Water Quality

NPS?VIP Julie Burroughs

The health of the river is a serious issue and affects millions of people. Not only is the Chattahoochee River an important and renewable source of drinking water, the living organisms in the Gulf of Mexico depend on it. The course of the Chattahoochee River, begins in the northeast Georgia, and travels 542 miles downstream, to the Apalachicola Bay, Florida. Where the river meets the sea, an estuary exists. This estuary is a breeding ground and a nursery for fish and shellfish. Here the mixture of fresh water and salt water, and water temperature must be just right for spawning.

Currently, Apalachicola Bay is one of the most productive fisheries in the United-States supporting a multi-million dollar sea food business. Water quality problems are all man made. With education, legislation and stewardship, the river can return to its original grandeur. We depend on its water for our life and the river depends on us for its protection.

 

Chattahoochee Stream Stewards

The Chattahoochee Stream Stewards program was launched in partnership with Georgia Adopt-A-Stream in the summer of 2019. The Chattahoochee Stream Stewards is a volunteer group responsible for monitoring the water quality of over a dozen tributaries that flow through the park and into the Chattahoochee River. Participants conduct chemical tests of our tributaries once a month in order to monitor stream health and detect any new pollutants as soon as they appear. By monitoring streams long term, we hope to identify streams that may need further help: anything from organized trash cleanups to stream restoration projects. View the interactive map of the monitored streams and check out the data collected by this program at Georgia Adopt-A-Stream.

If you care about the quality of the water in the river, enjoy getting out to the more remote reaches of the park, or have a creek you are particularly passionate about, you should join the Chattahoochee Stream Stewards! Visit the park's Volunteers In Parks page for more information.