Thread: Ruling leaves North Georgia with water crisis

Ruling leaves North Georgia with water crisis

Updated 8m ago
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Things seemed bad enough two years ago. Georgia withered in prolonged drought. Water levels in Lake Sidney Lanier, this area's main drinking water source, dropped by the week, huge parts of lake bottom baking in the sun. It was a frightening scenario until the rain finally came.

That's nothing compared with what might lie ahead.

A federal judge ruled recently that metropolitan Atlanta has been illegally taking water from Lanier, which he said the federal government built more than half a century ago for hydroelectric power generation and other uses — not for drinking water.

Unless Georgia and downstream neighbors Alabama and Florida can work out a water-sharing agreement in three years — something they haven't done during a two-decade-long "water war" — north Georgia will have to return to mid-1970s levels of withdrawals from the lake. Alternatively, Congress could approve a reallocation of water from Lanier.

A potential economic blow

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue calls the ruling "a game changer." Says his spokesman, Bert Brantley: "It was unexpected. The fact he (the judge) would set the level back to a specific date was certainly very surprising."

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Florida | Atlanta | Alabama | Georgia | Sonny Perdue | Lake Lanier

Charles Bannister, county commission chairman in Gwinnett, a growth powerhouse that gets all of its drinking water from Lake Lanier, says: "It's devastating, or could be," he says. "Gwinnett would become a desert, perhaps."

If U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson's July 17 ruling set off trepidation here, it ignited celebrations downstream in Alabama and Florida. Those states have long eyed Atlanta's unchecked growth with concern, alleging that Georgia had no right to take unlimited drinking water from Lake Lanier.

"We were very confident we would win this legal battle," says Todd Stacy, spokesman for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley. Alabama sued over Georgia's withdrawals in 1990.

Stacy says Georgia has dismissed its neighbors' concerns. Riley favors a solution worked out by the three governors — all Republicans —over a congressional one. "Alabama has never argued that no drinking water should be taken from the reservoir, simply that it can't be unlimited," Stacy says.

Farther downstream, leaders in Apalachicola, Fla., say their seafood industry has been hammered by lower stream levels caused by Atlanta's withdrawals. Mayor Van Johnson says he's "grateful" for Magnuson's ruling. His elation is tempered by the fact that Magnuson froze withdrawals at current levels instead of immediately ordering them cut.

The "harm to the ecosystem here in Apalachicola has been going on a long time," Johnson says. "Three more years. I don't know if Apalachicola Bay is going to survive that kind of timetable."

Apalachicola Bay produces 90% of Florida's oysters and 10% of the oysters consumed in the USA; its fishing beds have always provided an economic net for the area's 6,000 residents, Apalachicola City Attorney Patrick Floyd says.

Until now. Lower water levels in the river system flowing south from Georgia have thrown off the delicate balance of salt and fresh water in the bay, allowing saltwater to creep in and drastically reduce catches of shrimp, crab, fish and oysters, Floyd says.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist says he remains committed to "a fair, equitable sharing" of the water.

Lake Sidney Lanier covers 38,000 acres. It was authorized by Congress in 1946 and built by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1956. About 3.5 million Atlantans — roughly three-fourths of the metro area's population — get their drinking water from Lanier.

Magnuson noted in his ruling that reduced withdrawals from Lanier portended a "draconian" future for north Georgia. That's especially true for Gwinnett County, the USA's seventh-fastest-growing county during the 1990s, when the population grew 111.5%.

In 1975, Gwinnett County's population of about 130,000 used about 13 million gallons a day (MGD); today's population of about 820,000 averages 93 MGD, says Frank Stephens, a county water official. "If you really want to look at water withdrawal per capita, our water use is as conservative as any community in the country," he says.

The county recently completed a $700 million water reclamation plant that will eventually recycle and return two-thirds of the water Gwinnett takes from Lanier, he says.

Emphasis on conservation

In addition to appealing Magnuson's ruling, Brantley says Georgia plans to:

• Work with the other states on a water-sharing agreement.

• Pursue congressional reauthorization to take water from Lanier.

• Consider new reservoirs, tie-ins between neighboring communities and conservation.

Cindy Lowry, executive director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, a non-profit river advocacy group, says greater conservation is vital. "I don't think we've begun to scratch the surface of efficiency and conservation and where that can get us," she says.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... rwar_N.htm

This sounds a lot like CA. where norther CA. has lots of water and the FEDERAL judges send it out to the ocean rather than let southern CA. use it for drinking water.