Coosa river basin initiative
Encyclopedia
Coosa River Basin Initiative(CRBI) is a 501c3 grassroots
environmental organization based in Rome, Georgia
with the mission of informing and empowering citizens to protect, preserve and restore North America's most biologically diverse river basin, the Coosa
. Since 1992, the staff, board and members have served as advocates for "the wise stewardship of the natural resources of the Upper Coosa River basin, or watershed, which stretches from southeastern Tennessee and north central Georgia to Weiss Dam in Northeast Alabama. This includes the Coosa River, the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers and the tributaries of these waterways as well as the land drained by these streams and the air that surrounds this land area."
A member of the Waterkeeper Alliance
, CRBI is also known as the Upper Coosa Riverkeeper. As such, they work to enforce the Clean Water Act
, by monitoring pollution and polluters. When pollution problems are identified all necessary means , including legal action, are utilized to correct these problems.
As a member of the Georgia Water Coalition and Alabama Rivers Alliance, CRBI works to influence water resource policy in both Georgia and Alabama so that clean and plentiful water is available now and in the future. The organization works in four program areas: advocacy, education, water monitoring and restoration.
In addition to its Rome office, CRBI has a chapter organization, New Echota Rivers Alliance, which operates from Calhoun, Georgia and keeps watch over the Oostanaula River and its tributaries.
CRBI originally operated through the work of dedicated volunteers in a small office in the back of Brown’s business. CRBI has grown to become a visible presence in the decision-making processes concerning the region’s natural resources.
Today, CRBI occupies a Broad Street office in downtown Rome’s business district.
Training hundreds of citizens to monitor rivers and creeks throughout the basin.
Citizens collect data which is compiled by CRBI, the City of Rome, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, and Alabama Water Watch. Trends in water quality are noted and any unusual findings are researched further to ensure no illegal activities are occurring that affect water quality.
Educating thousands of Coosa River Basin citizens in classrooms, civic meetings, public forums, workshops, print and broadcast media and in a quarterly newsletter, Mainstream.
Joe has served CRBI as a board member since 1999, and began full time work as Executive Director and Riverkeeper in January 2005. He is a nature/landscape photographer and writer whose work has been published in numerous national and regional magazines and is featured in three books, Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains and River Song-A Journey Down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers. He has studied and reported extensively on water resource issues in Georgia since 1994. He and his daughter and her mother spent 26 days canoeing the 160-mile length of the Etowah River in 2002. In 2007, he was the recipient of a national River Hero award from River Network. He is a 1988 graduate of Berry College where he studied communications and agriculture.
David Promis, Program Coordinator
David joined CRBI in November 2007 after working at Columbus State University's Oxbow Environmental Learning Center in Columbus, Georgia. David brings some 20 years of environmental and education experience to CRBI. He has worked with Georgia's Department of Natural Resources designing water quality education programs for schools and public/private sectors; he served as the Education Director of the Outdoor Activity Center with Atlanta Public Schools; and worked at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. From 1988-1990 he served as president of the Georgia Environmental Education Council (now Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia). A graduate of the State University of West Georgia where he majored in biology, David later earned his masters and doctorate in education at Auburn University. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and was named to the 1999 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.
Sherry Akins, Membership Coordinator
Sherry joined CRBI in 2008, bringing her experience in database programming to help manage CRBI's growing fellowship of members. Her background includes data management for the local Board of Education and court system, and her bubbling personality and numerous friends throughout the community support and compliment all of the CRBI staff and volunteers.
Mike Sarver, Vice-President, Mike Sarver, ATT retired and resident of Rome, Georgia
Meredith Brown, Treasurer
, accountant
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Ed Bostick, Secretary, retired biology professor and resident of Cartersville, Georgia
Billy Grant, business owner, landscape architect
and resident of Cedartown, Georgia
Steve Hale, web developer
and resident of Cave Spring, Georgia
John Scott Husser, Jr., attorney
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Richard Lindsay, retired educator and resident of Chattooga County, Georgia
Mary Lucchese, retired physician
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Carolyn Landrem, president of the Weiss Lake Improvement Association and resident of Centre, Alabama
Carol McNavish, community volunteer and resident of Woodstock, Georgia
Carl Melear, retired forester and resident of Armuchee, Georgia
Katie Owens, field manager for The Nature Conservancy
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Joel Murphy, engineer
and resident of Calhoun, Georgia
Terrell Shaw, educator and resident of Rome, Georgia
Board of Advisors
Bill Harbin, radiologist, Rome, Georgia
Jerry Jennings, professor at Berry College
and former Floyd County Commissioner, Rome, Georgia
George Pullen, retired college instructor and former Rome City Commissioner, Rome, Georgia
Bill McLemore, certified public accountant, Rome, Georgia
Todd Carroll, attorney, Rome, Georgia
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
environmental organization based in Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
with the mission of informing and empowering citizens to protect, preserve and restore North America's most biologically diverse river basin, the Coosa
Coosa River
The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia. The river is about long altogether.The Coosa River is one of Alabama's most developed rivers...
