A History of Water

Sally Bethea recalls her time as Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in debut book

By Collin Kelley

Sally Bethea was one of the first women in America to become a “riverkeeper” – a defender and guardian of an essential waterway. The nonprofit Chattahoochee Riverkeeper she founded in 1994 took Atlanta to court for polluting the river with untreated sewage just a year before the Summer Olympic Games.

Even now, Bethea said a year-old environmental group filing a lawsuit against a major city in the international spotlight was a “bold move.”

But the organization prevailed in court and the city was forced to clean up its act – literally.

For the next two decades, the organization would file more lawsuits against companies polluting the river and be a thorn in the side of politicians whose laisse-faire attitude – or political expediency – concerning the Chattahoochee was causing harm to the waterway.

When she retired and passed the torch to a new riverkeeper, she was constantly asked the same question: “When are you going to write a book?”

Bethea honed her writing skills with her long-running, award-winning Above the Waterline column, which appears in Atlanta Intown and right here at Rough Draft. But it was reading “The Forest Unseen” by biologist David George Haskell that planted the seed for her debut book.

Haskell visited an old-growth forest in Tennessee on a daily basis for a year to examine its seasonal changes.

“Reading Haskell’s book inspired me to start taking walks,” she said. “I decided to walk deliberately and attentively through a landscape and oversee the changes and seasons of nature.”

In May 2019, Bethea began walking a path along Cabin Creek in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CRNRA). She went back again and again – usually weekly – to simply feel and observe. She documented those walks in a journal.

“I realized that I had been dashing through landscapes all my life and failed to pay close attention to the wonder and awe,” Bethea said. “I love to be outdoors, but these walks brought nature into perspective.”

When the pandemic struck and closed the CRNRA for two months, Bethea kept writing about what she had seen. Then, she landed on the idea of pairing her walk observations with memories of her days as the first Chattahoochee Riverkeeper.

The COVID-19 shutdown gave Bethea time to research and write. “I started writing and kept writing, so the pandemic also acted as a spark plug. I had a lot of time on my hands and all these hours at home. That gave me permission to reflect and not race around and focus on the writing.”

The result is “Keeping the Chattahoochee: Reviving and Defending a Great Southern River,” which is out now from University of Georgia Press.

The book is filled with lovely passages from Bethea’s nature walks to serious and often funny recollections during her time as riverkeeper: From finding common ground with then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich on cleaning up the Chattahoochee and finding an ally in former Mayor Shirley Franklin to the early days of the tristate water war and a perilous paddle with former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt.

“I wrote this with the goal of helping readers understand how rivers work,” she said. “Many people don’t understand how bodies of water are connected; how when someone dumps pollution into a creek over in DeKalb County how it eventually winds up in the Chattahoochee.”

The Chattahoochee is still in need of a protector as evidenced by this month’s sewage spill by Fulton County into the waterway. A 15-mile stretch of the river had to be closed when E. coli readings spiked.

Bethea said Atlanta has made a remarkable turnaround in the last three decades when its crumbling infrastructure turned the Chattahoochee into a running sewer. But more work needs to be done.

“Atlanta was failing spectacularly in the ‘90s, but I would give them an overall grade of B now,” she said. “ In terms of sewers, I’d give them an A. They are complying with federal deadlines and continue to properly maintain the wastewater system. Stormwater runoff and flooding are issues the city still needs to work on.”

The main takeaway from the book Bethea hopes is imparted to readers is to connect with nature, especially as climate change accelerates.

“I encourage people to find their own place to walk or visit regularly,” she said. “Get to know it over the seasons, pay attention. It’s amazingly spiritlifting and fun and you learn a lot. In the frantic times we deal with, allowing yourself that opportunity to get out in nature can provide a lot of solace.”

Upcoming book signings & events

■ Bethea will sign copies of “Keeping the Chattahoochee” at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (chattahoocheeparks.org) on Aug. 15 at 7 p.m.

■ She’ll also discuss the book with former Mayor Shirley Franklin at The Jimmy Carter Library (jimmycarterlibrary.gov) on Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.

■ Rough Draft and Atlanta Intown will host a discussion and book signing with Bethea on Oct. 19 at Manuel’s Tavern. More details soon.