Surface Water Quality

Surface Water Quality refers to the amount of pollution waterways can handle and still meet water quality standards. The Assimilative Capacity assessment will measure the capacity of Georgia’s surface waters to absorb pollutants without unacceptable degradation of water quality. This process includes basic modeling of all of Georgia’s 52 watersheds. More complex models will be developed for watersheds where the assimilative capacity may not be adequate to support projected needs for wastewater discharge. The water quality models will be used to evaluate the impacts of forecasted flows, proposed discharge locations, and future land use patterns.