Tag: Chattahoochee RIverkeeper

Sydney, Tiffany, and Mina: Chattahoochee Riverkeeper

by Dr. Shannon Finck

Sydney Erickson, Tiffany Le, and Mina Pham spent their semester volunteering with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. They cleaned out trash traps and analyzed their contents, tested the water after a major equipment failure at the RM Clayton Wastewater Treatment Facility resulted in unsafe levels of e. coli bacteria in parts of the river, and helped with events like Sweep the Hooch.

These students documented their journal on an Instagram account dedicated to the experience:

https://www.instagram.com/crk_volunteer_gsu/

They also discuss their research and findings in this accessible and engaging presentation: Service Learning Final Project

Week 2 at Chattahoochee Riverkeeper

by tle148
 

This week at Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, I went to go sample some more water from the river. Recently, R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center had released large amounts of untreated wastewater into the Chattahoochee river causing the E. Coli levels to reach 340 times greater than the recommended limit. R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center treats a large portion of the Atlanta’s wastewater, however the untreated wastewater polluted the river and affects the population that lives downstream of the sewage spill. I went to sample the water that was being directly released from the water treatment plant. Although I did not get the result back from the lab, news articles online state that it may take months for the e.coli levels to go back down. 

Although the drinking water from our tap is not affected, it is still unfair to the plants and communities downstream of the Chattahoochee that also have to deal with the highly contaminated water. Additionally, the wastewater being discharged back into the river will release foul odors in which communities living near the river will have to endure the consequences. It is scary to think about the individuals who are not aware of this incident. Exposure to E.coli is a risk in exposure to pathogens, therefore individuals who are not made aware of the situation and who also have a poor immune system become more vulnerable to sickness. 

I went to collect a water sample from this water treatment facility and it was definitely an experience. I went directly to the water discharge area to collect a sample but it was kind of scary since the water that is being released back into the river was splashing everywhere. Of course I was wearing proper PPE but nonetheless, being splashed with untreated sewage water was not the best scenario to be in.. More importantly, it was an eye opening experience. I only did it once, though, there are individuals who do this for a living. It really gave me a chance to be grateful to those who are willing to put themselves in uncomfortable positions to help the environment as well as the community. 

Blog Post #6

by serickson11

Howdy everyone! Since my last time posting, not a whole heck of a lot has changed from what I was doing before but I’ll give a few smaller updates. For starters, we have continued to do the weekly trash trap cleanouts and do the standard ETAPs for what we collect (ETAPs are forensic litter audits using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Escaped Trash Assessment Protocol—in simple terms it is just categorizing what was collected into subcategories like take-out boxes, shopping bags, water bottles, etc. and marking brands that show up repeatedly).

One location we did, we ended up collecting nearly 30 full manicure/pedicure kits as well as roughly 10 half-to-full cans of yellow spray paint (an odd collection of items if I do say so myself). Our assumption for the spray cans was that someone was fixing certain parking and road lines up by the nearby road and purposefully disposed of the rest of the cans for reasons unknown. For the manicure/pedicure kits, we guess since they were prepackaged and seemed undamaged that a truck delivering the product had a shipment fall off and land somewhere in the river. Either way, both acts come from a place ignorance and since both ended up in the river, they both should be held accountable for their faulty choices. 

Another thing that I noticed is that one of the reasons it takes extra time to clean out each trash trap is the sheer amount of sticks, leaves, and general parts of nature that end up making their way in amongst all of the collectable trash and recycling. I talked about this with Jordan and it seems there is no real effective way to sort out the items that CRK seeks to collect out of the river and distribute the natural items back into the stream, but I would love to see some type of advancement in that area sometime in the future because it definitely adds another level of difficulty for those who have a kind enough soul to clean those traps for a living. 

I am coming up on my last time volunteering with CRK in person but I can definitely see myself helping them out with larger river clean ups in future and I can truly say I have appreciated the opportunities I have had to work alongside them this semester. 

Water Sampling with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper

by tle148

This past Thursday morning/afternoon I met with my community organization partner and we spent majority of the time collecting water samples from areas of the river that showed alarming levels of E. Coli. To pinpoint the exact location of the issue, we strategically collected water samples from specific points along the river for better judgement and analysis. Collecting the water samples was a fun experience as you get very hands on with nature. It was kind of silly as we would park on the side of the road and quickly collect water samples as cars drove by probably wondering what was going on. This organization also works with residents who reside along the Chattahoochee river and the volunteers collect their own water samples from their backyard or nearby, and come to drop it off at the office for testing. Walking around neighborhoods allowed me to appreciate the river and its beauty as this is not something I typically think about when I walk or drive through areas. Walking by the river allowed me to find joy even in the simplest things. Instead of being in the car driving across a bridge, I walked across a bridge and got to see a part of the river flow naturally. Of course it is nature just doing its thing, but its refreshing to be able to appreciate nature in its entirety and with my own eyes.

