Corps to tighten spigot at Lake Lanier in wake of judge's ruling

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to tighten the spigot at the Atlanta region’s main source of drinking water based on a federal judge’s stinging ruling in the tri-state water dispute.

Corps officials say they will rewrite their operating manuals for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin to prohibit certain water withdrawals and releases from Lake Lanier after July 2012. Only Buford and Gainesville would be allowed to continue pulling drinking water from the lake under the Corps’ plans.

However, if Georgia, Alabama and Florida reach a compromise and Congress approves withdrawals from the lake, the Corps said it would update its manuals accordingly.

The public will have 45 days to comment on the Corps’ plans starting Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled in July that Congress never authorized Lake Lanier to be used for the Atlanta region's drinking water when the lake was created with federal funds in the 1950s. Atlanta has been illegally tapping the lake for decades, taking water from the Chattahoochee River that should have flowed to Alabama and Florida, the judge ruled. Magnuson ordered that Atlanta's allocation of water from the lake revert to 1970s levels if Congress doesn't approve a solution within three years.

“We will operate according to what the judge has ruled if nothing changes between now and” July 2012, said E. Patrick Robbins, a spokesman for the Corps Mobile District.

A spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue called the Corps’ decision disappointing. He said Perdue is preparing to meet soon with his counterparts in Florida and Alabama to work out a compromise. Meanwhile, Georgia is appealing Judge Magnuson’s ruling.

“I don’t think anybody… believes the [judge’s] ruling will go into effect in 2012,” Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said. “We think that we will have some resolution by then. So any resource that went into updating [the Corps manuals] based on that ruling won’t be helpful any more.”

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) issued a statement about the Corps decision Wednesday.

“For too long, the Corps of Engineers ignored the law and the needs of those downstream to protect unrestricted, unauthorized, and unplanned growth in Atlanta,” the statement said. “The Corps is now choosing the appropriate course in updating the water manuals consistent with Judge Magnuson’s ruling that the Corps' judgment does not override the intent of Congress. Alabama and Florida cannot be expected to bear the brunt of Georgia's poor lack of planning for Atlanta's expanding drinking water use.”