What is the New Echota Rivers Alliance (NERA)?

NERA is a 501c3 grassroots environmental organization based in Calhoun, Georgia with the mission of informing and empowering citizens so that they may become involved in the process of creating a clean, healthy and economically viable Coosa River Basin--specifically the portion of the basin in Gordon County. Since the formation of this chapter of the Coosa River Basin Initiative in 2004, our staff, board and members have serve as advocates for the wise stewardship of the natural resources of the Upper Coosa River basin, or watershed, which stretches from southeastern Tennessee and north central Georgia to Weiss Dam in Northeast Alabama. This includes the entire reach of the Oostanaula River, the lower portions of the Coosawattee and Conasauga Rivers, the tributaries of these waterways, as well as the land drained by these streams and the air that surrounds this land area.

NERA and CRBI are both a member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance. We are known collectively as the Upper Coosa Riverkeeper. As such, we work to enforce the Clean Water Act, by monitoring pollution and polluters. When pollution problems are identified we use all means necessary, including legal action, to correct these problems.

As a member of the Georgia Water Coalition, we work to influence water resource policy in Georgia so that clean and plentiful water is available today and for future generations. As it follows, one our major initiatives is to aid in the shaping of the Comprehensive State-wide Water Management Plan.  In order to do so, we work in four program areas: advocacy, education, water monitoring, and restoration. Our Executive Director, 11-member Board of Directors, and 6-member Advisory Board direct the efforts of NERA's more than 100 members.

NERA's parent organization, the Coosa River Basin Initiative, continues to oversee all major adovcacy efforts in the basin. 

History

Calhoun, Georgia

June 2004

Gordon County Chamber of Commerce Board Room

Stakeholders consisting of community leaders meet discussing the vision of a Gordon County based organization that would support environmental issues. Thus, the New Echota Rivers Alliance (NERA) was founded in the summer of 2004 as a chapter of the Coosa River Basin Initiative (CRBI) which protects the entire Coosa River Basin.

NERA had its first success in organizing a major cleanup on the Coosawattee River near Ellijay just after Hurricane Ivan blanketed the watershed with debris.

NERA operates in a cramped office in the back of one of their founders homes. Despite these humble beginnings, NERA has grown to become a visible presence in the decision-making processes concerning the region’s natural resources.

NERA employs one professional staff person who coordinates volunteers and work with an 11-member board of directors to design and implement advocacy, education, water monitoring, restoration and organizational development programs. More than 100 dues paying members support the organization with their money and volunteer services.

Accomplishments

Since its founding in 2004, NERA’s advocacy, education, restoration and water monitoring programs have helped improve water quality in the Coosa River Basin and have helped citizens better understand water resource issues. The organization’s major accomplishments include:

• Forcing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to uphold the Clean Water Act through a lawsuit requiring the EPA to set Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) on our impaired waterways. TMDLs limit the amount of non-point source pollution allowed to enter polluted waterways.
• Stopping a plan to “transfer” metro Atlanta sewage to the Coosa River Basin by working successfully with state legislators forcing metro Atlanta communities to rethink their growth strategies.
• Stopping the dumping of indigo dye in the Chattooga River by carpet manufacturers and the improper land application of wastewater sludge in Dalton.
• Stopping a hot water discharge on Smith-Cabin Creek in Floyd County by Temple-Inland Paperboard & Packaging.
• Defeating water legislation that would have allowed Georgia’s water to be bought and sold to the highest bidder.  CRBI worked closely with other environmental groups throughout Georgia in the Georgia Water Coalition to keep Georgia’s water as a public resource.
• Training hundreds of citizens to monitor rivers and creeks throughout the basin. Citizens collect data which is compiled by CRBI, the City of Rome, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, and Alabama Water Watch. Trends in water quality are noted and any unusual findings are researched further to ensure no illegal activities are occurring that affect water quality.
• Educating thousands of Coosa River Basin citizens in classrooms, civic meetings, public forums, workshops, print and broadcast media and in our quarterly newsletter, Mainstream.  

2004 Annual Report

Staff

Joe Cook, Executive Director & Riverkeeper

Joe has served CRBI as a board member since 1999, and began full time work as Executive Director and Riverkeeper in January 2005. He is a nature/landscape photographer and writer whose work has been published in numerous national and regional magazines and is featured in three books, Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains and River Song-A Journey Down the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola Rivers. He has studied and reported extensively on water resource issues in Georgia since 1994. He and his daughter and her mother spent 26 days canoeing the 160-mile length of the Etowah River in 2002. He is a 1988 graduate of Berry College where he studied communications and agriculture.

David Promis, Program Coordinator

David joined CRBI in November 2007 after working at Columbus State University's Oxbow Environmental Learning Center in Columbus, Georgia. David brings some 20 years of environmental and education experience to CRBI. He has worked with Georgia's Department of Natural Resources designing water quality education programs for schools and public/private sectors; he served as the Education Director of the Outdoor Activity Center with Atlanta Public Schools; and worked at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. From 1988-1990 he served as president of the Georgia Environmental Education Council (now Environmental Education Alliance of Georgia). A graduate of the State University of West Georgia where he majored in biology, David later earned his masters and doctorate in education at Auburn University. He is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and was named to the 1999 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.  

Board of Directors

Ray Kelley, retired General Electric employee, former board president and resident of Gaylesville, Alabama

Carolyn Landrem, president of the Weiss Lake Improvement Association and resident of Centre, Alabama

Eric Lindberg, environmental planner with the City of Rome and resident of Rome, Georgia

Mary Caldwell Zimmerman, business owner and resident of Rome, Georgia

Larry James, business owner and resident of Rome, Georgia

Billy Grant, business owner, landscape architect and resident of Cedartown, Georgia

Mary Lucchese, retired physician and resident of Rome, Georgia

Clayton Jones, college instructor and resident of Calhoun, Georgia

Tom Farmer, radiologist and resident of Rome, Georgia

Jerry Brown, business owner, landscape architect and resident of Summerville, Georgia

Harold Chambers, attorney and resident of Calhoun, Georgia

Mark Lamade, park manager and resident of Rome, Georgia

Cathy Dameron, paralegal student and resident of New Hope, Georgia

Patricia Burton, business owner and resident of Emerson, Georgia

Barbara Odom, accountant and resident of Rome, Georgia

Board of Advisors

Carrie Baker, professor at Berry College, Rome, Georgia

Bill Harbin, radiologist, Rome, Georgia

Jerry Jennings, professor at Berry College and Floyd County Commissioner, Rome, Georgia

Wright Ledbetter, Rome, Georgia

Harvey Palmer, Methodist minister, Rome, Georgia

George Pullen, retired college instructor and former Rome City Commissioner, Rome, Georgia 

Contact Information

Coosa River Basin Initiative

408 Broad Street

Rome, Georgia 30161

Phone: 706-232-CRBI (2724)

Fax: 706-235-9066