Take Action: Save USGS water monitoring

June 13, 2025 Update: CRK is pleased to learn that the Department of the Interior has reversed the termination of the lease for the USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center. Click here to learn more about the decision. Thank you to everyone who took action by writing to your representatives! The letter-writing template has been archived, but it will remain available to read below.

Help CRK: Save USGS water monitoring

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) provides irreplaceable services to the American people every day. Now, the federal government is shutting down USGS offices across the country, including the USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center in Norcross, Georgia.

This office is responsible for a network of stream flow gauges and other monitoring devices in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Without adequate resources, we will lose critical information about water quality and supply in the Chattahoochee River and other watersheds. It will also endanger public health: without USGS, the BacteriAlert monitoring program will go offline after 25 years of alerting people on the Chattahoochee River to harmful bacteria levels in the water.

ACT NOW: Tell your representatives to save the USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center and the invaluable public services it provides from senseless federal cuts. Please send a message below. Thank you for taking action on behalf of our waterways.

Dear [[Recipient’s Title and Name]]:

Hello, my name is «FullName». I am a voter living in «City», «State» and I am concerned about reductions in staffing and the termination of the lease for the U.S. Geological Survey’s South Atlantic Water Science Center in Norcross, Georgia.

The USGS facility in Norcross houses critical equipment and specifically designed laboratory, workshop, storage, and office spaces to support research and monitoring activities in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This facility’s staff provide vital services to the state of Georgia by maintaining a collaborative public-private funded network of stream flow, water quality, groundwater level, and other data collection devices.

For 25 years, the BacteriAlert (bacterialert.org) partnership between USGS, Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and the National Park Service has tracked bacteria levels in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, which receives millions of visitors annually. This free public service helps communities and outfitters throughout metro Atlanta and downstream make informed decisions about safe water recreation. In the summer of 2023, the BacteriAlert program was instrumental in detecting an unprecedented wastewater treatment plant failure within the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Without USGS staff and resources, the public may not have known about dangerous bacteria levels until after being exposed to contaminated water.

In Georgia, USGS has collected and managed water data with local, state, and federal partners to inform critical decisions about surface water and groundwater water management to directly support:

• Flash flood notification to protect public safety and private property.
• Municipal drinking water supplies for nearly all of Geogia’s more than 11 million residents and 18 Fortune 500 businesses and industries.
• Georgia’s $83.6 billion agricultural industry.
• Generation of electricity at 8 nuclear reactors in Southern Company’s fleet in Alabama and Georgia.
• National defense at numerous sites including Fort Benning, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, and the Savannah River Site nuclear facility in South Carolina.
• Global commerce, including one of the nation’s largest container terminals (the Port of Savannah).

I urge you to request reconsideration of the decision to terminate this facility’s lease because of the critical public safety and services this purpose-built facility and staff provide to Georgia’s communities and the nation’s economy.

Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]