FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 3, 2005

Chambliss, Isakson Announce Agriculture Funds for Altamaha River Basin

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today announced final Congressional approval the fiscal year 2006 funding bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture including $100,000 in funding for a water quality study of the Altamaha River Basin.

“The Altamaha River Basin is an important natural resource,” said Chambliss.  “This funding will help protect and preserve the river and surrounding lands for future generations.”

“The citizens of Georgia will greatly benefit from this important study of the water quality of the Altamaha River Basin,” Isakson said. “I am pleased the Senate saw fit to support this worthy project."

The Altamaha River is the largest un-dammed river on the eastern seaboard of the United States. The main stem of the Altamaha winds through some of the South’s last remaining hardwood forests and tidal freshwater marshes. The watershed shelters more than fifty threatened and endangered species, including seven species of mussels found nowhere else on Earth.    Funding for the project will enable the measurement of water quality characteristics, cultivation of samples and the compilation of resulting data. The data will be used to compare the water quality indices with river discharge, land use, soil type, bedrock geology and vegetable cover.

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