. Since 1992, the staff, board and members have served as advocates for "the wise stewardship of the natural resources of the Upper Coosa River basin, or watershed, which stretches from southeastern Tennessee and north central Georgia to Weiss Dam in Northeast Alabama. This includes the Coosa River, the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers and the tributaries of these waterways as well as the land drained by these streams and the air that surrounds this land area."
A member of the Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance
Waterkeeper Alliance is an environmental organization founded in 1999, responding to a growing movement of organizations with the name Riverkeeper, Baykeeper, Soundkeeper, and other related "keeper" names, of which there are over 150 around the globe...
, CRBI is also known as the Upper Coosa Riverkeeper. As such, they work to enforce the Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
, by monitoring pollution and polluters. When pollution problems are identified all necessary means , including legal action, are utilized to correct these problems.
As a member of the Georgia Water Coalition and Alabama Rivers Alliance, CRBI works to influence water resource policy in both Georgia and Alabama so that clean and plentiful water is available now and in the future. The organization works in four program areas: advocacy, education, water monitoring and restoration.
In addition to its Rome office, CRBI has a chapter organization, New Echota Rivers Alliance, which operates from Calhoun, Georgia and keeps watch over the Oostanaula River and its tributaries.
History
After a 1991 meeting in Keith, Georgia with a consortium of citizens fighting local battles over everything from landfills to chipmills, Rome businessman, Jerry Brown, developed the vision of a regional organization that would fight environmental abuses in the Coosa River Basin, and CRBI was soon born. Its first success was stopping a landfill planned upstream from Weiss Lake.CRBI originally operated through the work of dedicated volunteers in a small office in the back of Brown’s business. CRBI has grown to become a visible presence in the decision-making processes concerning the region’s natural resources.
Today, CRBI occupies a Broad Street office in downtown Rome’s business district.
staff
The organization employs a professional full time staff of two people who coordinate volunteers and work with an 15-member board of directors and a 6 member advisory board to design and implement advocacy, education, water monitoring, restoration and organizational development programs. More than 800 dues paying members support the organization with their money and volunteer services.Accomplishments
Since its founding in 1992, CRBI’s advocacy, education, restoration and water monitoring programs have helped improve water quality in the Coosa River Basin and have helped citizens better understand water resource issues. The organization’s major accomplishments include:- Forcing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to uphold the Clean Water Act through a lawsuit requiring the EPA to set Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) on our impaired waterways. TMDLs limit the amount of non-point source pollution allowed to enter polluted waterways.
- Won a $500,000 settlement against the developer of a large retail center, helping to protect streams and preserve habitat for endangered fish species.
- Stopping a plan to “transfer” metro Atlanta , GA sewage to the Coosa River Basin by working successfully with state legislators forcing metro Atlanta communities to rethink their growth strategies.
- Stopping the dumping of indigo dye in the Chattooga RiverChattooga RiverThe Chattooga River is the main tributary of the Tugaloo River. Its headwaters are located southwest of Cashiers, North Carolina, and it stretches to where it has its confluence with the Tallulah River within Lake Tugalo, held back by the Tugalo Dam...
by carpet manufacturers and the improper land application of wastewater sludge in Dalton.
- Stopping a hot water discharge on Smith-Cabin Creek in Floyd County by Temple-Inland Paperboard & Packaging.
- Defeating water legislation that would have allowed Georgia’s water to be bought and sold to the highest bidder. CRBI worked closely with other environmental groups throughout Georgia in the Georgia Water Coalition to keep Georgia’s water as a public resource.
Training hundreds of citizens to monitor rivers and creeks throughout the basin.
Citizens collect data which is compiled by CRBI, the City of Rome, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, and Alabama Water Watch. Trends in water quality are noted and any unusual findings are researched further to ensure no illegal activities are occurring that affect water quality.
Educating thousands of Coosa River Basin citizens in classrooms, civic meetings, public forums, workshops, print and broadcast media and in a quarterly newsletter, Mainstream.
