Contributor: Anne Ledbetter
Stream Name: Poplar Creek
Location: Cobb County, GA
(map)
Watershed: Chattahoochee River
I monitor Poplar Creek’s water quality for Cobb County. One of my neighbors, who has the creek in her front yard, alerted me to a change to the creek — the water was orange.
Orange is never a good color for a creek.
Notice the silty color at the top of the photo. Time to investigate…
I headed upstream, and within a quarter of a mile, the water looked like it had a higher concentration of silt.
Making progress. It looks like the silt is coming from the left side of the creek.
This is the pipe that was feeding the dirty water into Poplar Creek. I scrambled up a hillside, but came to railroad tracks and a fenced industrial area.
This seemed like a one-time event because the pipe was dry.
Cobb County Authorities always do a great job of coming out and checking on problems. So I called them and gave them the info I had gathered. Cobb county investigated but since it had been a one time event they were unable to find the source and follow up with anything. The good part though is now there is a record of the event so if it happens again there will be more information to correct the problem.
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