Water Quality Management Studies. West Point Lake, Chattahoochee River, Alabama-Georgia.

Abstract : West Point Reservoir is a multipurpose project on the Chattahoochee River about 95 kilometers downstream from Atlanta. Urbanization has placed large demands on the river, and water quality below Atlanta was degraded, even before impoundment. Water-quality, bottom-sediment, and fish-tissue samples were collected from the reservoir to determine whether water-quality problems have occurred subsequent to impoundment. Water-quality data were collected at 16 sampling stations within the reservoir and the river downstream of the dam on 17 data-collection trips between April 1978 and December 1979. Water-quality data show that severe hypolimnetic oxygen deficiency occurred in the reservoir after thermal stratification developed in the spring of 1978 and 1979. This environment favored the release of iron, manganese, phosphorus, and other constituents from the sediments. During these periods of thermal stratification, dissolved-oxygen concentrations in the release water from West Point Reservoir consistently were below State of Georgia water-quality standards. Originator-supplied keywords include: Tissue analysis, and Limnology.