March 12, 2003

CORPS OF ENGINEERS SUSPENDS PERMIT FOR TUSSAHAW CREEK DAM

Atlanta - In response to a legal challenge by conservation groups, the Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has taken the unprecedented action of suspending its own permit for a proposed dam and 1,477-acre reservoir in Henry and Butts counties due to insufficient analysis of the project's environmental impacts. In a letter to the Henry County Water and Sewerage Authority dated March 7, Savannah District Engineer Col. Roger Gerber said he was acting "in the public interest" in immediately suspending the permit.

Col. Gerber said his review of the record in preparation for an upcoming court hearing revealed that the Corps' environmental assessment "...omitted specific information regarding impacts of previously permitted reservoirs and existing dams in the Upper Ocmulgee Watershed." He said the permit would remain suspended while the Corps prepares a supplemental study of these cumulative effects, and he would "fully re-evaluate" the project before making a decision to reinstate, modify or revoke the permit.

"The Corps' acknowledgement that the permit failed to fully analyze the project's impact is a step in the right direction," said David Farren, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, a regional non-profit organization which filed the suit, along with the Turner Environmental Law Clinic, on behalf of the Georgia River Network and Altamaha Riverkeeper. "We hope this does not turn out to be a paper exercise."

Farren said the permit suspension puts the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction on hold, but that the lawsuit would not be withdrawn. In the lawsuit, filed in January, the groups argue that for a project of this magnitude, the Corps must do an environmental impact statement, which is more comprehensive than an environmental assessment.

"Georgia River Network is pleased the Corps now sees that the public interest requires that its permitting decisions must include a meaningful analysis of cumulative impacts, which we hope will lead to a more responsive agency," said Ellen Sutherland, Executive Director of Georgia River Network. "Unfortunately, citizen enforcement in court was necessary to prompt the Corps to act even though we specifically pointed out its responsibilities in our public comment letter more than two years ago."

"Now that the Corps has conceded it erred in not looking at the cumulative impacts of the Tussahaw Creek reservoir, maybe the state of Georgia should do the same," said James Holland, the Altamaha Riverkeeper. "We would not have these legal fights over water resources and the grave risk to the environmental integrity of entire river basins if the state and federal governments looked at the total consequences of their actions rather than seeing only a short-term fix for each locale in a watershed."

The proposed reservoir would impound Tussahaw Creek, a tributary of Lake Jackson and the Ocmulgee River. The Ocmulgee drains into the Altamaha River, whose delta provides an important nursery for Georgia's seafood industry. The fourth reservoir to be built in Henry County in just 15 years, the Tussahaw project would destroy hundreds of acres of wetlands and flood almost 20 miles of free-flowing stream. Further, it would dramatically alter downstream flow, posing a threat to Macon's drinking water supply and to water quality in Lake Jackson. The Altamaha River, named the 7th Most Endangered River in the country in 2002 by American Rivers due to the number of proposed reservoirs and power plants in its basin, is already suffering lower flows, increased salinity and declining fisheries from growing water use upstream.

Dams and reservoirs make a profound imprint on the environment. They obstruct the natural cycles of flowing rivers, dramatically altering the chemical and physical characteristics of the ecosystems and aquatic habitat upstream and downstream, often cutting off wildlife from food sources and breeding grounds. About 17 reservoirs in north Georgia are in the planning process, yet state and federal agencies are not looking at the overall impacts of the projects. This piecemeal approach of building reservoirs will have ramifications for development patterns, air quality, water quality and wetlands that extend far beyond the health of any one stream or river basin, the groups say. The rush to build reservoirs without regional planning, coordination or examination of their far-reaching impacts will likely result in further degradation of the environment and quality of life in Georgia.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in letters to the Corps two years ago, expressed numerous concerns about the Tussahaw reservoir and the lack of an environmental impact study. Both agencies also recommended the Corps do a comprehensive study of how the multiple reservoirs planned for north Georgia would affect water quality, river systems and aquatic habitat. The conservation groups had urged such a study several years ago, and argue in their lawsuit that federal law requires such a study, called a "programmatic environmental impact statement," of the direct, secondary and cumulative impacts of multiple impoundments in the same river basins.