Healthy Freshwater Ecosystems in Georgia and Alabama

About this grant

The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper Fund works to strengthen the environmental community’s ability to participate in water allocation discussions affecting Georgia and Alabama. If ecologically sustainable water management policies can be established for river basins in north Georgia and eastern Alabama, they will serve as models for the rest of the Southeast.Multiyear funding will enable the fund to track, analyze and inform water management policy discussions in four key areas: interstate water allocation regimes affecting Georgia and Alabama; Georgia water management planning; state agency drought and water supply planning; and metropolitan Atlanta storm water management. Although different, the four policy discussions are mutually reinforcing.Recent achievements included establishing and leading a network of more than 35 groups with a stake in the outcome of the interstate discussions; securing an interim in-stream flow policy for Georgia; and co-leading the Georgia Water Coalition, which participates in a state effort to establish new water management policies and programs.