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.
In the classroom and on the water, we connect people with their local rivers, mountains, and forests while educating about wildlife, history, & current issues.
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.
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.
We are proud to be among the 2018 Grantees of the Community Foundation of Greater Rome. Their support will allow us to kick off a weekly bacterial monitoring program at popular boat launches with the help of our wonderful volunteers. Read more here.
CRBI Wins Victory For Coosa River Fish; Plant Hammond Water Intake Must Be Improved The Coosa River Basin Initiative, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, recently won a legal challenge to a Clean Water Act permit issued to one of the oldest coal-fired power plants still operating in Georgia. Based on the administrative law judge’s ruling, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division must improve permit conditions by selecting a stop-gap measure to reduce the number of fish and aquatic species…
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has taken aim at a host of environmental laws aimed at protecting our rivers and the public’s health. The National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and Obama Administration rules on the handling of toxic coal ash waste have all been targeted. At this point, most of the changes are only proposed, but the climate in Washington is creating uncertainty for Georgia’s environmental police as well as those businesses, industries and others who…
Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) in June fined Gold Creek Foods in Dawsonville $9,000 for a March spill of ferric chloride that resulted in a complete kill of aquatic life along a 3.7 mile stretch of Flat Creek. According to EPD documents, the spill killed an estimated 8,262 fish, including federally threatened Cherokee darters. In addition to the $9000 fine, EPD is requiring the company to clean up soil at the facility contaminated by ferric chloride, improve its stormwater pollution…
A federal court ruling in October 2017 now has the ball rolling again in the battle between Alabama and Georgia over the use of water in Lake Allatoona and the rest of the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river system. That ruling is forcing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to act on a Cobb County Marietta Water Authority (CCMWA) request made originally in 1981 to allocate more water from Allatoona for water supplies in Metro Atlanta. Since 1963, the Corps, which manages…
The Georgia General Assembly ended the 2018 legislative session on March 29. Now, a month out from Sine Die, we can take a look back on what went right of our rivers and streams and what went wrong. First, the Good: Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act Passes! The Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act (GOSA) passed meaning that this November, Georgia voters will decide a constitutional amendment that would take a portion of the sale tax we already pay when we purchase, hunting,…
