A first round of samplings at sites around Floyd County shows few severe problems with the water quality.
“There are some impacts to the habitat from activities such as home construction and cows tromping around, but almost all of the sites are in the middle, or upper middle, range,” said Margaret Tanner, project manager for MACTEC Engineering and Consulting.
Two dozen people attended Tanner’s Thursday presentation of preliminary results from a water assessment sponsored by the Northwest Georgia Regional Water Resources Partnership.
The worst violations of water quality standards were recorded at Little Dry Creek south of Tolbert Park. The samplings showed high levels of fecal coliform bacteria, dissolved oxygen and zinc.
The other site in the North Central Rome sampling area, at Big Dry Creek, also had a slightly high level of fecal coliform and dissolved oxygen.
Click here for maps and data from Floyd County monitoring sites (PDF)
“It’s not surprising there’s more of an impact in the more urbanized area,” Tanner said, although she cautioned that the investigation into possible sources will come later.
Sites were relatively healthy around Cave Spring and east, north and west of Rome — including those downstream of the city’s wastewater treatment plant, Georgia Power Co.’s Plant Hammond and Temple-Inland.
Click here for a map of creeks and streams in Floyd County.
Rome Water and Sewer Director Leigh Ross said emphasis is put on controlling water quality from point sources such as the plants, but most pollution now comes from other activi-ties.
“Higher treatment standards costs utility customers more money and it’s not really helping,” he said. “Dealing with erosion, from construction and farms, would have more of an effect.”
Woodward Creek near Shannon had a high level of fecal coliform and the overall health of the waterway ranked low.
Steve Hulsey, utilities administrator for Floyd County, said the ongoing study will help him make plans for the future.
The county’s water treatment plant is “fed by Woodward Creek, so it’s important to us,” he said. “We’re also looking at the Oostanaula River (as a potential source) down the road.”
The results are from the first six months of an 18-month project that will include a sampling during wet weather as well as two more dry-weather samplings.
Samplings at 45 sites in Floyd and other Northwest Geor-gia counties will be combined as part of a Water Quality Im-provement Study and Implementation Plan for the Coosa River basin.
Subsequent phases will involve designing a plan to protect and restore the region’s water and implementing regulations and practices to carry out the plan. Tanner said the group is working closely with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and federal stimulus money could be available for the project.
“What we’re doing is creating a background view of what resources we have and the quality of those resources,” said Jerry Jennings, a former Floyd County commissioner who chairs the water partnership. “It’s also helping us understand what we need to do to protect and enhance those resources.”
