Water Quality Monitoring - Chattooga Conservancy

Chattooga River Watershed

Water Quality Data

The Chattooga River’s water quality is currently threatened by pollution in several of its tributaries. The Chattooga Conservancy is working to monitor streams and creeks throughout the watershed, identify potential sources of sediment and fecal coliform pollution, and find ways to mitigate these pollution sources.

From August to December 2019, this work was supported through a Wild & Scenic Rivers Stewardship Partnership grant from River Network, with funding provided by the U.S. Forest Service. Click here to download 2019 data.

If you would like to support our water quality monitoring efforts, please consider becoming a member or donating! Annual contributions from our members are extremely important to the success of our organization, allowing us to continue projects like this that lead to direct actions to protect the river we all love.

If you’re interested in volunteering to collect samples, please let us know! Call us at 864-647-9849 or email info@chattoogariver.org.

Sample locations can be seen on our Chattooga Watershed Interactive Map.

The Georgia state water quality standards* for bacteria (fecal coliform) are as follows:
[Criteria based on at least 4 samples collected from a given site over a 30-day period.]

May- Oct: Not to exceed a geometric mean of 200 cfu/100 mL
Nov- April: Not to exceed a geometric mean of 1,000 cfu/100 mL; no single sample shall exceed 4,000 cfu/100 mL.

The South Carolina state water quality standards* for bacteria (E. coli) are as follows:
[Criteria based on at least 4 samples collected from a given site over a 30-day period.]

Not to exceed a geometric mean of 126/100 mL; no single sample shall exceed 349/100 mL.

*Water quality standards vary based on stream/ water classification. The listed standards apply to those in the Chattooga River watershed.

Fecal Coliform/ E. coli Results

cfu/100 mL

< Scroll left/right within the table to view additional dates >
Adjust “Show (#) entries” to view all sites, or use the Search bar to the right to filter by creek or location.

SiteID	River/Creek	Location_Description	5/24/23	5/10/23	4/5/23	2/1/23	1/5/23	11/28/22	10/31/22	9/26/22	7/29/21	7/19/21	7/7/21	6/30/21	6/17/21	6/2/21	5/25/21	5/12/21	5/6/21	4/14/21	4/6/21	3/31/21	3/18/21	3/10/21	2/28/21	2/24/21	2/3/21	1/10/21	12/15/20	12/13/20	11/24/20	11/20/20	11/4/20	10/31/20	10/7/20	9/11/20	8/23/20	7/31/20	6/19/20	6/18/20	5/15/20	5/4/20	4/10/20	4/1/20	3/19/20	2/26/20	1/15/20
WC-RG	Whetstone Creek	Rocky Gap	967	1,266	1500*							1200*			0*		67*		100*
WC-CR	Whetstone Creek	Chattooga Confluence	NA	NA	NA	300*	266*	600*				333*		100*	600*		333*		200*		33*		1033*		200*		33*	133*		233*		33*		167*			233*						33
WC-CON	Whetstone Creek	Conley Rd	3,133	600	7900*	2233*	600*	900*	7400*	767*		967*			733*		3367*		8733*		200*		467*		100*
WC-E	Whetstone Creek	Earl's Ford Rd bridge	600	3,600
WC-JM	Whetstone Creek	John Mtn Rd	1,167	3,600								1567*		1933*	633*		1700*		933*		167*		467*		133*			100*		367*		367*		233*			500*		1733*			1300*			733
WC-CPO	Whetstone Creek	Conley Pond Outlet	0	0
LC-1	Long Creek	Orchard Rd	33		33*	100*	500*	67*	767*	33*
FC-NF	Fall Creek - North Fork	Fall Creek Rd. Extension	367	NA	0*	0*	300*	933*	333*	200*
C-3	Chattooga River	Hwy 28 bridge
C-N	Chattooga River	Narrows																																			200*
C-1	Chattooga River	Hwy 76 bridge									39		32			13		62		25				3		17	15					33*	51		0*	0*		433*		0*	0*	33*		33	0	63	63
C-2	Chattooga River	Stekoa Creek confluence
SC-2	Scott Creek	Sundance
SC-1	Scott Creek	Marsengill St									275		587			307		TNTC		499				74		56	19				233*		137		202											48	149
SC-3	Scott Creek	Shadyside Rd
SC-4	Scott Creek	Shadyside Rd 2																													200*
SG	Saddle Gap	Polly Gap Rd
SCP	Stekoa Creek	Stekoa Creek Park									175		36			92		129		35		186		33
S-GM	Stekoa Creek	Grist Mill																						22
S-DQ	Stekoa Creek	DQ/Old Livery St									361		117			208		594		79		545		33		28	19						80		172												184
S-1	Stekoa Creek	CVS/Railroad St									576		167			435		371		352		673		61			38				0*		63		324											151	160
S-2	Stekoa Creek	Sunday Diner/Village Way									840		307			405		TNTC		327		997		533		715	51				133*		439		347											92	179
S-5	Stekoa Creek	Bethel Church Rd																									107								187											79	113
S-4	Stekoa Creek	Hwy 441 & Rickman Airfield bridge
S-RA	Stekoa Creek	Rickman Airfield bridge																															201
S-ST	Stekoa Creek	Rickman Airfield bridge 2																															213
S-3	Stekoa Creek	Wolf Creek Rd									485		181			229		563		189				173		129	131						304		285			1367*	67*		133*					164	197
S-CR	Stekoa Creek	Chattooga Confluence
SR-1	Sarah's Creek	Upstream of Camp
SR-2	Sarah's Creek	Lower Camp
W-SF	Warwoman Creek	Sandy Ford Rd
W-JS	Warwoman Creek	Joe Speed Rd																								39
W-HC	Warwoman Creek	Joe Speed-Earls Ford bridge
W-1	Warwoman Creek	Earl's Ford Rd bridge																								25			33*									267*
W-2	Warwoman Creek	Earl's Ford last campsite
W-3	Warwoman Creek	Earl's Ford
BC	Big Creek	Hwy 28
LG	Law Ground Creek	Warwoman Rd
WF	West Fork	Warwoman Rd Bridge																																											0
SEE	Unnamed Chattooga Tributary	SEE parking lot
FH	East Fork Chattooga	Walhalla Fish Hatchery
LC-2	Long Creek	Long Creek Falls

