Flint River No. 2 on endangered list

One of Georgia’s most pristine rivers has been named among North America’s 10 most endangered.

Washington-based American Rivers placed the Flint River at No. 2 on its annual list released Tuesday. The nonprofit opposes new dams and advocates tearing down unneeded older ones.

The ranking was based on the resurrection of a 1970s proposal to dam the river to create new water supplies. Two U.S. congressmen from Georgia are seeking a $10 million study of the merits.

The specter last year launched the Flint Riverkeeper, an environmental group with national ties and backing from former President Jimmy Carter. River advocates are calling on Congress and state leaders to spare the river and save money by investing in water conservation and efficiencies instead of dams.

The 350-mile-long Flint, which begins as groundwater in south Fulton County and runs under Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, includes one of the country’s longest free-flowing river stretches.

Flint lovers say it has the best shoal bass fishing around. Other distinguishing features include a riverine ecology that ranges from mountain laurel to Spanish moss and blue holes, or caves, connecting the river to south Georgia’s underground aquifer.

Much of the basin is rural, and waters some of the state’s richest farmland.

U.S. Reps. Nathan Deal (R-Gainesville) and Lynn Westmoreland (R-Grantville), last year proposed studying the environmental impacts of building one or more reservoirs on the Flint. The bill to authorize the study died, but both hope to resubmit it.

Deal said a federal reservoir on the Flint would take pressure off Lake Lanier on the Chattahoochee River, metro Atlanta’s main water source. The two rivers meet in Lake Seminole at the Florida border.

In 2007, during the worst of the latest drought, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened Lanier’s spigot to make up for the lack of water flowing down the Flint. The water was needed to meet a minimum flow into Florida.

“If we have any intention of ever being able to give any relief to the Chattahoochee River basin in a time of drought in particular, there has to be some holding capacity on the Flint,” Deal said Tuesday.

America’s Most Endangered Rivers, according to American Rivers:

1. Sacramento-San Joaquin River System, CA

2. Flint River, GA

3. Lower Snake River, ID, OR and WA

4. Mattawoman Creek, MD

5. North Fork of the Flathead River, MT

6. Saluda River, SC

7. Laurel Hill Creek, PA

8. Beaver Creek, AK

9. Pascagoula River, MS

10. Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, MN and WI

To learn more about these rivers and read the report, go to American Rivers.

Past Georgia rivers on the list, which started in 1985, include the Chattahoochee, Tallapoosa and Altamaha rivers.