2015 Supporters
2015 AN N UAL R EPORT
$2,000 or More
Todd Carroll • Floyd Medical Center • Georgia Power Co. • Heritage Auto Group
Lyndhurst Foundation • Marglen Industries • OTR Wheel • The Pool Store • Sapelo Foundation
Soymet 101 • State Mutual Insurance • Yamaha Marine Group
Financials
$1,000 to $1,999
REVENUE
Ball Corporation • Burgess Insurance Services • Cedar Creek RV & Outdoor Center
Cedar Valley Container Corp • Charles Williams REIC • Cook & Connelly • James & Brenda Crane
Eagle Rock Distributing • The Finnell Firm • Harbin Clinic • International Paper • Jerry on the Moon
Perry & Barbara Lamb • Chad Johnfroe & Chris Lewis • McRae Stegall Peek &Harman
Mohawk Carpet Foundation • Mt. Vernon Mills • River City Bank • Scana Energy • Scott Logistics
JT Watters • WLAQ/The Ridge 95.7
$250 to $999
Samuel Adams • Alfa Insurance • Susan Anderson • Bad Dad’s BBQ • Julianne & Michael Bailey • William
& Mary Barbee • Susan Berry • Barefoot Wine & Bubbly • Big Money’s BBQ • Blue Sky Outfitter • Bob’s
Taxidermy and Daycare • Michael & Darby Boles • Brown & Brown Insurance • Joe & Cheryl Burch • Joe
Prince & Becky Carr • Carvalho & Associates • Jeb Arp & Luke Chaffin • Culbreth Carr Watson Animal
Clinic • Steve & Sheila Cox • Davis & Davis Attorneys at Law • Dempsey Lord Smith • Dr. N.B. & Marion
Dobbs • Shauna & Tom Farmer • Fast Printing & Signs • Steve & Lynn Finn • Norman & Dot Fletcher • Jane
Fogle • GoGo Running • Dr. George Goldin • Greater Community Bank • Donna Haley • William Harbin •
Hardy Realty • Virginia & Tracy Harmon • Heritage First Bank •It’s the Pits BBQ • Johnson Outdoors • Mary
Luchesse •Mark’s Plum Peachy BBQ • Peter Morgan • Navy Blue Barbecue • Bob & Mary Norton • Patagonia Atlanta • Dan & Melissa Phillips • Profile Extrusion • Katie Owens • Joanne Smith Pugh • Alan &
Barbara Reeves • Rome Orthopaedic Center • Wade Sellers • Terrell & Sheila Shaw • Tom & Jacquie Sheffield • Monica Sheppard • Sherriff’s BBQ • Smoking Gun BBQ • Tim & Lynn Spratling • Natalie & Charles
Sweat • Syntec Industries • Bobbi & Phyllis Townsend • Chris &Tashia Twyman • United Community Bank
• V3 Magazine • Venue Dog • Walker Orthotics • WC Timber • Mark Webb • Jack & Pat White • Yamaha
Watercraft Group
Clean Coosa
Campaign
Membership 9%
(Major Donors)
23%
Grants 14%
Fundraisers 54%
Empowered Citizens Change Their Communities
“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted
with their own government;...whenever things get so far wrong
as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to
rights.” — Thomas Jefferson
When the Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI) was first organized
in the early 1990s, these words of our third president were
printed on every newsletter and virtually every correspondence.
During 2015, CRBI saw these words manifested.
EXPENSES
Administration 9%
Fundraisers
12%
Programs
(Advocacy,
Education,
Water Monitoring,
Restoration) 79%
After more than seven years of pleading, cajoling and
pressuring the Rome City Commission to preserve its “Burwell
Creek wetlands” threatened by a proposed shopping center,
in September Commissioners voted to rezone a portion of the
property to pave the way for development. The vote turned out
to be a political miscalculation.
A group of Rome residents responded to that vote by organizing
around the November City Commission election. The “Save Rome’s
Central Park” group launched a grassroots social media campaign
and posted “Vote No Incumbents” yard signs around town.
