Consultants are sampling water at 45 sites in Floyd and other North Georgia counties as part of a water quality improvement study and implementation plan for the Coosa River basin.

Rome and Floyd County are chipping in for the study, which is required by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division before a water withdrawal permit can be renewed or expanded.

Other participants are Calhoun, Chatsworth, Walker County, Blue Ridge, Fairmount, Jasper and Pickens County.

“This is one of the benefits of regionalism,” said Bill Steiner, executive director of the Coosa Valley Regional Development Center, which is coordinating the project.

“Bartow County spent about $400,000 on their own study, but these water systems are saving money through a combined effort,” he added.

The second round of samplings by MACTEC Engineering and Consulting Inc. started this month.

David Howerin, planning director for the Coosa Valley Regional Development Center, said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is paying $94,000 of the $188,000 cost, with the balance pro-rated among the governments.

The Corps contributed half of the $320,000 for the first phase of the project last year, which involved developing a watershed-monitoring plan and taking the first round of samples.

At a presentation in March, MACTEC project manager Margaret Tanner said waterways in Floyd County appear generally healthy — although several sites showed high levels of fecal coliform, dissolved oxygen or zinc.

The worst violations of water-quality standards were recorded at Little Dry Creek south of Tolbert Park.

Tanner said more urbanized areas are likely to show greater contamination than rural areas. The study will determine likely sources of the pollution and create a plan to protect the water sources for the future.

Click here to see a Georgia EPD analysis of the Coosa River basin.