ROME, Ga. – Georgia environmental officials are ratcheting up restrictions on discharges into the Coosa and Chattooga rivers to make sure those waters meet regulations when they enter Alabama.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division recently sent letters about new restrictions on phosphorus to major industries and municipal water plants that discharge in the Chattooga River and the Coosa River below Allatoona Lake, according to Elizabeth Booth, the agency’s watershed planning and quality manager.
The industries must get the phosphorus levels in the water to 1 milligram per liter or less before their discharge permits are up for renewal, the letter states.
Booth called the letter a “heads-up” rather than an ultimatum.
“It’s not like, ‘Oh, by tomorrow you need to meet this limit,'” she said.