Ask DNR Board to Protect our Rivers!

Currently, the state of Georgia allows the transfer of water between river basins without any requirements except that a press release be issued seven days before a permit is granted. The Chattahoochee River loses a net of almost 50 million gallons a day to interbasin transfers (IBTs). Help us fight this irresponsible and impractical policy by signing the No Water Grabs Petition TODAY at www.nowatergrabs.org – we want to get 1,000 signatures BY JANUARY 10!

Click here to read ‘Regulate Water Transfers Carefully’ (January 3, 2011), an Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion-editorial by UCR Executive Director and Riverkeeper Sally Bethea, and learn why Georgia needs meaningful regulation of IBTs.

Volunteers Clean Up Whitewater Creek Park

SEE PHOTO ALBUM

On Saturday, December 11, 53 volunteers gathered to clean up the Whitewater Creek Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. We worked up a sweat in the cold morning weather as we removed about a ton of trash from the site, including a full-sized wrought iron headboard!

Would you like to be a UCR Volunteer? CLICK HERE to sign up online

Make Your Year-End Gift to UCR Today!

GIVE NOW

In 2010, you helped us handle 226 Citizen Hotline Calls, investigate 85 sites resulting in 19 enforcement actions, take 3,831 school children and teachers out on our floating classroom, and protect and/or restore 5,842 linear feet of stream. CLICK HERE to see UCR's 2010 By the Numbers.

Let’s keep the good work going in 2011! Our grandchildren and their children are depending on us to make decisions now that are sustainable, cost-effective and focused on their future. CLICK HERE to donate or give a gift membership.

Georgia Water Coalition Works to Protect River Basins

Currently, the state of Georgia allows the transfer of water between river basins without any requirements except that a press release be issued seven days before a permit is granted. The Chattahoochee River loses a net of almost 50 million gallons a day to interbasin transfers (IBTs). The Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) is working to secure meaningful regulation of IBTs to ensure the fair allocation of water among all users and communities in the state.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

• Go to www.nowatergrabs.org and sign the No Water Grabs Petition. Those who sign on will receive updates and action alerts in the months ahead.
• Click here to read Charting a New Course for Georgia’s Water Security, which addresses the issue of IBTs in the context of the Tri-State Water War.

Judge Rules that Sewage Discharge Would Degrade River

On December 8, UCR received a favorable ruling in our ongoing legal action to protect water quality in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Earlier this year, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division issued a permit that would allow Forsyth County’s Fowler/ Shakerag sewage treatment plants to discharge millions of gallons of treated wastewater into the Chattahoochee River every day with unnecessarily weak limits on phosphorous and fecal coliform bacteria.

On December 8, Administrative Law Judge Kristin Miller ruled favorably in UCR’s appeal on a key antidegradation issue. In her order, Judge Miller found, among other things, that the permitted discharge would degrade the water quality of the Chattahoochee River. The next step will be an evidentiary hearing in January.

LEARN MORE HERE