The results were overwhelming. More than 60 percent of the
votes went to challengers or were withheld as “protest votes.”
Two challengers were elected, receiving more votes than any
incumbents and one sitting commissioner was removed
from office.
$50 to $249
Barbara Adams • Clinton &Gena Agnew • Katy & Clark Allen • Randall Anderson • Daneise Archer • Bill Avra
• George & Betsy Awsumb • Richard & Guill Bailey • Ana & Andy Bailie • Carol Ball • Charles Barnes • Robert
Baudier • Lee Ann Bellon • Eddas Bennett • Danielle Bilodeau • Binkley’s Auto Care • Steven Blackburn • Janet
Blackmon • Ronnie Blake • Ron Miller & Cathy Borer • Jodie Boyd • Allen Bradley • Catherine Brennan • Sharon
& Mike Britton • Derek Brott • David Brown • Dora Brown • Kathy Buelow • Rebecca Burt • Melanie Caldwell
• Chery Camp • Brian & Ellen Cardin • Patrick & Ann Carey • Blair & Heather Carter • Lee Carter • Paul Carter
• Robert & Martha Cates • City of Rome Water & Sewer Dept • Howard Cohn • Allen & Barbara Coggins •
Daniel & Susan Comer • James & Ann Cook • Joe Cook • Tom & Linda Couch • Steve Crawford • Thomas & Beth
Dabbs • Hilda Dailey • Rick & Susan D’Arezzo •Permeil Dass • Nancy & Ralph Davis • Randy & Sandy Davis •
Bryon Day • Patty Decraene • Dominic Distretti • Catherine & David Dohrmann • Lisa Doss • Jim Doyle • Duffy’s
Deli • Mary Lee & Gary Eady • Susan Eady • Linda Easterwood • David Elvers • Becky Estes • David Evans • Tre
Faaborg • Teresa Fisher • Brian Hard & Heather Forehand • Adrienne & Chris Forgette • Brian Foster • Tom Fox
• Mary Freeman • Ron Frye • Sonja Fuquea • David &Cece Gandy • Jennette Gayer • Judi Gazaway • Kelli Gibbs
• Sequita Gibson • Suzy & Pete Gilbert • Jeff Golomb • Jesse Grant • Charles Graves • Greene’s Jewelers •
Kaytlin Greenley • Tim Groves • Anna Harbin • Bob Harbin • Buford Harbin • Cecil & Gwen Harp • Ben & Jackie
Harrison • Amanda Haulk • Mary Helen Heaner • John Hearn • Bryant & Nita Henry • Chance Highfield • Tom
Hill • Gena Hillhouse • Elvin & Nancy Hilyer • Jim Hipp • Villa Hizer • Tina Holt • Laurie & Max Hulsey • John &
Esther Husser • Christin Ingle • David Jameson • Jerry & Terry Jennings • Tom & Kathy Johnson • Victor & Lisa
Johnson • Walter Johnson • Elliott Jones • Jenny Karpenko • Kimberly Kerce • Colleen Kiernan • Marvin Kilgo
• Cheryl & Rae King • Katie Kiser • Frances Ford Knight • Dan Knight • Chris & Amy Knitig • Frederic Lamb •
Bettina Langham • Jim Lanier • Shanna Latimer • Joe Marion Law • Terry & Joan Ledbetter • John & Susan Lee
• Donna Little • James Lossick • Josh Lovvorn • Urs& Marie Maire • George Manak • Nina Marable • Walter
Marable • Bobby Marie • Phoebe Maze • Kit & Ann-Louise McCormick • Russell & Ruth McRae • Benjamin
Melton • Michelle & Stephen Mink • Charles Mitchell • Kiska Moore • John Murphy • Winfield & Dena Myers •
Dan Nable • Kay New • Jack & Mary Niedrach • Sharon Norman • Doug Oetter • Paul O’Mara • Debra Owens
• Priscilla Padron • Chuck Patel • Pete Payne • Jeffrey & Shelly Peller • Ken Pennachio • Ruth Pinson • John
Poole • Ann Pullen • Brent & Jennifer Pullen • Luby Pulley • Bonny Putney • Jonathan Price • Kenny & Melissa
Pyle-Hamilton • Pam Redden • Rehab Techniques • Carol Reeves • Erin Reeves • Frances Reeves • Walter
Reeves • John Reiners • Joyce Riddle • Misty Rigas • Laura Robison • Matthew & Keri Robbins • Simone
Rogers • Teresa Roby • Ben Rough • Mason Rountree • Tom Ruska • Dedee Sanderson • James Sebastian •
Poni Shannon • Cecil Sheppard • Jennifer Sheppard • Nancy Shipley • Cindy & Paul Shumpert • Daniel Simon
