Manuel: Atlanta must conserve, not take

December 14, 2009

Ben Emanuel

Across Georgia, people are realizing the tri-state water war affects water supply planning, not just in metro Atlanta but in every part of the state.

Nearly five months after Judge Paul Magnuson's federal ruling on Lake Lanier's water, the state's response is taking shape. Under Magnuson's ruling, Georgia, Alabama and Florida have three years to develop an agreement for use of the Chattahoochee River, which was impounded decades ago to form Lake Lanier and has since become metro Atlanta's major water supply.

That's despite the fact that supplying water wasn't among the purposes for which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers established the lake.

Just before Thanksgiving, Gov. Sonny Perdue convened the second meeting of his Water Contingency Task Force, an ostensibly statewide group of more than 80 business and government leaders that includes just four representatives of conservation organizations and is weighted toward metro-area interests. State-hired consultants presented task force members with numerous water supply options and asked members to rank them.

According to reports and to materials presented, the menu was heavy on engineering solutions while downplaying proven, cost-effective solutions rooted in improved water efficiency and conservation. The Georgia Water Coalition has shown how metro Atlanta can save more than 200 million gallons of water a day - more than the amount currently withdrawn from Lake Lanier - through efficiency and changes in water pricing and metering.

Combined with a likely partial reauthorization of Lake Lanier for water supply - which task force members were asked to assume won't happen - these efficiency-based solutions could hold down the price on Atlanta's response to the Magnuson ruling and put Georgia in a better bargaining position with Alabama and Florida.

Yet the task force is looking at, among other things, several new reservoirs in the counties ringing metro Atlanta. One of those is the planned Hard Labor Creek reservoir in southeastern Walton County. Walton and Oconee counties are partnering on this reservoir. Oconee County Commission Chairman Melvin Davis has said that the county probably won't need Hard Labor Creek water as soon as it thought it would - a situation that would seem to set up a convenient water-for-money swap with metro Atlanta. But would Walton and Oconee counties get that water back when they need it?

The healthiest route for all of Georgia is for metro Atlanta to pursue water efficiency and conservation first as an abundant source of new water supply.

Ben Emanuel is Oconee Projects coordinator with the Altamaha Riverkeeper group.