In the past four years, recreational users of the Chattahoochee National River and Recreation Area had an easy way to determine whether the river was healthy enough for wading, fishing, or boating. With the click of the mouse, users could visit the BacteriALERT web site to check bacteria levels in the river-or they could look for signs posted along the waterway. Yet budget cuts have ended this popular program, leaving river users with no clear way to determine water quality.
Since 2000, volunteers in the BacteriALERT program have gathered water samples at three key points on the Chattahoochee, an urban river in the greater Atlanta area. Scientists then tested the samples for levels of fecal coliform bacteria, better known as E. coli, keeping daily records and gathering trend data. If bacteria levels were higher than 235 colonies per 100 mL of water-the level at which a waterway is considered unsafe for human contact-park officials would post signs along the river informing users of potential risks. The program also gave staff their best indications of the overall health of the river, which had long been decried as polluted. To their surprise, the river was found to be healthy the vast majority of the time.
The annual $120,000 cost of the program was funded by a public-private partnership that included the National Park Service, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), and the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper group. This year, budget cuts forced the state to cut its $30,000 contribution, which had been met by USGS as part of a matching-funds program. Without the state's portion, USGS's money was tied up. In October, with both USGS and the Park Service citing a long backlog of projects to be funded, the BacteriALERT program was halted.
Conservationists are now seeking alternate funding sources to restart the program, which was considered a model partnership. "The USGS role had been to do the training, analyze the samples, and put the data up on the web page," says Sally Bethea, executive director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. "The Park Service did sampling on the upper two sites in the park, and we did the bottom one. The beauty was that we were finally able to get real data on what was happening in terms of this dynamic river park. The stunning result was that, 75 to 80 percent of the time, the E. coli levels were below 235 colonies [per 100 mL], sometimes well below 235."
As an urban river, the Chattahoochee is subjected to wastewater discharges and storm runoff that occasionally spike bacterial levels. And the pressures are mounting. Billions of dollars of infrastructure investments are planned for the greater Atlanta area over the next 25 years, Bethea says. "Yet a program that cost at most $125,000 and gave some indication of how the river was faring is being cut. It's a shame because it is not only a good example of using scientific information in a real-world venue, but also one of the best examples of federal and state agencies working with [nongovernmental organizations] to provide a service to the community."
Even without the BacteriALERT program, the Georgia EPD will continue to conduct sporadic monitoring of the river. But park officials and conservationists had wanted to use the data as the basis for new water-quality improvement programs. "We had wanted to do more than identifying the problem and communicating the issue," says David Ek, chief of science and resource management at the park. "And now we can't do that. We've had to step back from step one."
