Water Quality

Water, water everywhere, it’s time to stop and think! Do you ever wonder about water? Where it comes from? How it gets from one place to another? How clean is it, and how can we make it cleaner? Whose water is it? And whose responsibility is it to protect this life-giving resource?

Increasingly, water quality issues are front page news. Whether in relation to set-back regulations for developers, intra-state water rights, saltwater intrusion into aquifers or groundwater pollution from hog and chicken farms, clean water is no longer something we take for granted. Reflecting this reality, scientists and researchers are addressing the need for more extensive data on Georgia’s watershed, and educators are focusing more on water quality in the classroom.

Georgia Sea Grant is looking further and further upstream to help improve and protect the quality of water on which our precious coastal resources depend. Human activities throughout the state affect the health of coastal marshes and estuaries and, in turn, fisheries and other marine life. Most of the rivers that drain the state flow to the Georgia coast. On the coast, water from the interior mixes with seawater to form one of the most productive environments on earth: the Georgia salt marsh. It is critical that we develop a deep understanding of this ecosystem, in order to protect the marsh and estuary system that nourishes our fisheries and attracts tourists and new residents to enjoy its beauty.

Duplin River Monthly Monitoring
UGA MAREX specialists assist with monthly water quality monitoring for Sapelo Island’s National Estuarine Research Reserve (SINERR) Program.  Water samples are collected by field technicians and analyzed in the MAREX lab. As part of NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS), data are compiled annually and uploaded to the NERRS Centralized Data Management Office (CDMO) site. The data are reviewed and then posted by the System-wide Monitoring Program (SWMP), whose goal is to “identify and track short-term variability and long-term changes in the integrity and biodiversity of representative estuarine ecosystems and coastal watersheds for the purpose of contributing to effective national, regional and site specific coastal zone management.”

Ogeechee/Canoochee Riverkeeper Quarterly Monitoring
UGA MAREX assists with the bacterial analysis for the Ogeechee/ Canoochee Riverkeeper organization’s quarterly water quality monitoring program by measuring E. coli bacteria in samples collected from a variety of locations within the Ogeechee/Canoochee River Watershed.

Thinking Outside the Bag: Re-usable Grocery Bags Project
UGA MAREX promotes the use of re-usable bags as a practical option for Georgia’s consumers to reduce marine debris on the coast. Targeting local grocery stores, MAREX hosted outreach events to educate the public about the negative impact of plastic in the ocean environment and distribute free re-usable bags. In one month, 500 bags were given away to members of the public and hundreds of shoppers learned about the impacts of marine debris. With funding help from the Department of Natural Resources, MAREX produced two styles of marine-themed re-usable grocery bags, which were given free of charge during a variety of outreach events.

For more information on water monitoring or the Re-usable Grocery Bags Project, contact Katy Smith, Research/Water Quality Coordinator, University of Georgia Marine Extension Service, at 912-262-3338 or klaustin@uga.edu.

Links to Water Quality Resources
American Water Works Association (AWWA)
Broad River Watershed Association
Clean Water Network Address
Educating Young People About Water (National Agricultural Library/Water Quality Information Center/US Department of Agriculture)
EPA
Georgia Adopt-a-stream Program
Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD – a division of Georgia Department of Natural Resources)
Georgia’s Groundwater Resources (UGA Cooperative Extension Service)
Georgia Water Wise Council (Georgia Chapter of the American Water Works Association – AWWA)
The Groundwater Foundation
Land Margin Ecosystem Research (LMER)
Learning to Use Water Wisely (Savannah Chatham County Water Conservation Program
Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
NEMO Homepage (Non-point Education for Municipal Officials)
Permitting and Regulatory Information (US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District)
Purdue University
Sierra Club’s Wetlands and Clean Water
UGA River Basin Science and Policy Center
United States Geological Service (USGS)
US Legal Code site “Title 33 – Navigation and Navigable Waters Chapter 26: Water Pollution Prevention and Control”
“Who’s Water Is It Anyway? A Survey of Georgia Law on Surface Water and Groundwater Withdrawal Rights”