III • Theresa Siroky • Brian Skene • David & Devon Smyth • Susan & Kenneth Snead • Randy & Cathie Stahler
• Josh Stansell • Telle Stein • Bob Steinbruegge • Mary Ann Stillerman • Mary Lou Strodel • Linda Teachey •
Noah Thomas • Darren Tinkey • Tony & Gwen Tuck • Kikki & Craig Tucker • John Turner • Richard Turner • Karen
Vaglia • Bert & Ann Vaughn • Jennifer Ventry • Kenneth Vroman • Tom Waddington • Susan & Jim Watkins •
Vickey Watts • Rita Wender • Jane Wentworth • Beverly Win • Grey Winstead • Penny Wofford • Mark Woodall •
Barry Wright • Buster Wright • Pam Xanthos • Dr. Raymond Young
C O O S A R I V E R B A S I N I N I T I AT I V E
Advocacy
Coosa River Basin Initiative
408 Broad Street
Rome, GA 30161
706-232-2724
www.coosa.org
CRBI is a grassroots environmental organization that works
to inform and empower citizens
to preserve, protect and restore
North America’s most
biologically diverse river basin.
CRBI is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
All donations are tax-deductible.
CRBI continued its
advocacy efforts
centered around
preserving some 80
acres of floodplain
forest and wetlands
along Burwell Creek
in Rome threatened
by a proposed
shopping center
by educating and
informing citizens
and city leaders.
During the year,
CRBI hosted
wetland walks
on the property,
and leading up to the Rome City Commission election, held a
candidates forum focused on the city’s parks, trails and
water resources.
Additionally, CRBI’s investigation into the history of the
abandoned city landfill adjacent to Burwell Creek revealed
facts refuting the developers’ long-standing assertions that
the landfill was a “liability” that would ultimately force the City
of Rome into an expensive cleanup of the property if it did not
approve their plan to fill and build upon the property.
Following the
election, a
Rome NewsTribune online
poll showed 85
percent support
for preserving
“Rome’s Central
Park,” and
developers of
an apartment
complex originally
slated for the
Burwell Creek
property chose to
build their project
elsewhere, in
part because of local opposition to their original plan.
The election sent an unmistakable message to the city’s
decision makers; that message was shaped by seven years of
CRBI’s persistent advocacy on this issue.
Perhaps never before in CRBI’s history has its mission to “inform
and empower citizens to protect, preserve and restore North
America’s most biologically unique river basin” been so
clearly manifested.
In West Rome at the abandoned General Electric Medium
Transformer facility, CRBI secured stronger groundwater
monitoring at a toxic landfill, a change that will assure local
residents, GE and state regulators that GE’s landfill cleanup
plan is working as planned.
Also in Rome, CRBI brought attention to the Street
Department’s clear cutting of vegetation along the Oostanaula
River and the city’s trail system. The complaint resulted in city
workers receiving additional training in state stream
buffer laws.
CRBI also helped protect other Coosa River basin communities.
In Armuchee, CRBI supported and educated citizens about
mineral rights leases and the impacts of oil and gas exploration
on rural communities after representatives with oil and gas
companies began soliciting property owners to purchase
mineral rights.
In Woodstock, CRBI secured a stronger permit for a Cherokee
County Water & Sewerage Authority sewage treatment plant
that results in better protections for the Little River.
In Polk County, CRBI aided residents in stopping the reopening
of an existing inert landfill that threatened Hills Creek and
Coots Lake, a popular public swimming spot.
