Ruling leaves North Georgia with water crisis
By Larry Copeland, USA TODAY LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Things seemed bad enough two years ago. Georgia withered in prolonged drought. Water levels in Lake Sidney Lanier, this area’s main drinking water source, dropped by the week, huge parts of lake bottom baking in the sun. It was a frightening scenario until the rain finally came. That’s nothing compared with what might lie ahead. A federal judge ruled recently that metropolitan Atlanta has been illegally taking water from Lanier, which he said the federal government built more than half a century ago for hydroelectric power generation and other uses — not for drinking water. Unless Georgia and downstream neighbors Alabama and Florida can work out a water-sharing agreement in three years — something they haven’t done during a two-decade-long “water war” — north Georgia will have to return to mid-1970s levels of withdrawals from the lake. Alternatively, Congress could approve a reallocation of water from Lanier. … Farther downstream, leaders in Apalachicola, Fla., say their seafood industry has been hammered by lower stream levels caused by Atlanta’s withdrawals. Mayor Van Johnson says he’s “grateful” for Magnuson’s ruling. His elation is tempered by the fact that Magnuson froze withdrawals at current levels instead of immediately ordering them cut. The “harm to the ecosystem here in Apalachicola has been going on a long time,” Johnson says. “Three more years. I don’t know if Apalachicola Bay is going to survive that kind of timetable.” Apalachicola Bay produces 90% of Florida’s oysters and 10% of the oysters consumed in the USA; its fishing beds have always provided an economic net for the area’s 6,000 residents, Apalachicola City Attorney Patrick Floyd says. Until now. Lower water levels in the river system flowing south from Georgia have thrown off the delicate balance of salt and fresh water in the bay, allowing saltwater to creep in and drastically reduce catches of shrimp, crab, fish and oysters, Floyd says. …
