Preserving our Treasured Rivers: Campaign for the Conasauga

The campaign to declare Georgia’s first Outstanding National Resource Water (ONRW) along the headwaters of the Conasauga River has an end in sight! As most on you know, the Headwaters of the Conasauga is an amazing spot- nestled in the Chattahoochee National Forest and the Cohutta Wilderness Management Area, the river provides cool, clean water for an abundance of fresh water fish and mussels, many of them on the endangered or threatened species list. In fact, the Conasauga has been called one of the most bio-diverse river ecosystems in the world—a feature which is on display in the Conasauga snorkeling hole, just over the state border in Tennessee If any river is deserving of the first ONRW title in the state it is certainly the Conasauga!

After meeting several times with folks at the EPD we have settled on a rough timeline—November-The DNR board will be briefed on our ONRW proposal-December & January- EPD will open a comment period and respond to comments

February- DNR board will vote on the ONRW proposal

I’ll send out more details as we refine this calendar. Since the last update went out there has been some exciting progress—

ü Mr. Jim Dellinger, who owns 1.5 miles of land along the Conasauga, directly above our proposed ONRW, has signed on to the campaign. His support letter is truly inspiring and I’ll include an excerpt below.

ü New support letters or commitments of support have come from more organizations including the Soque River Watershed Project, Coosawattee Watershed Alliance and Paddle Georgia.

ü Environment Georgia released Troubled Waters to mark the 35^th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. The report analyzes EPA data and reveals that 66 percent of industrial and municipal facilities across Georgia discharged more pollution into our waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow. This troubling finding (and the fact that 58 percent of our surveryed rivers and streams are not fishable our swimable according to EPD) should make the identification and designation of truly pristine and treasured parts of our rivers even more important!

Jennette Gayer, Environment Georgia, 404-892-3573

From a letter to the Dept. of Natural Resources from Mr. Jim Dellinger on October 15, 2007…..

“This is to inform you that as a longtime property owner in the watershed of the Conasauga River I wholeheartedly support the effort to have the River, as it flows throught the Wilderness Area of Murray County, Georgia designated as Georgia’s first Outsanding National Resource Water (“ONRW”) river.

My property, the old B.J. Rice place, adjoins the Wilderness area and totals approximately 1400 acres. The Conasauga runs through my land for approximately one and one half miles as it flows North and North East to join the Jacks River. It would be most pleasing to have this section of the river also designated ONRW at some future date. This property has been under my stewardship for thirty six years

This pristine river has always been treated with the utmost of love and respect by my family. On many occasion I have walked the old railroad bed along the river upstream for several miles to reach the habitat area of native Rainbow and German Brown Trout. The Conasauga has given me and my fishing buddies many days of memorable fly fishing….”