"That puts the rest of Georgia at the mercy of metro," said James Butler, a Columbus lawyer and former member of the Board of Natural Resources who has been an outspoken opponent of the water plan.
JB said it all!
ATLANTA -- A new draft of a proposed state water policy that would more closely match planning districts to the state's major river basins has apparently failed to win over critics, opening up the possibility of a bitter fight over state resources in the coming legislative session.
Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch, who led the development of the proposal, sent a memo to members of the Georgia Water Council late last week detailing the new plan. The latest draft moves away from a proposal to use the state's economic development districts as the basis for local water planning.
"The revised map reflects proposed new water planning boundaries that - using whole counties - generally track significant portions of major river basins (in most of Georgia above the Fall Line) and aquifers (in most of Georgia below the Fall Line)," Ms. Couch wrote to members of the council. "Please note that these proposed new water planning boundaries would not alter the fact that all water resource assessments... and resource management decisions will be in accordance with the geographical boundaries of watersheds and aquifers."
The council is set to vote on the plan today.
Sen. Ross Tolleson, R-Perry, a member of the council, said the new proposal takes into account the watersheds and the county lines, avoiding the confusion of having some counties end up as members of two or three districts.
But environmentalists and other critics of the plan, who have called for the districts to mirror river basins, say the new plan is only a slight improvement.
"Even with the new lines, watersheds are divided and would be put in different areas across the state," said April Ingle, the executive director of the Georgia River Network.
Central to the problem, environmentalists say, is the six-year-old Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, which was created by the General Assembly. The Water Council is powerless to break up a district with access to five of the six major river basins in Georgia.
"That puts the rest of Georgia at the mercy of metro," said James Butler, a Columbus lawyer and former member of the Board of Natural Resources who has been an outspoken opponent of the water plan.
Lawmakers must approve the Water Council's recommendations by the midpoint of the legislative session, allow the council's latest draft to take effect automatically, or scrap the council's proposals and come up with a plan of its own.
"I don't think we can support this map as it is," said Julie Mayfield of the Georgia Conservancy.
Reach Brandon Larrabee at (678) 977-3709 or brandon.larrabee@morris.com.
Comments
"That puts the rest of Georgia at the mercy of metro," said James Butler, a Columbus lawyer and former member of the Board of Natural Resources who has been an outspoken opponent of the water plan.
JB said it all!
Environmentalists spend so much of their time being ridiculous buffoons that when it's important to take them seriously people remember their established reputation. Here is a case of Atlanta using its power to seek control of 5 of Georgia's 6 major basins. Let's hope there's enough of an uproar to prevent this plan from being instituted.
This definitely affects farming for crops too, that makes all food prices going way up to where it may not be a good thing for low income families.
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