Georgia’s Precious Blackwaters Turn Green
Georgia’s Precious Blackwaters Turn Green

Georgia is home to hundreds of miles of blackwater streams. These unique stream systems start in cypress and gum (tupelo) swamps and low-lying areas and get their names from the dark tea-colored waters. Freshwater fish diversity is very high, with well over 50 species in some systems. Blackwater streams and rivers are also hauntingly beautiful places to fish, swim, float, hike or just sit and gaze at the dark clear water contrasted against snow-white sand bars.

However, the delicate balance that provides the tea-colored waters is shifting. The streams are turning green from sewage and stormwater runoff entering the waters from aging or poorly-regulated wastewater treatment plants, stormwater systems, agricultural operations and septic tanks. The slimy, green algae that covers the surface of the streams chokes out native mussel species, shifts productive insect assemblages (the prey base for fish) over to less-diverse species. As bacteria consumes the decaying algae, oxygen levels plummet, making the streams uninhabitable for fish. The sugar-sand bars are taking on a brownish hue and grasses and other terrestrial plants are moving in. Despite this growing problem, Georgia currently has no regulations to limit the amount of nutrients in blackwater streams.

It is not too late for Georgia to reverse this trend. Enacting stringent in-stream standards for nutrients in blackwater streams can help restore the natural balance. A similar action was taken for lakes in the state earlier this year. Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper and Satilla Riverkeeper are working to document nutrient levels in blackwater streams and push the state to adopt standards that are protective of these unique ecosystems. So far, we have found excessive levels of nutrients leaving sewage discharge pipes, surging out of stormwater canals and seeping into streams from contaminated groundwater leaving land application systems.

In early 2007, Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper succeeded in stopping a wastewater application on land next to the Canoochee River from Claxton Poultry Farms. The poultry plant was proposing to resume spraying wastewater with high nutrient levels on fields already contaminated by previous operations at the plant. Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper documented contaminated groundwater entering the river from the old sprayfields. We shared this information with the poultry plant, state regulators and the public. The communities along the Canoochee River spoke out against resuming spraying on this contaminated parcel of land and the poultry plant withdrew its application to re-open the old sprayfields.

Satilla Riverkeeper gave input to and now monitors a consent order issued to the City of Douglas on the chronic failure of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, but neither the order nor existing permits address nutrient levels, at all. Meanwhile, state regulators are reexamining permit limits for nutrients and other pollutants throughout the Satilla watershed, and there is growing concern among citizens that permits will be written to allow continued degradation as opposed to restoring the Satilla to its natural state. In particular, we are working to ensure that we return the natural balance of nutrients in the river, as opposed to accepting the current degraded state of affairs. w

Georgia’s Largest Water Supply Reservoir Polluted with Excess Nutrients
By Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Sally Bethea
Georgia’s man-made Lake Lanier is located just 50 miles north of Atlanta. As the lake celebrates its half-century milestone this year it is also receiving notoriety for its high pollution levels. After years of investigations and advocacy by Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Lake Lanier was recently placed on the federal impaired waterways list when officials faced the facts that nutrients in the drinking water supply had reached unacceptable levels. Since 2000, population in the Lanier watershed burgeoned, as has the lake’s algae. Polluted runoff from uncontrolled development has flooded the lake with phosphorus.

For years, Georgia’s environmental agency revealed excess nutrients in the lake, but the state failed to admit that Lake Lanier was impaired to the EPA. Finally in 2006, after Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper repeatedly brought the matter to EPA’s attention, Georgia officials agreed to list the lake as impaired and draft a cleanup plan. In the next two years, the state will spend half a million dollars to determine the source of the lake’s nutrient pollution. With millions of Georgians depending on the lake for drinking water, the health of Lake Lanier is critical.