Recently, the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center, which is a wastewater treatment facility that caters to most of Atlanta, had an issue at their plant causing the release of contaminated wastewater into the river causing the E. Coli levels to rise dramatically. It was discovered that a majority of their plant is not functional and is not treating all the incoming sewage water and thereby having to release it back into the river. I didn’t hear about this incident until I heard from the organization and it is quite alarming since I too live close to the river. Articles online advised communities to avoid river contact downstream of the sewage spill but it worries me of those who don’t have easy access to this information. I would not have known had I not spoke with this organization. Next time, I’ll be documenting about trash cleanups.

Blog Post #4 – Chattahoochee Riverkeeper

by serickson11

        Hi everyone! This is my first official blog post so I have a good amount of time to recap but I mostly want to focus on what has occurred in the last two-ish weeks. The biggest thing so far has definitely been the annual Sweep the Hooch event that Mina and I attended on Saturday, March 23rd. There were over 64 sites cleaned, Mina and I went to the Murphey Candler Park one from 9am to 12pm and we got very lucky because we had beautiful weather (the photo is from one of the trails we cleaned up). 

        We mostly stayed on land due to not having proper waders but we still worked our tails off collecting all of the tiny trash that would have washed into the water eventually if not picked up. In total, on Saturday there were 46 volunteers including ourselves at our location and we managed to collect 1530 lbs of trash, 380 lbs of recycling and 5 tires (a pretty impressive amount if I do say so myself). The biggest takeaways I had from this was how easy it was to do a little good for this earth by spending some easy hours collecting trash and that Double Bubble desperately needs to make their packing biodegradable because I picked up so many of those little wrappers to the point I almost went insane. 

         Before this Saturday, I had been going to Chattahoochee Riverkeeper on Fridays to help with trash collection from the trash traps and conducting ETAPs (essentially a forensic litter audit using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Escaped Trash Assessment Protocol—in simple terms it is just categorizing what was collected into subcategories like take-out boxes, shopping bags, water bottles, etc. and marking brands that show up repeatedly). In this process they also collect water samples to do tests for high levels of anything dangerous in the water. A major situation unfolded while I was there on the 15th when CRK detected dangerously high levels of E. coli in the Chattahoochee River downstream from the R.M. Clayton Water Reclamation Center. There was a big problem with how the AJC was reporting it and spreading misinformation about how long those high levels had been detected and CRK had to make public statements suggesting staying out of the water and requesting that a more factual timeline be displayed to the public. Jordan Yu (CRK Watershed Protection Specialist), Mina and I actually went to the Water Reclamation Center to get a sample from where the water was going into the river (big big big shoutout to Mina for sacrificing herself by getting in full gear to get close to the splashing sewer water). When we got back news stations were there to talk to CRK and Mina and I went inside to thoroughly cleanse ourselves from the nasty water. 

         So far, I have really enjoyed having this opportunity to work with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and could definitely see myself participating in their local events after this class ends based on the good time I had at the Sweep the Hooch event. 

Service Blog Post #3

by mpham29

On the second day, Mr. Yu was giving a talk about recycling for the 7th graders. It was also raining heavily, so we did not do any litter cleaning. However, I learned about how water sampling works. The “unclean” sample will turn yellow. Some samples did not turn yellow but fluorescence as they were put under UV light. It was fascinating to see the correlation between the distance of the spillage and the number of fluorescence samples. This method was one step in tracking the spillage sites that actively harm our water source. Next, Mr. Yu brought Sydney and me to more trash trap sites, and we saw a $175,000 trash trap owned by the city of Atlanta.

He said that one day, we might clean up that trap. Mr. Yu also showed us a site where they still use the combined sewage/water system. He said it was crucial to keep this river safe for the safety of the people in the area, especially the students from the school right next to the trash trap. The most exciting aspect of my service with Chattahoochee River is the knowledge I retained from many people with different specialties in every session. They had scientists who worked on the water samplings and littering tracking. They also had people who work mainly on social media and fundraising. Volunteering with them helps me realize how much impact a person can make towards “cleaning” our environment.

After getting back to the office, we sometimes discussed the final project for the course. Mr. Yu let us freely decide on the topic that we want to do. He also provided us with data links that might contain the number needed for our presentation. We might take some time to review the data, come up with an overview, and briefly talk about recycling and littering. One of the aspects that leads us to this thought might be coming from the fact that we would visit different sites along the Chattahoochee River and collect litter. We calculated the amount of trash collected for each site into various categories. Therefore, we might be able to figure out a relationship between some of the factors.

Service Blog Post #2

by mpham29

Hi everyone, I am Mina Pham. My community partner is Chattahoochee River, a non-profit organization working to reduce the amount of litter from different regions of the Chattahoochee River. Mr. Jordan Yu, Watershed Protection Specialist, is the person that I will be working with. His work involves a variety of duties, including litter cleanup and analysis, water sampling, pollution tracking, speaking events, workshops, and social media.