*E. coli
TNTC= Too numerous to count

Rain events (0.2″ or more of rain in the last 24 hrs):10/31/22; 7/19/21; 5/12/21; 3/31/21; 3/18/21; 7/31/20

Turbidity Results

NTU

Adjust “Show (#) entries” to view all sites, or use the Search bar to the right to filter by creek or location.

SiteID	River/Creek	Location_Description	7/29/21	7/7/21	6/2/21	5/12/21	4/14/21	3/31/21	3/10/21	2/24/21	2/3/21	11/4/20	10/7/20	2/26/20	1/15/20
C-1	Chattooga River	Hwy 76 bridge	4.80	2.01	2.78	2.64	3.29		1.61	1.84	3.08	2.65		3.25	4.67
C-2	Chattooga River	Stekoa Creek confluence
SC-2	Scott Creek	Sundance
SC-1	Scott Creek	Marsengill St	7.90	8.90	8.68	10.6	8.91		4.20	5.49	2.8	4.6	10.4	7.42	6.98
SC-3	Scott Creek	Shadyside Rd
SG	Saddle Gap	Polly Gap Rd
SCP	Stekoa Creek	Stekoa Creek Park	4.64	3.14	3.41	6.23	4.93	171.0	2.89
S-GM	Stekoa Creek	Grist Mill							3.13
S-DQ	Stekoa Creek	DQ/Old Livery St	4.21	3.15	3.28	8.95	5.43	238.0	2.41	4.29	2.71	4.67	3.42		18.2
S-1	Stekoa Creek	CVS/Railroad St	5.28	5.44	4.84	9.33	5.96	225.0	3.04		2.7	3.61	3.44	4.96	12.2
S-2	Stekoa Creek	Sunday Diner/Village Way	7.20	7.49	5.93	11.1	7.19	292.0	3.32	4	3.86	5.36	7.28	7.36	11.2
S-5	Stekoa Creek	Bethel Church Rd									4.16		4.79	6.65	11.7
S-4	Stekoa Creek	Hwy 441 & Rickman Airfield bridge
S-RA	Stekoa Creek	Rickman Airfield bridge										5.12
S-ST	Stekoa Creek	Rickman Airfield bridge 2										5.53
S-3	Stekoa Creek	Wolf Creek Rd	7.25	5.46	6.59	16.1	7.41		4.33	6.74	4.21	5.58	3.76	7.42	8.47
W-JS	Warwoman Creek	Joe Speed Rd bridge								2.76
W-HC	Warwoman Creek	Joe Speed Rd bridge at Earls Ford Rd
W-1	Warwoman Creek	Earl's Ford Rd bridge								3.11
W-2	Warwoman Creek	Earl's Ford last campsite
BC	Big Creek	Hwy 28
WF	West Fork	Warwoman Rd Bridge
SEE	Unnamed Chattooga Tributary	SEE parking lot
WC-1	Whetstone Creek	Fall Creek Rd
WC-2	Whetstone Creek	Earl's Ford Rd bridge
LC-1	Long Creek	Orchard Rd
LC-2	Long Creek	Long Creek Falls

Rain events (0.2″ or more of rain in the last 24 hrs): 5/12/21; 3/31/21