Regardless of who wins the election, Georgia's next governor will not support using the Savannah River to supplement metro Atlanta's water supply.
In a survey conducted last week by The Augusta Chronicle, all eight front-running candidates -- four Republicans and four Democrats -- answered "no" when asked whether they would ever "consider or support an interbasin transfer in which water is moved from the Savannah River Basin to metro Atlanta."
The issue has gained attention since a 2009 federal court ruling that could eliminate Atlanta's use of Lake Lanier as a source of drinking water by 2012.
Part of the problem with moving water from one river basin to another is that it reduces the supply for downstream users, and once used, is permanently absent from its original stream.
Such transfers have existed for decades in metro Atlanta area counties and rivers, but discussions of using the Savannah River for Atlanta's benefit have only recently surfaced as options studied by Gov. Sonny Perdue's Water Contingency Task Force.
Though the group evaluated pumping water from Lake Hartwell on the Savannah River to Gwinnett County, the idea was not recommended because of expense and the potential for "contentious stakeholder sensitivity."
Though using the Savannah is not a preferred alternative, environmentalists have continued to wonder whether the idea might be re-examined in the future.
Comments
Would you expect any of them to call for interbasin transfers now, before an election? I wouldn't. Anybody who would advocate stealing water out of the Savannah would write off the entire eastern part of Georgia, and that would be end their political careers.
Deal and Johnson came out for it to the Athens Chamber.
What is the reason for stoping the use of Lake Lanier water? I think it because of hydro power production. Sounds lide the bureaucrats need to get together and figure out how to share Lake Laniers water.
Thank you for writing, Sweet son. The "water wars" over water from the Chattahoochee River have been going on for decades, but the most recent drought from 2006 - 2009 brought the issue to a head.
Basically, state governments in Alabama and Florida criticized the government of Georgia in allowing residents and businesses in the Atlanta metro area to use drinking water to water their lawns and flower gardens. Those selfish "downstreamers" mistakenly thought that water poured onto lawns did not return to the river basin and that the water was "lost" forever.
But those two greedy state governments of Alabama and Florida convinced a federal judge to rule that Atlanta must cease and desist drawing water from Lake Lanier because the original legislation creating Lake Lanier did not list drinking water as a justification for the creation of the lake.
The obvious solution to the judge's wrongheaded decision is to form a reservoir downstream of Lake Lanier (a federal lake under jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers). Said reservoir would be under jurisdiction of the state of Georgia, and the federal judge would have no say in how much water was withdrawn to feed Atlanta's lawns.
Does this explanation help?
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