Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy , Center for Urban River Research
Gene Eidson, Ph.D., SNSA, eidson@naturalsciencesacademy.org
Oscar Flite, SNSA, flite@naturalsciencesacademy.org
Jason Moak, SNSA, jmoak@naturalsciencesacademy.org
Brian Metts, SNSA, metts@naturalsciencesacademy.org
Southeastern Natural Sciences Academy (SNSA) is conducting an innovative 24-month river study within the Middle Savannah, HUC 03060106, to investigate water quality within the greater Metropolitan Augusta urban corridor. This study will provide critical data to truth the upstream loading rates utilized in the Draft Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL) for Dissolved Oxygen in Savannah Harbor , released by EPA Region 4 in August 2004. This TMDL established a proposed limit of oxygen demanding substances derived upstream of Savannah Harbor . Most of the defined upstream load is discharged within the Augusta urban corridor.
The study will include continuous physical parameter monitoring, monthly chemical and biological sampling and also incorporate three major stochastic events each year to evaluate the impact of storm events. This research is designed to estimate the annual mass flux employing a network of fixed water quality monitoring stations along the 22-mile urban river reach and three additional stations, including Butler Creek and Horse Creek, listed on Georgia and South Carolina 303(d) lists. The study is designed to identify source and sink areas for key inorganic and organic constituents and estimate the current loadings from natural and anthropogenic sources into the urban corridor. Specific river reaches were selected to include major feeder streams and to segregate industrial, municipal, and thermal discharges so defined inputs and outputs could be measured. The research is also designed to support an integrated water quantity and water quality model, CE-WQUAL-2E, being developed as part of a larger project through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the USACOE, Vicksburg .