EFFECTS OF THE 2007 DROUGHT ON THE WEST GEORGIA REGION

Continuing drought conditions through 2007 raise concern about future water resources for both rural and municipal areas of West Georgia. Since 2000, the population in Carroll County has risen from 87,268 to 107,325 which may cause alarm for preventive measures. This project measures river and creek discharge flow rates in Carroll County in order to asses the availability of present and future drinking water and to help determine any need for potential drinking water reservoirs or well fields. Measurements commenced in July of 2007 as a part of the watershed program. Generally, data was collected biweekly at nine sites along significant streams, some of which directly supply surrounding cities. Methods for the collection of data range from instrumental collection using FP101 flow probes which digitally compute for higher velocity flow to more primitive techniques using a float and tape measure or yard stick while timing and then manually calculating the data for lowest velocity situations. Weekly monitoring of these streams has shown a dramatic decrease in the discharge of current and potential drinking water resources. After the lake, responsible for the water supply in the most southwestern municipal, Bowdon, became dangerously low, city officials decided to remove beaver dams in hope to free restricted flow. One of our collection sites on Turkey Creek, which supplies the above lake, has recorded a drop in flow from 12.44 cubic feet per second(cfs) on July 9th to a less than 1cfs to a “no flow” situation well into November. The width of the stream narrowed by ten feet in just a month's time, while the average depth fell below ten inches. Another main collection site on the Little Tallapoosa, which supplies the city of Carrollton, recorded a drop in flow from 37.8 cfs in July down as low as 7.4 cfs in October and only reaching 12.6 cfs throughout November. With the data we are gathering, along with the USGS data from the Chattahoochee River and Snake Creek, we should be able to supply much needed information for the development of drought prevention models.