In Dallas, CRBI’s long-standing advocacy efforts centered on
the city’s aging sewer system led to the opening of the city’s
new $18 million wastewater treatment facility.
In Paulding County, CRBI aided citizens and participated
in raising questions about the environmental impacts of
expanding the county’s Silver Comet Field for commercial
aviation. And, we continued to raise awareness of the county’s
proposed Richland Creek Reservoir and the need for water
efficiency investments prior to investing millions in a water
supply reservoir that may not be needed.
Finally, CRBI led the effort to establish the Etowah River Water
Trail, providing some $20,000 in funds to Bartow County to
complete construction of a new boat launch and parking area
at U.S. 411 between Rome and Cartersville and installed new
information kiosks at water trail access points in Kingston,
Euharlee and Canton.
• Produced nine educational videos for distribution through
social media highlighting legislative issues, the efforts of
CRBI’s Greenie Award winners and local advocacy issues.
In Canton, CRBI urged Georgia’s Environmental Protection
Division (EPD) to revise its bacteria limits for recreational water
during the winter months to better protect river users on the
Etowah River Water Trail.
In Alabama, CRBI continued to support the Alabama Rivers
Alliance petition to remove the state of Alabama’s authority to
issue wastewater discharge permits under the federal Clean Water
Act because of the state’s failure to properly enforce the law.
CRBI initiated a “Love the Coosa” Valentine’s Day campaign
with the Sierra Club and GreenLaw to pressure EPD and Georgia
Power Company to install a cooling tower at Plant Hammond
on the Coosa River. Such changes at the coal-fired power
plant would prevent thousands of fish deaths and eliminate
the plant’s hot water discharge that harms the river’s aquatic
wildlife. The campaign generated more than 200 e-mails to
EPD and more than 1,000 messages to Georgia Power. A video
detailing the pollution problems at Plant Hammond was viewed
nearly 4,000 times on Facebook.
During the Georgia General Assembly session, with other
Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) members, CRBI helped fund
a fulltime GWC lobbyist, assisted in organizing Capitol
Conservation Day attended by more than 100 citizens and
participated in Protect Georgia, an e-mail service enabling CRBI
members to easily contact their legislators prior to important
votes in the Georgia General Assembly.
Together, the GWC successfully lobbied legislators to restore
protections for Georgia’s coastal marshes and defeat a bill that
would have made it impossible for local governments to pass
ordinances restricting the use of plastic bags and other singleuse containers.
Additionally, CRBI played a lead role in the publication of the
GWC’s annual Dirty Dozen report, a list that highlights the most
egregious affronts to Georgia’s water resources. The continuing
problems at Plant Hammond made the list for the third time in
five years.
• Partnered with the Rome-Floyd ECO River Education Center
to host two, week-long summer day camps: an Environmental
Camp for elementary-age students and an Adventure
Camp for middle school students. The environmental camp
transformed 25 children into “Junior Naturalists” while the
Adventure Camp took eight students on hiking, paddling
and snorkeling adventures throughout Floyd County.
• Secured media coverage and published op-eds and letters
to the editors in multiple local and regional publications and
broadcasts. More than 70 reports on CRBI issues or activities
were published or broadcast, including at least five opinion
pieces by CRBI staff published in multiple outlets.
Education
CRBI reached more than
3,500 elementary, middle
and high school students
from across the upper
Coosa River basin through
in-schools programs, fish
monitoring workshops,
summer camps and
educational paddle trips.
Additionally, CRBI staff
reached more than 1,400
adults through speaking
engagements with
civic, church and social
organizations as well as
at conferences and other
special events.
CRBI also…
• Hosted 60 students from six elementary schools who
competed in CRBI’s Environmental Quiz Bowl at the RomeFloyd ECO River Education Center.
• Reached hundreds of children with information about native
fish, mussels, crayfish and salamanders through our “Fish
Print” children’s activity at Chiaha Harvest Fair in Rome.
• Introduced more than 1200 people to our rivers and streams
through 20 guided paddle trips.
