Coosa River Basin Initiative

The Importance of Macroinvertebrates

August 21, 2023

What Are Macroinvertebrates? Macroinvertebrates serve as the ecological cleaning services in aquatic ecosystems. While the name may sound unfamiliar at first glance, Northwest Georgia is home to many macroinvertebrates you likely know, such as Crayfish, Mayflies, Dragonflies, Clams, Mussels, and more! While here these small and sometimes bothersome creatures may seem like little more than pests, they’re actually crucial to our rivers’ ecosystems. These organisms affect even our local water sources such as the Coosa River Basin and serve an…

Why Test for E. coli? Here’s What You Need to Know…

August 2, 2023

Blog Posts, Lake Allatoona, Water Monitoring

Written by Courtnee Davenport Every year, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, CRBI sends out dedicated field techs to collect water samples from 30 boat ramps, public beaches, and rivers from Weiss Lake to Allatoona Lake for Swim Guide. The goal for collecting these samples is to find out how much E. coli is present in these popular recreational areas. In order to help our community better understand what E. coli is, where it comes from, and why it matters…

CRBI Celebrates 30 Years With a Summer Giveaway!

June 30, 2023

Blog Posts, Events

2023 is CRBI’s 30th anniversary year! We’ve accomplished a lot for clean water across our 5,500 square mile river basin with the support of our dedicated members over the last 3 decades! You can read more about our history here. We want to continue to expand our community of members as we head into the next 30 years so that we can accomplish even more for river basin. That’s why we’re doing a membership drive for the month of July…

Georgia textile mill agrees to stop PFAS pollution

May 11, 2023

Advocacy, Press Releases

Coosa River Basin Initiative, SELC reach resolution to protect downstream communities ROME, Ga. — In a victory for the health of Georgia’s Chattooga River, Alabama’s Weiss Lake, and downstream communities, a major textile mill in northwest Georgia has committed to permanently cease the use of PFAS and take action to reduce water pollution. Located on the Chattooga River, the textile mill discharged wastewater polluted with per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to the municipal wastewater treatment plant in Trion, Georgia. Because…

Rome News Tribune Article Covers Beginning Stages of CRBI’s PFAS chemical testing

March 17, 2023

Coverage, Water Monitoring

Rome News Tribune published an article that gives a great overview of CRBI’s plans for a multi-year study to determine the extent of PFAS contamination in Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama. While it is clear that many of the waterways in our watershed are contaminated by PFAS chemicals from upstream manufacturers, the extent of the contamination is yet to be verified. We will be collaborating with Coosa Riverkeeper in Alabama to test sites and Cyclopure, a company in California to…

State Level Regulations Will Impact PFAS Usage

February 24, 2023

Advocacy, Blog Posts

In the summer of 2022 the EPA released new health advisories (HAs) for a chemical group known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). These chemicals are widespread in the environment since they have been commonly used in manufacturing since the 1940s. They are used in the production of everyday items particularly carpet and textiles, non-stick cookware, food packaging, firefighting foam, aerospace, automotive production, construction materials, and electronics. The health advisory comes after mounting scientific evidence is proving that PFAS…

Coosa River Basin Initiative

to protect, preserve, and restore one of North America’s most biologically diverse river systems

Is it safe to swim at your favorite spot?

Advocacy

Education

Water Monitoring

Restoration