integrated (CASSI) program to create a real-time water quality sensor using technology developed by the Stroud Water Research Center. We are deploying the devices (aka CASSIs) in streams and the river to detect conductivity, temperature and turbidity. Every 15 minutes, the CASSIs send the data over a cellular network to a web data portal that we monitor remotely.

Microplastics are small pieces of plastic (less than 5 mm in size) that come from degraded trash in the water or through the wastewater treatment system. CRK is collaborating with researchers at Georgia State University to quantify concentrations of microplastics in the Chattahoochee River and urban tributaries.