The West Georgia Watershed Assessment (WGWA) is an intensive yearlong study done in 2001 to determine the water quality of 38 streams in Carroll and Heard Counties, Georgia. During the study 21 water quality parameters were measured at 70 sample stations. Samples were collected from 12 to 52 times at each sample station. The data set generated for WGWA contains 40,320 water quality measurements. The WGWA was managed to determine baseline water quality of the streams and the variations of water quality with seasonality, rainfall, land usage, and point and nonpoint sources could be determined. Although rainfall for 2001 was about 7 inches below the average of approximately 50 inches per year for west Georgia, there were numerous winter to summer rain events. The normally dry fall of west Georgia was enhanced with 25 days without rain.

Results of the study show that most variation in water quality parameters correlated with seasonality, land usage, rainfall, and/or point sources. Dissolved oxygen (DO) shows normal seasonality except where stagnant water is created because of impoundments. During the fall of 2001, beaver dams coupled with low flow caused DO readings as low as 0.45 mg/L at one upstream sample station on the Little Tallapoosa River. Turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), fecal coliform bacteria, and total phosphorus show positive correlations with rainfall. Specific conductivity and pH show a negative correlation with rainfall. However, the correlations are not always simple; rainfall produces high turbidity (70-140 NTU) and TSS (70-140 mg/L) in most streams, but where human activities disturb steep upland slopes values reach 1400 for both turbidity and TSS