Clayton County Water Authority’s Stream Improvement Program

Proceedings of the 2003 Georgia Water Resources Conference, held April 23-24, 2003, at the University of Georgia.Clayton County Water Authority (CCWA) initiated a holistic Stream Improvement Program in 2001 to assess, prioritize, and design improvements to degraded streams identified in the Watershed Management Plan (CH2M Hill, 2001a). The Stream Improvement Program is a four-stepprocess that identifies and prioritizes potential stream improvement projects, collects detailed information to create a conceptual design, completes the final design and implements the improvement project, and monitors completed projects to ensure success. Stream restoration is becoming more common as Georgia communities strive towards fishable and drinkable waterways. CCWA’s phased approach created a road map for future stream restoration efforts and improved planning and budgeting forecasts. The phased approach followed in Clayton County is very similar to the approach outlined in the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (MNGWPD) draft Watershed Plan