Strategy shifts in water usage battle

Basin transfer bill 'shot over the bow' of Atlanta

February 6, 2006
BY CHUCK WILLIAMS | Staff Writer, Ledger-Enquirer

Two Georgia senators are taking an interesting tack in the water battle that is increasingly pitting metro Atlanta against the rest of the state.

Sens. Seth Harp, R-Columbus, and Preston Smith, R-Rome, have introduced a bill to more closely regulate interbasin transfers. That is a practice where water from one source is redirected to another. It's commonly used in sprawling metro Atlanta.

Both senators know the bill, introduced last month, is a long shot.

"Sometimes you do things to get people's attention," Harp said. "You want to tell them, 'We can regulate. We do have a voice.'"

Smith is hoping by putting the issue in front of the General Assembly, people will start working together.

"By calling the question, we are hoping we will ultimately generate a solution," Smith said.

The problem is Atlanta's growing water usage from the six river basins -- areas through which the Coosa, Etowah, Chattahoochee, Flint, Ocmulgee and Oconee rivers flow.

"We have growing concerns about the increased water consumption in the Atlanta area," Smith said. "And they are satisfying that growing need at the expense of the outlying area."

Currently, metro Atlanta is drawing 19 million gallons a day from the Etowah River. It is projected that the metro area will pull up to 70 million gallons a day from the Etowah in 25 years.

"We both feel strongly that the sprawl of Atlanta must be regulated," Harp said.

Georgia is in the early stages of working out a state water plan that would address issues such as interbasin transfers. It could take as many as six years for the plan to be formulated.

Bob Tant, executive vice president of the Columbus Water Works, said he is not opposed to the Senate bill, but he wants to see what happens with the state water planning process.

"I would rather wait and see what the plan produces before we tackle these problems piecemeal, " Tant said.

The bill, Senate Bill 464, has been assigned to the Senate Natural Resources Committee. It must win committee approval before it can be eligible for a place on the Senate calendar. To become law, it must be approved by the Senate and House, and signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Becky Champion, executive director of Columbus State University's Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, said interbasin transfers are nothing new.

"Marietta/Cobb has been doing this for years," she said. "It started before we ever really thought about this. They would draw the water out and provide the supply to a lot of other folks. But when they take water out of the Etowah, whoever they sell it to might return it to another basin, such as the Chattahoochee. "

Sierra Club lobbyist Neill Herring supports the bill. He said the bill, if it became law, would accomplish two things.

"First, it tells metro Atlanta it can no longer allow water from other basins to meet their needs," he said. "It also establishes a regulatory process for future interbasin transfers. It does not prohibit interbasin transfers, but it does list extensive criteria."

Harp said the bill is aimed at drawing attention to the issue.

"It's a shot over the bow, telling them we are looking," Harp said. "And, by George, they need to do something about it."