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

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Our Program Areas

Advocacy

From local development plans to state water laws, CRBI is an advocate for fishable, swimmable, & drinkable water in the upper Coosa River basin & across the state.

Education

In the classroom and on the water, we connect people with their local rivers, mountains, and forests while educating about wildlife, history, & current issues.

Water Monitoring

We train citizen scientists to become the eyes and ears of their own local waterways.  Monitoring data and citizen concerns help direct our focus to streams that need help.

Restoration

Each year, CRBI removes tens of thousands of pounds of trash through clean-ups while working to restore vegetated stream banks that fight erosion and sediment pollution.

promoting fishable, swimmable, drinkable water

The Importance of Macroinvertebrates

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…

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

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…

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CRBI Celebrates 30 Years With a Summer Giveaway!

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…

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Georgia textile mill agrees to stop PFAS pollution  

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…

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

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…

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State Level Regulations Will Impact PFAS Usage

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…

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Address
5 Broad St
Rome, GA 30161

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Phone
(706) 232-2724