No Contaminants Found In Cooper Sandy Creek: City Of Milton

MILTON, GA — Cooper Sandy Creek, which cuts across Milton, flowing from east to west, is getting cleaner, new test results suggest.

The creek is currently Milton’s sole waterway on the State of Georgia Environmental Protection Agency’s “303 (d) list,” the latter outlining “impaired or threatened waters” as required by the federal Clean Water Act. As such, for years, it’s been a focal point for the city and volunteers to improve. Those creeks on this list aren’t necessarily polluted in the commonly accepted sense; rather, they’re put on the list because they cannot support certain fish or macroinvertebrate, or non-plant organisms without a spine, species.

Water quality tests at three sampling points taken last December and reported earlier this month did not detect contaminants in the creek. Specifically, the tests measured total suspended solids which is a commonly used measure of water quality. This is the first time that’s happened since 2015, when the first such measurements were taken. There were two years when no total suspended solids amounts were found in one sample site, but were found in the other two.

While those latest samples alone are not enough to get Cooper Sandy Creek off the 303 (d) list, they are good signs. Ultimately, the state of Georgia must submit its list of what it considers its “impaired or threatened” waterways to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Cooper Sandy Creek runs from around the Cambridge High School campus to just west of Mill Springs Academy where it flows into the Little River – passing through Providence Park and the city-owned Cooper Sandy green space, among other properties, along the way.