Flint River

Flint River
Map of the Apalachicola River system with the Flint River in dark blue and its watershed highlighted.
Length	150 mi (240 km)

For other rivers named Flint, see Flint River (disambiguation page).

Map showing the Flint River Basin and other river basins in Georgia.

The Flint River is an approximately 150 miles (240 km) long river, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains 8,460 sq mi (22,464 km²) of western Georgia, flowing south from the upper Piedmont region south of Atlanta to the wetlands of the coastal plain in the southwestern corner of the state. Along with the Apalachicola and the Chattahoochee, it forms part of the ACF basin. In its upper course through the red hills of the Piedmont it is considered especially scenic, flowing unimpeded for over 200 miles (320 km).

Description

The Flint River rises in west central Georgia in the City of East Point in southern Fulton County on the southern outskirts of the Atlanta metropolitan area as ground seepage. The exact start can be traced to the field located between Plant Street, Willingham Drive, Elm Street, and Vesta Avenue. It then travels under the runways of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.^[1] Flowing generally south through rural western Georgia, the river passes through Sprewell Bluff State Park, approximately 10 mi (16 km) west of Thomaston. Further south, it comes within 5 miles (8.0 km) of Andersonville, the site of the Andersonville prison during the Civil War. In southwestern Georgia, the river flows through downtown Albany, Georgia, the largest city on the river. At Bainbridge it joins Lake Seminole, formed at its confluence with the Chattahoochee River upstream from the "Jim Woodruff Dam" very near the Florida state line. The Apalachicola River then flows south from the reservoir to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Flint River is also fed by Kinchafoonee Creek just north of Albany, and by Ichawaynochaway Creek in southwestern Mitchell County, approximately 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Bainbridge.

In addition to Lake Seminole, the Flint River is impounded approximately 15 miles (24 km) upstream from Albany to form the Lake Blackshear reservoir. The Flint River was historically navigable to Bainbridge before the construction of the Jim Woodruff Dam. The unimpeded nature of the river above Lake Blackshear is rare among U.S. rivers. It is one of only 40 rivers in the nation to flow over 200 miles (320 km) unimpeded. In the 1970s, a plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a dam at Spreewell Bluff in Upson County, Georgia was defeated by the Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, whose hometown of Plains, Georgia, coincidentally, is located near the Flint River.

In Luke Bryan's 2008 song "We Rode in Trucks", he mentions the Flint River: "Down where I was born was Heaven on Earth, the Flint River washes that red Georgia dirt."

Natural history

The river is considered to have three distinct sections as it flows southward through western Georgia. In its upper reaches in the red hills of the Piedmont, it flows through a deeply incised channel etched into crystalline rocks. South of its fall line near Culloden, the channel transforms to a broad, forested swampy flood plain. South of Lake Blackshear, it transforms again, flowing through a channel in limestone rock above the Upper Floridan Aquifer below southwestern Georgia and northwestern Florida.

The river has been prone to floods throughout its history. In 1994, during flooding from Tropical Storm Alberto, the river crested at 43 feet (13 m) in Albany, resulting in the emergency evacuation of over 23,000 residents, and creating one of the worst natural disasters in the state's history. Interstate 75 was closed in Macon, and Albany State University was also seriously flooded, as the river became a few miles or several kilometers wide in some places. The water lifted caskets from cemeteries and left them along with drowned cattle and other livestock stuck in trees and other places. Other significant floods occurred in 1841 and 1925.

In January 2002, a winter storm blew through Atlanta the day after New Year's Day, and deicing fluid leaked into the river when the airport's drainage system overflowed. Nobody became seriously ill from the antifreeze, which made it into drinking water for some, but the airport changed the system to avoid the problem in the future. This was not well-tested for several years since it was the last major snow event the city had seen due to several warm or dry winters. However there were no reports of problems after an unusually-heavy 4 inches (10 cm) officially fell at the airport at the beginning of March 2009.

In April 2009, American Rivers declared the Flint to be one of the ten most endangered rivers in the country, due mainly to plans for a dam on it.

In May 2009, The National Fish Habitat Action Plan, named the Lower Flint River one of its "10 Waters to Watch" for 2009 for its habitat restoration work.

See also

• List of Georgia rivers

References

External links

• Georgia Wildlife Federation: Flint River
• Sherpa Guides: Flint River Basin
• Jimmy Carter: Land Between the Rivers