You Can Help UCR Win $20,000 for Neighborhood Water Watch Program!

UCR is one of 41 nationwide finalists in the Tom's of Maine “50 States for Good” contest, a national initiative to support the goodness behind grassroots community projects. Five organizations will share in our $100,000 sponsorship fund. If UCR wins, our $20,000 will go to our Neighborhood Water Watch program (see story below), specifically to test water quality in order to identify problems and stop pollution in inner-city neighborhood streams.

It only takes SIX SECONDS - all you have to do is CLICK HERE, scroll to find Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper's name, and cast your vote. Please vote once a day though September 10 and help make metro Atlanta's streams cleaner and safer and its communities healthier!  Click here to read a USA Today article on the contest.

UCR to Honor Ray Anderson, Georgia Tech and Others at Patron Dinner

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS NOW

Each year at our Patron Appreciation Dinner, UCR honors individuals, institutions and businesses that have made a significant difference in helping to protect our river. This year, on September 24 at the Georgia Aquarium, we will honor Ray Anderson and Interface, Inc., with our prestigious River Guardian Award for Ray’s progressive stance on industrial ecology and sustainability, a visionary model in the Chattahoochee watershed.

We will present Georgia Tech with our first River Sustainability Award for its significant investment in, and leadership on behalf of, water and energy efficiency as exemplified by campus sustainability programs. Reps. Debbie Buckner and Doug McKillip will be honored for their extraordinary efforts to protect Georgia’s waterways during the 2010 legislative session.

Click here for all the details. Tickets go on sale August 2.

Georgia Riverkeepers Present Solutions to the Tri-State Water War

 

Thursday, July 15, UCR, along with Coosa River Basin Initiative, and Flint Riverkeeper, issued a call to this year’s gubernatorial candidates and other leaders to change course and resolve the Tri-State Water War with an agreement that is fair to all communities and water users while providing for metro Atlanta’s water supply

At a media briefing commemorating the one-year anniversary of Judge Magnuson’s decision on Lake Lanier, we issued a three-point plan for resolving the water conflict. The plan, entitled Charting a New Course for Georgia’s Water Security, has been endorsed by all seven of Georgia's Riverkeepers

• Click here for more information and to download a copy of Charting a New Course for Georgia's Water Security.
• Click here to read a recent column by the AJC's Jay Bookman on this issue.
  

UCR Working to Track the Source of Pollution in Tanyard Creek

UCR is working with the city of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management to uncover the cause of high pollution levels in Tanyard Creek. As part of our Neighborhood Water Watch Program, we have been monitoring Tanyard Creek for E. coli in partnership with the Collier Hills Civic Association (CHCA). For the past several months, volunteers from CHCA have taken weekly water samples from the creek and delivered them to UCR for analysis. Tests revealed periodic high levels of E. coli, which can be an indicator of sewage contamination in the creek. We are confident that, working in cooperation with the city, we will be able to identify the source and stop the contamination.

Read more on this story in the Buckhead Reporter. Click here for more information about our Neighborhood Water Watch Program.