Teachers find drought-strained springs on tour of Flint River

ALBANY - Radium Springs, a Creek Indian gathering place and one of Georgia&#39;s seven natural wonders, normally gushes sapphire-blue water from caverns linked to an aquifer far below. <br> <br> Wednesday, it was a gathering place for 22 science teachers who are making a seven-day trek down the Flint River to study its ecology and water quality. <br> <br> They found that Georgia&#39;s four-year drought had reduced Albany&#39;s famous springs to a dark pool of stagnant water, surrounded by algae and exposed limestone. <br> <br> A ladder that swimmers use ended about two feet short of a slimy, green pool. The normal water line -- a dark streak on the rock wall surrounding the springs -- was about four feet above the current level. <br> <br> A librarian at West Bainbridge Elementary School, Paul Chambers, said ``I&#39;ve learned that if we do not protect our environment, many of our plant and animal species will disappear. We&#39;re destroying ourselves and our planet. We have to protect these endangered ecosystems.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> During their two-hour visit, the teachers collected water in plastic bottles on the end of long poles, then poured it into vials to measure acidity and dissolved oxygen. Low levels of dissolved oxygen can cause fish kills. <br> <br> Others tossed a weighted rope into the springs in a futile attempt to measure the depth. <br> <br> Radium Springs is one of about 15 ``blue holes&#39;&#39; that gurgle into the Flint River bottom from the Floridan aquifer. Their constant 68-degree water provides a refuge for the only naturally reproducing population of Gulf striped bass, a fish that once proliferated along the Gulf Coast. <br> <br> The weeklong expedition, known as ``The Living Flint,&#39;&#39; started Sunday at Sprewell Bluff in Upson County and will end Saturday, 350 miles downstream in Cape San Blas, Florida. <br> <br> The Flint starts south of Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport and flows through western Georgia to Lake Seminole, along the Florida line. There it joins with the Chattahoochee to form the Apalachicola River, which flows through the Florida panhandle to the Gulf.