• Led some 120 local school students on guided educational
paddle trips.
• Led more than 75
swimmers, tubers
and floaters
on a 1.5 mile
journey down
the Oostanaula
River in Rome
to celebrate
Swimmable
Water Day.
• Continued hosting fish monitoring workshops that
introduced 60 people to the upper Coosa River’s biodiversity
through fish collection events on Silver, Burwell and Big
Cedar creeks and on the Conasauga River.
• Published three editions of our Mainstream newsletter.
• Updated our www.coosa.org website regularly and posted
six articles on the Musselhead Blog which was viewed by
more than 2,100 people while 19,865 individuals visited the
CRBI website.
• Grew our Facebook fans page to nearly 2000 fans, garnering
300 new likes while CRBI’s friends page grew by more than
900 friends to 4,268. More than 900 items were posted
about CRBI events, activities and advocacy efforts on CRBI’s
fans page. These posts reached more than 320,000 people
and engaged more than 9,000 users.
• Published and distributed 37 e-mail updates and action
alerts to keep members informed and involved in
organizational activities and advocacy efforts.
Restoration
Through Rivers Alive and
other cleanups, CRBI
engaged more than 500
volunteers in removing
more than 15,000 pounds
of trash from local rivers
and streams including
Armuchee, Silver, Burwell,
Cedar and Little Dry
creeks and the Etowah,
Oostanaula, Coosa and
Chattooga rivers.
Among the groups
partnering and
participating in cleanups
were Berry College,
Morehouse College,
Trails for Recreation and Economic Development, Geocaching.
com, Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful, Chattooga County 4H, Berry
College Bonner Scholars, Shorter College, Spelman College and
numerous churches.
CRBI Riverkeeper and Program Coordinator Amos Tuck assisted
the University of Georgia, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the
Nature Conservancy with field work on several fish, mussel and
natural resource studies.
CRBI also facilitated a meeting of local civic groups to restore
and maintain Armuchee Park along Armuchee Creek in
Floyd County.
Water Monitoring
CRBI continued its robust citizen volunteer water monitoring
program, training 120 citizens to participate in water quality
and fish population monitoring. CRBI volunteers and staff
generated 120 stream health reports for the Georgia AdoptA-Stream program. Additionally, CRBI conducted bacteria
monitoring on the Etowah and Oostanaula rivers, collecting and
analyzing 22 water samples to determine fecal bacteria levels in
these water bodies.
Organizational Development
CRBI continued to grow its membership and support base during
2015 receiving 271 donations from new members while expanding
total membership to some 4200 people. The organization also
expanded its base of major donors, starting a corporate member
campaign that generated $35,000 for CRBI programs.
CRBI also…
• Held first ever
Green Gala and
recognized five
area businesses
and local
governments
with Greenie
Awards for
their efforts in
sustainability,
innovation,
water
conservation,
land protection and outdoor recreation. The spring
fundraiser generated more than $40,000.
• Held four other major fundraisers that were supported by
145 volunteers and generated over $50,000: WATERFEST XV
hosted 105 paddling participants; our 5K race saw 115 runners
take on Ridge Ferry Park and multiple “water obstacles;”
about 300 patrons supported River Revelry in August and at
our Fish Fry some 750 plates of catfish were served.
• Organized four special paddling events (Pig Paddle & Party,
Paddling Through History events in Bartow and Cherokee
counties and the Etowah River Water Trail Rodeo) that
attracted more than 200 patrons and generated more than
$14,000.
• Held kayak and paddleboard raffles in conjunction with
Cedar Creek Park & Outdoor Center and SweetWater Brewery
that generated more than $4,400 for CRBI programs.
• Continued to garner support from private foundations,
receiving $25,500 to fund programs.
• Maintained an active and engaged board of directors of 11
citizen volunteers.
• Engaged more than 540 volunteers in CRBI events, cleanups
and other efforts. These volunteers logged more than 3,500
hours protecting the Coosa.
• Provided professional development funds for staff to
attend Georgia River Network’s Weekend for Rivers and the
Waterkeeper Alliance’s annual conference.