Feds: Atlanta can count on water from Lake Lanier

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it has the legal authority to supply metro Atlanta’s drinking water from Lake Lanier.

The Corps’ legal opinion, released late Thursday, is a good harbinger for metro Atlanta in proceedings unfolding in a federal court in Jacksonville, Fla. That’s where a federal judge is expected to rule this year on that very question: Can more than 3 million metro Atlantans continue to depend on Lanier for water, or does Congress need to decide?

The 31-page answer by the Corps’ Chief Counsel, Earl H. Stockdale, is that the region can count on Lanier. Stockdale said when Congress authorized the construction of Lanier in 1947, it expected the lake “would provide an incidental water supply benefit to the Atlanta region.”

Metro Atlanta needs about 11 to 12 percent of the water in Lanier’s conservation pool, which is the first 36 feet of water when the lake is full, Stockdale said. Setting aside that amount would have only “minor effects” on the project’s primary purposes: to produce hydropower, control floods and float barges downstream.

Last year, a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. did not answer the question of Congress’ original intent for Lanier, a question that has provoked a longrunning argument between Georgia, Alabama and Florida. But the panel said the Corps would need Congressional approval to give the metro Atlanta region enough water to grow on for another 20 years.

Metro Atlanta now pulls about 400 million gallons a day from Lanier and the Chattahoochee River just downstream.

In his opinion, Stockdale said the D.C. Circuit court confused the amount of water available in Lanier and did not decide exactly how much more water metro Atlanta could take before Congressional approval is required.

Stockdale’s opinion, issued Jan. 9, was made public on the eve of Friday’s deadline for Georgia, Alabama and Florida to file motions for judgment in the U.S. District Court in Florida’s Middle District.

The three states have been fighting since 1990 over Lanier. The 38,000-acre federal reservoir northeast of Atlanta is the largest reservoir on the Chattahoochee. All three states depend on its water.

Alabama and Florida contend metro Atlanta takes too much water from Lanier, especially during droughts. The three states share the water to irrigate farmland, produce hydropwer, cool power plants and for recreation. Alabama also wants enough water to float barges, and Florida wants to protect the ecosystem in the Apalachicola Bay and River.