The Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint River Basin (the ACF River Basin) is the

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

, or watershed, of the

Apalachicola River The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately long, in the state of Florida. The river's large drainage basin, watershed, known as the ACF River Basin, Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) River Basin, drains an area of approximately ...

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River () is a river in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida and Georgia border. It ...

, and

Flint River The Flint River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 15, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains of western Georgia, flowing south from th ...

, in the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...

. This area is alternatively known as simply the Apalachicola Basin and is listed by the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

as basin HUC 031300, as well as sub-region HUC 0313. It is located in the

South Atlantic-Gulf Water Resource Region South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

, which is listed as HUC 03. The basin is further sub-divided into 14 sub-basins.

Geography

The ACF River Basin begins in the mountains of

northeast Georgia Northeast Georgia is a region of Georgia in the United States. The northern part is also in the North Georgia mountains or Georgia mountain region, while the southern part (east of metro Atlanta) is still hilly but much flatter in topography. No ...

, and drains much of

metro Atlanta Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixt ...

, most of west Georgia and

southwest Georgia Southwest Georgia is a fourteen-county region in the U.S. state of Georgia, bordering Alabama and Florida. Colloquially referred to as SOWEGA, the region is anchored by Albany—its most populous city and the region's sole metropolitan statistica ...

and adjoining counties of

southeast Alabama Southeast Alabama is the term used to identify the southeastern counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. Other names for the area are The Wiregrass and Lower Alabama. The area includes the Counties of Dale, Pike, Houston, Coffee, Henry, Geneva, Bar ...

, before it splits the central part of the

Florida Panhandle The Florida panhandle (also known as West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida. It is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long, bordered by Alabama on the west and north, Georgia (U.S. state ...

and flows into the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

Apalachicola Bay Apalachicola Bay is an estuary and lagoon located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The Apalachicola Bay system also includes St. George Sound, St. Vincent Sound and East Bay, covering an area of about . Four islands, St. Vinc ...

, near

Apalachicola, Florida Apalachicola ( ) is a city and the county seat of Franklin County, Florida, United States, on the shore of Apalachicola Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico. The population was 2,341 at the 2020 census. History The Apalachicola Province, a ...

. It drains an area of 20,355 square miles. Most of the northern half of the basin abuts the

Eastern Continental Divide The Eastern Continental Divide, Eastern Divide or Appalachian Divide is a drainage divide, hydrological divide in eastern North America that separates the easterly Atlantic Seaboard drainage basin, watershed from the westerly Gulf of Mexico wat ...

on the east, and the

ACT River Basin The Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin (ACT River Basin) is a drainage basin (watershed) in the Southeastern United States. The basin is located mainly in eastern Alabama, but also goes includes a small part of Georgia. This area is classified a ...

to the west.

Listing of Water Resource Sub-Basins

Water wars

These states and

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

have been involved in a water-use dispute for two decades, known as the

Tri-state water dispute The tri-state water dispute is a 21st-century water-use conflict among the United States, U.S. U.S. state, states of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over flows in the ACF River Basin, Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Bas ...

. Georgia has also lobbied the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

to end

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

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

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

s upstream, sending potential drinking water downstream for shipping, and often dropping lakes to levels dangerous to boaters.

Conservation

Other ecological conservation and economic concerns include protecting harvests of

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...

s in Apalachicola Bay, which require a large enough flow of fresh water to prevent excessive

saltwater intrusion Saltwater intrusion is the movement of saline water into freshwater aquifers, which can lead to groundwater quality degradation, including drinking water sources, and other consequences. Saltwater intrusion can naturally occur in coastal aquifers, ...

from the Gulf. Numerous endangered and imperiled species occur in the basin, including many endemic mussels The cost of

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension (chemistry), suspension with water. Silt usually ...

, much of it caused by uncontrolled growth across metro Atlanta's fine red clay soil, has also been criticized as a wasteful exercise to float so little ship traffic.

References

External links

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: ACF Basin website
* {{Authority control Drainage basins of the Gulf of Mexico Watersheds of the United States Watersheds of Florida Landforms of Georgia (U.S. state) Landforms of Alabama