The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin is located in the heart of the nation’s sunbelt region. Metropolitan Atlanta, the largest urban area in the southeastern United States, is partly within the ACF Basin. Yet, the headwaters of the Chattahoochee River above Atlanta comprise the smallest watershed, or drainage area, which provides a major portion of water supply for any metropolitan area in the country.

The water in the Chattahoochee Basin is used for public and industrial supply, irrigation, power generation, navigation, and recreation. Surface water is the primary water source in the Piedmont Province of the ACF Basin because groundwater yields from crystalline rock aquifers are low.

Drinking Water: The Chattahoochee River system provides drinking water for about 3.5 million people, including 70% of the people in metro Atlanta (approximately 450 million gallons per day). Water withdrawals are by public or private suppliers and are delivered for domestic, industrial, and commercial use.

Wastewater Assimilation: The River carries away, and assimilates, our treated wastewater, however, it is challenged to handle increasing volumes because of its small size, as it flows through metro Atlanta. Approximately 100 public and private wastewater treatment plants discharge more than 250 million gallons per day into the upper Chattahoochee Basin.

Agriculture: The Basin’s forest cover consists chiefly of second-growth hardwoods and planted pine. Timber is the leading cash crop in the Basin. Total farmland in the Basin has decreased since the 1970s, however, poultry production has been increasing during that same period. Crops with the largest harvested acreage include peanuts, corn, soybeans, and cotton.

Recreation: Because of proximity to the largest metropolitan area in the Southeast, the reservoirs, rivers, and streams of the ACF Basin are heavily used for recreation. In the upper Chattahoochee Basin, this includes Lake Lanier—the most highly visited Corps impoundment in the country, a cold-water trout fishery below Buford Dam within a federal park, and West Point Lake, downstream of Atlanta.

Power: Power generation is the single largest water use. Sixteen of the Basin’s 22 power generating plants are located along the mainstem of the Chattahoochee River. The first power-generating dam, the Eagle-Phenix Dam near Columbus, was originally constructed in 1834 and reconstructed in 1865 to provide hydropower to the mills.

Navigation: Navigation has been an historical use of the waterways of the ACF Basin from Apalachicola Bay to the Fall Line (Columbus). A series of three navigation locks and dams are operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1946, authorization was provided for the maintenance of a 9-foot deep and 100-foot channel from the mouth of the Apalachicola River to Columbus.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Water-Resources Investigations. Report 95-4278.