The ACF River Basin is the watershed of the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee/Flint River Basin, in the United States, that begins in northern Georgia and flows into the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachicola Bay, near Apalachicola, Florida. The basin drains an area of more than 19,300 square miles (50,000 km²).
These states and Alabama have been involved in a water-use dispute for two decades, known as the Tri-state water dispute. Georgia has also lobbied the United States Congress to end navigation on the Appalachicola and lower Chattahoochee, to conserve more water during droughts. Keeping the two rivers at a navigable depth during these times requires large releases from dams upstream, sending potential drinking water downstream for shipping, and often dropping lakes to levels dangerous to boaters.
Other concerns include harvests of oysters in Apalachicola Bay, which require a large enough flow of fresh water to prevent excessive saltwater intrusion from the Gulf. The cost of dredging silt, much of it from uncontrolled growth across metro Atlanta's fine red clay soil, has also been called wasteful to float so little ship traffic.
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)