The poster is intended for a general audience that includes educators, citizens' groups, and government officials. The poster was unveiled at the Fifth Biennial Georgia Water Resources Conference at the University of Georgia on March 20-22, and received intense interest from the scientific community, teachers, and the public.
The poster describes how the activities of intensive urbanization affect the water quality of the Chattahoochee River and it's tributaries in the Metropolitan Atlanta area, and suggests how individuals can be a part of the solution to point- and nonpoint-source pollution. The poster's attractive layout consists of informative nontechnical text, with nine accompanying factual/photo panels that describe the effects of population growth, erosion and sedimentation, urban runoff, phosphorus loads, sewage overflows, waterborne pathogens, toxic metals, pesticides, and PCBs and chlordane in fish.
Central to the poster is a colorful shaded-relief and land-use map highlighting the twenty-county Metropolitan Atlanta area; a map showing the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in relation to locations of drinking-water intakes, wastewater outfalls, and combined sewer overflows; and an 1860 to present-day timeline highlighting selected events such as agriculture, mining, dam-building, water-use/supply/treatment scenarios, population trends, and various water-quality legislation that have occurred or have been ongoing during the development of the upper Chattahoochee River watershed.
You may also read the Introduction to this poster.
For additional information on the National Water Quality Assessment Program's Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin Study, visit the study home page.
Copies of the poster, published as USGS Water-Resources Investigations Report 96-4302, "EVERYONE LIVES DOWNSTREAM: Water-Quality Issues Related to Urban Development of the Upper Chattahoochee River Watershed," by Daniel J. Hippe, Caryl J. Wipperfurth, Evelyn A. Hopkins, Elizabeth A. Frick, and David J. Wangsness, are available from the U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Information Services, Box 25286, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO, 80225.