Team Alcovy started as an idea hatched by some farsighted elected officials in the counties and cities located in the Alcovy River watershed (a watershed is all of the land area that drains to the river). These officials were concerned about protecting the river as the area around it grows. The river is extremely valuable because it provides high quality drinking water, recreational opportunities, and a unique ecosystem.
Since the river doesn't just confine itself to the boundaries of one jurisdiction, the elected officials recognized they needed to work together to protect it from its headwaters in Gwinnett County all the way to Jackson Lake in Jasper County. This group asked the Northeast Georgia Regional Development Center (NEGRDC), a state-funded resource center for local governments, to manage the project.
Brown and Caldwell, an environmental engineering firm, was hired to conduct the study and help develop a plan for protecting the river. The State of Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) supported this regional approach because it helps each of the 4 counties, 11 cities, and 4 utilities participating in the project meet federal and state regulations related to water quality.
These regulations require that communities all across the U.S. develop a plan to deal with non-point source pollution (the runoff that comes from parking lots, roof tops, construction sites, farmland, etc.) in their community in order to get new or increased permits to withdraw water for drinking water supplies, or to discharge wastewater from treatment plants. The Alcovy River is the major drinking water supply for thousands of residents in Walton, Newton, and Jasper counties.
