AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE WATER QUALITY OF STREAMS LISTED AS IMPAIRED IN CARROLL COUNTY, GEORGIA

In order to comply with the Federal Clean Water Act Sections 305(b) and 303(d), and under the guidance of the USEPA, the state of Georgia prepares a list of impaired waters within the state, which is updated biennially. Bodies of water are given designated usages and are classified as supporting, partially supporting, or not supporting those uses. The 303(d) list is actually a subset of the 305(b) list of impaired waters and includes water bodies that are not meeting water quality marks even once all current regulatory requirements are met. In Carroll County, eleven streams have been listed on the 303(d) list during this study's periods of interest (the 2004 and 2006 reports). The streams have been listed due to violations in the following parameters: fecal coliform bacteria, biota impacts, fish consumption guidelines, and copper.

The West Georgia Long Term Monitoring Project was undertaken by the Center for Water Resources at the University of West Georgia from 2003-2007. Water quality samples have been collected at numerous sites throughout Carroll County on a monthly basis during this time period, including along most of the 303(d) listed streams. Streams that are 303(d) listed may not be monitored often throughout the year by the state. Our project enabled us to collect a larger dataset for these streams. An analysis was made of the listed streams to determine if our dataset also showed violations for the listed parameters. Our more extensive data set does result in numerous changes in support status for listed streams. Buck Creek makes the list as partially supporting its designated usage (out of compliance 11-25% of the time) for fecal coliform. We had 3 sampling sites along the river: one resulted in a decrease to supporting status, while the 2 downstream sites resulted in a not supporting status (out of compliance >26%). Seven listed streams were analyzed for fecal coliform bacteria and our results indicate that support status changes would be necessary in all of those streams. Three of the streams would change from partially supporting to not supporting, and four streams would upgrade to partially supporting from not supporting. Two streams also make the 303(d) list due to copper violations. Our data would keep one stream's status of not supporting, but a second stream would become partially supporting, rather than not supporting.