The Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved a Joint Funding Agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey on Sept. 24 for around $241,600.
This agreement means there will be continued operation and maintenance of 16 streamflow monitoring gauges in Cobb by the federal government.
The annual cost for the turn-key services for these gauges is $15,100 per gauge which is a total cost of $241,600 for 16 gauges between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30, 2020.
These gauges have proven “extremely useful” in analyzing and addressing issues related to rainfall events such as the flood of September 2009 and the 6.3-inch, three-hour event in the Sewell Mill Creek basin on July 11, 2012, according to Cobb Water System Agency Director Steve McCullers.
The need to provide for continuous, real-time streamflow monitoring was identified by watershed studies undertaken by the Cobb Water System in the 1990s, he added.
In 1997, the Cobb commissioners authorized an agreement with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), “the acknowledged experts in this field, for operation and maintenance of four gauges in four areas of immediate interest within the county,” McCullers said.
Similar agreements with the USGS have been authorized annually since then, adding eight gauges in 2006 in response to Cobb’s long-term stream monitoring requirements imposed by the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District.
More gauges were added in 2010, 2012, 2017 and 2018.
About the Author
