WHAT IS A WATERSHED?

A watershed is the area of land that drains into a particular point along a stream or waterbody. Depending on the size of the waterbody, a watershed can cover many states or simply your backyard.

What is the Link between Stormwater and Watershed?

A watershed is greatly impacted by the amount of impervious cover in it. Impervious cover prevents stormwater from infiltrating into the ground and causes it to runoff into our streams. Watersheds with high amount of impervious cover tend to have streams with incised channels, eroded stream banks and poor water quality especially in Clayton County, where most the land have been developed and covered with impervious surface. Without effective watershed management, these streams will continue to degrade and it will continue to be difficult for the Clayton County Water Authority to achieve water quality standards imposed by the State and Federal agencies.

Our daily actions also affect the health of our watersheds. Littering, dumping hazardous waste and applying excessive fertilizers on our lawn are some of the actions that can impact the health of our watersheds. It is important that we manage our stormwater and watersheds so we can improve our quality of life; protect our roadways, homes and businesses from flooding; keep our drinking water safe for future generation; keep our water clean for the survival of aquatic lives and preserve our environment so the future generation can continue to enjoy what we currently have. To learn more about how you can help us control stormwater runoff and protect our watersheds, click here.

Map of Clayton County Watersheds

Everyone lives in a watershed. There are 21 watersheds in the County. Click here to download a map of Clayton County watersheds and see if you can find the watershed you live in. Clayton County spans three river basins, Flint and Ocmulgee river basins and a small portion of the Chattahoochee river basin. Ultimately, the Flint and Upper Ocmulgee River flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) delineates watershed boundaries in the country based on hydrologic features and assigns a Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) to a watershed. There are four classifications in the HUC system: regions, sub-regions, accounting units, and cataloging units. The system divides the country into 21 regions, 222 subregions, 352 accounting units, and 2,262 cataloguing units, with "regions" having the largest drainage area and "cataloguing units" having the smallest drainage area. The USGS assigns 2-digit HUC for regions, 4-digit HUC for subregions, 6-digit HUC for accounting units and 8-digit HUC for cataloguing units. The following shows the hierarchical HUC system for Upper Flint and Upper Ocmulgee River.

For Ocmulgee River Basin:
Region 03: South Atlantic-Gulf region
Subregion 0307: Altamaha - St. Mary's subregion
Accounting Unit 030703: Altamaha River
Cataloging Unit 03070103: Upper Ocmulgee River

For Flint River Basin:
Region 03: South Atlantic-Gulf region
Subregion 0313: Apalachicola subregion
Accounting Unit 031300: Apalachicola River
Cataloging Unit 03130005: Upper Flint River

Go to USGS website to learn more about Hydrologic Unit Codes.