Staff
Joe Cook, Executive Director & RiverkeeperJoe has served CRBI as a board member since 1999, and began full time work as Executive Director and Riverkeeper in January 2005. He is a nature/landscape photographer and writer whose work has been published in numerous national and regional magazines and is featured in three books, Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains and River Song-A Journey Down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers. He has studied and reported extensively on water resource issues in Georgia since 1994. He and his daughter and her mother spent 26 days canoeing the 160-mile length of the Etowah River in 2002. In 2007, he was the recipient of a national River Hero award from River Network. He is a 1988 graduate of Berry College where he studied communications and agriculture.
David Promis, Program Coordinator
David joined CRBI in November 2007 after working at Columbus State University's Oxbow Environmental Learning Center in Columbus, Georgia. David brings some 20 years of environmental and education experience to CRBI. He has worked with Georgia's Department of Natural Resources designing water quality education programs for schools and public/private sectors; he served as the Education Director of the Outdoor Activity Center with Atlanta Public Schools; and worked at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. From 1988-1990 he served as president of the Georgia Environmental Education Council (now Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia). A graduate of the State University of West Georgia where he majored in biology, David later earned his masters and doctorate in education at Auburn University. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and was named to the 1999 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.
Sherry Akins, Membership Coordinator
Sherry joined CRBI in 2008, bringing her experience in database programming to help manage CRBI's growing fellowship of members. Her background includes data management for the local Board of Education and court system, and her bubbling personality and numerous friends throughout the community support and compliment all of the CRBI staff and volunteers.
Board of directors
Nina Lovel, President, research and information coordinator and resident of Rome, GeorgiaRome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Mike Sarver, Vice-President, Mike Sarver, ATT retired and resident of Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Meredith Brown, Treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
, accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Ed Bostick, Secretary, retired biology professor and resident of Cartersville, Georgia
Cartersville, Georgia
Cartersville is a town in Bartow County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 19,7314. The city is the county seat of Bartow County.-Geography:Cartersville was named for Colonel Farish Carter....
Billy Grant, business owner, landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
and resident of Cedartown, Georgia
Cedartown, Georgia
Cedartown is a city in Polk County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 9,750. The city is the county seat of Polk County...
Steve Hale, web developer
Web developer
A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who specializes in, or is specifically engaged in, the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over HTTP from a web server to a web browser....
and resident of Cave Spring, Georgia
Cave Spring, Georgia
Cave Spring is a city in Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is located south of Rome, Georgia. The population was 975 at the 2000 census. It is part of the 'Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The name of town was named after its cave and water spring hence "Cave Spring". The...
John Scott Husser, Jr., attorney
Attorney at law
An attorney at law in the United States is a practitioner in a court of law who is legally qualified to prosecute and defend actions in such court on the retainer of clients. Alternative terms include counselor and lawyer...
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Richard Lindsay, retired educator and resident of Chattooga County, Georgia
Chattooga County, Georgia
Chattooga County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 28, 1838. As of 2000, the population was 25,470. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 26,797. The county seat is Summerville.-Geography:...
Mary Lucchese, retired physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Carolyn Landrem, president of the Weiss Lake Improvement Association and resident of Centre, Alabama
Centre, Alabama
Centre is a city in Cherokee County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 3,273. The city is the county seat of Cherokee County, and is part of the 'Gadsden, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area'.-History:...
Carol McNavish, community volunteer and resident of Woodstock, Georgia
Woodstock, Georgia
Woodstock is a city in Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. The population was 23,896 at the 2010 census.Originally a stop on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Woodstock is now considered part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
Carl Melear, retired forester and resident of Armuchee, Georgia
Katie Owens, field manager for The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a US charitable environmental organization that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive....
and resident of Rome, Georgia
Joel Murphy, engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
and resident of Calhoun, Georgia
Calhoun, Georgia
Calhoun is a city in Gordon County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 15,650. The city is the county seat of Gordon County.-Geography:Calhoun is located at , along the Oostanaula River....
Terrell Shaw, educator and resident of Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Board of Advisors
Bill Harbin, radiologist, Rome, Georgia
Jerry Jennings, professor at Berry College
Berry College
Berry College is an American accredited, private, four-year liberal arts college located in Mount Berry, unincorporated Floyd County, Georgia, north of Rome. It was founded in 1902 by Martha Berry.-Location:Berry College is located on U.S...
and former Floyd County Commissioner, Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
George Pullen, retired college instructor and former Rome City Commissioner, Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Bill McLemore, certified public accountant, Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...
Todd Carroll, attorney, Rome, Georgia
Rome, Georgia
Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Rome is the largest city and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Floyd County...