On the first day, I was introduced to the office and the laboratory section, where we could look at water samples and analyze the number of bacteria and microplastics. After that, Jordan, Jullian, and I prepared the equipment and protective clothing, and then we headed out to the first site to check the trash trap and clean it up. They cleaned the trash trap since it was the first day of the week. We headed to the furthest north site, Chamblee and Doraville. This site experienced sewage spillage a couple of months ago; therefore, we must be cautious about not letting any liquid get on our skin and clothes.

One of the most exciting works that I got to experience during the first day was learning more about how the organization works and how they set up different trash traps around the metro Atlanta city. Everyone was amiable, and I discovered a lot about their previous studies in the past few years about how they track down the source of littering by collecting multiple samples at different sites. Working under the water and exposing yourself to an aquatic environment, you might come in contact with small animals like spiders, mice, and water snakes. It is something that you cannot avoid. One of my most challenging works was climbing different cliffs to access the trash traps. Fun fact: one of my boots fell out as I tried to climb up. One surprising thing was how much trash we collected for each site was different, even when they had the same flow. For example, the site in Doraville was filled with Styrofoam and plastic bottles, while the site in Buckhead was filled with mud and only had plastic bottles.

Introduction: Sydney Erickson

by serickson11

Howdy! 

My name is Sydney Erickson and I am a first-year finance major here at GSU. I am excited to have the opportunity to be enrolled in Honors 3280: Service-Learning Seminar in Urban Ecology and Environmental Conservation this semester with Dr. Finck. My main reason for choosing this course was that I found the idea of being able to give back to my community while earning college credit an incredibly good use of my time. I must admit that I did not expect to have that the opportunity to learn and read as much as we had in the first part of this semester, but after having done so, I am incredibly grateful that we did. I feel that I was able to refine some of my own personal opinions through reading the opinions of McKibben and Purdy as well as gain whole new perspectives on major problems I was unaware so many were impacted by (i.e. superfunds as discussed by Kathryn Savage). A multitude of the readings we discussed in class emphasized how the existence of nature and humans play off of each other, and although I had a baseline understanding of this concept, I had never taken the proper time to discuss what it truly meant and how that therefore impacts my day-to-day life. 

For this semester, I will be working with the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, which is something I am quite excited about! The interaction I have had with Jordan Yu (Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s Watershed Protection Specialist) has been somewhat limited due to him taking part in Water Professionals event but what I have gathered from our discussions is that it seems that my work will fall in line with litter cleanup and analysis, water sampling, pollution tracking, speaking events, workshops, or social media. I have spent multiple years volunteering for Rivers Alive (a river clean up organization) and because of this I know that I have a great deal of interest when it comes to rivers and waterways in Georgia, which is why this organization stood out to me in the first place. Another reason I am so excited to work with this organization is because of their activism. When comparing McKibben and Purdy, I felt my viewpoints aligned more so with Purdy’s view on how impactful laws are when it comes to preservation, so it I was beyond thrilled when I saw on Chattahoochee Riverkeeper’s website that they take special interest in advocating for bills that would protect our waters. Alongside this, they also emphasize the importance educating and investing in those same waters, which just adds to how wonderful this organization seems and makes me fueled with excitement to be able to contribute with my time and final project. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work for them and I look forward to what is to come this semester! 

Good luck everyone!

Introduction: Mina Pham

by mpham29

Hi everyone, I am Mina Pham. I am a junior at Georgia State University, majoring in Chemistry. For spring 2024, I am currently enrolled in Honors 3280: Service-Learning Seminar in Urban Ecology and Environmental Conservation by Dr. Shannon Finck. I have volunteered for a non-profit organization called Open Hand for the past year. It was my first time doing volunteer work in environmental conservation. I am thrilled to get some hands-on experience and learn more about our nature. Since the beginning of the semester, I have been introduced to different readings to have a prepared mindset before getting into the field. The readings demonstrate that the nature we live in nowadays is also concerning. There should be some changes that we have to make now before things get even worse. Now, it is an opportunity to serve and give back to the community.

Water is essential to all living beings. I, personally, like to be submerged in fresh water. Unfortunately, our water resources are heavily polluted due to many factors: oil spillage from industries, sewage from factories, trash thrown into rivers by humans, etc. I grew up in a developing country where clean water might not be available to every household. People might also not even be able to afford water. So, I appreciate the water that I get access to. My community partner match is Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. I want to use this opportunity to serve the community by helping clean parts of the Chattahoochee River, which supplies 70 percent of metro Atlanta’s drinking water. Therefore, I am eager to learn more about cleaning our water source from Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. I have discovered that Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is known for employing “trash traps” to remove floating litter from urban streams. These devices catch floating garbage from stormwater runoff, and our 14 trash traps have collected more than 10,000 pounds of floating trash since 2019. Multiple activities are offered, such as litter cleanup and analysis, water sampling, pollution tracking, speaking events, workshops, and social media. I am excited about taking samples of water and putting them under analysis. From this service assignment, I look forward to building more profound knowledge about protecting our water sources and water sampling.