Ben Emanuel: Water meetings should be open

November 18, 2009
Ben Emanuel | Athens Banner-Herald

The Banner-Herald's well-considered Sunday editorial, "Another reason to be skeptical of water group," was spot-on, especially for those of us here in the Oconee River basin.

The lack of transparency so far with Gov. Sonny Perdue's Water Contingency Task Force has meant scant news on an issue of local and regional concern: the task force's focus on using the planned Hard Labor Creek reservoir in Walton County. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last month that the task force has discussed supplying metro Atlanta from that reservoir - to be located in the Oconee basin, drawing water from the Apalachee River - but with closed task force meetings, other newspapers can't be blamed for not having reported on this development.
Such a water-transfer plan would raise many questions that only could be answered out in the open. If shipped away, would the water return to the Oconee basin? Even if fiscally attractive in the short term, is the plan sustainable from the perspective of future economic development statewide?

And what about downstream interests, from municipalities to industries, power producers, sportsmen and all those who depend on healthy flows in the Oconee River?

A closed-door, handpicked task force is no place to sort through questions like these.