Congress has approved tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to protect the Chattahoochee River system. The funds were appropriated in this year’s Water Resources and Development Act (Sect. 8141) which President Joe Biden signed into law last week.
The first-of-its-kind law authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to work on water projects up and down the Chattahoochee River throughout the state of Georgia.
“This exciting new program will improve water quality, protect essential public works, and restore ecosystems along the river, which supplies much of our state’s drinking water,” says Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff who introduced the bill in the Senate along with the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Ralph Warnock (D-GA). They had originally asked for $90 million. The version of the bill that passed included $40 million in funding.
Vital natural resource
According to the Georgia River Network, the Chattahoochee supplies 70 percent of metro Atlanta’s drinking water. The headwaters in northern Georgia comprise the smallest watershed providing a major portion of water supply for any metropolitan area in the country.
Despite the state’s dependence on the river for drinking water, more than 1,000 miles of the Chattahoochee watershed do not meet water quality standards, posing potential health risks to humans and wildlife.
“The health of our communities in Georgia is tied to the health of our environment,” says Warnock. He says he was “proud to work with Senator Ossoff to introduce legislation to invest in improving, protecting, and preserving the Chattahoochee River.”
Democratic members of Georgia’s congressional delegation pushed the bill through the House.
Katherine Moore, president of the Georgia Conservancy, says the new law “builds upon the successful efforts of improving Chattahoochee River water quality during the last fifteen years.”
“It is hard to overstate the importance of this river to Georgia, Alabama, and Florida,” says Moore. “This law will provide Georgia and Alabama with new tools to continue the vital conservation and restoration of this precious natural resource for all users.”
In 2019, the National Park Service reported visitors to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area added more than $200 million to the local economy, supporting over 2,000 local jobs.
