Ruling clamps interbasin flow

July 27, 2010
By Rob Pavey and Walter Jones | The Augusta Chronicle

ATLANTA --- A judge's ruling Monday in a Washington County power plant case will make it more difficult to pipe water from one Georgia water basin to another.

Administrative Law Judge Ronit Walker was ruling generally with groups challenging the methods of obtaining water permits for a coal-fired power plant proposed near Sandersville.

In making his decision, however, the judge said the state's Environmental Protection Divi- sion failed to follow proper procedure for interbasin transfers because it allowed the withdrawal of 13.5 million gallons a day from the Oconee River for use at the proposed plant in the Ogeechee River watershed.

The operation would return just 11 percent, or 1.5 million gallons a day, of that water to the Oconee.

Interbasin transfers have become more of a statewide issue since a committee appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to study ways to supplement metro Atlanta's water supply evaluated options that included moving water from the Savannah River Basin to Gwinnett County. That option ultimately was not recommended as viable because of expense and the potential for "contentious stakeholder sensitivity."

In the case ruled on Monday, developers had contended piping water 30 miles into a different river basin did not fall under Georgia's interbasin transfer guidelines because some of the water was being returned to its basin of origin.

The existing law, they said, defines such a transfer as "a withdrawal in which water is returned to a different basin than that from which it is withdrawn."

Complying with the ruling won't be hard, according to Dean Alford, a spokesman for developer Power4Georgians.

"It's not a big deal at all. It's more procedural," he said, estimating it would merely delay construction several months.

The EPD did not react Monday. It got a copy of the 29-page ruling earlier in the day and had not had time to digest it or comment, according to agency spokesman Kevin Chambers.

Opponents had appealed the state's decision to approve the water permit, contending Georgia's Statewide Water Management Plan adopted in 2008 more narrowly defines interbasin transfers as any "withdrawal and transfer of surface waters across natural basins."

The ruling in favor of the environmental groups means plant developers will now have to go through a more rigorous process of applying for an interbasin transfer permit.

More important, according to Justine Thompson, the executive director of GreenLaw, it helps close a potential loophole that could be exploited by anyone willing to pump water long distances and then pump some of it back after using it.

"What they were doing is really a way around having to deal with the interbasin transfer issue," she said. "This ruling is a significant decision that goes beyond coal plants and it has a lot to do with water policy."

In the challenges to the state water permits, GreenLaw and the Southern Environmental Law Center are representing the Altamaha Riverkeeper, the Fall-line Alliance for a Clean Environment, and Sierra Club's Georgia chapter.

Plant Washington Water Permit Hearing December 7th in Sandersville; Comments due December 10

Coal plant permits improper

Ruling clamps interbasin flow

Ruling on power plant narrows definition of interbasin transfers