Diverse group forms to resolve water war

By Jeremy Redmon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Frustrated with a lack of progress in the tri-state water war, a diverse group of people from Georgia, Alabama and Florida have come together in hopes of helping solve the roughly 20-year-old standoff.

Called the ACF Stakeholders, the group counts among its more than 60 members environmentalists, Georgia Power, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Lake Lanier Association and representatives from several Atlanta area counties.

ACF stands for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, which touches all three states and drains more than 19,000 square miles.

The stakeholders joined together under the premise that “the political and legal systems had failed to find a solution. Maybe it was time for the stakeholders to have a voice in the process,” according to the group’s Web site.

“It sort of looked like interminable politicking and legal action was going to be the culprit that would keep us from ever getting any headway until maybe the Supreme Court finally decides it,” said Dan Tonsmeire of the Apalachicola Riverkeeper, a river-protection group in Florida that has joined the ACF group.

“And that will be 10 to 15 years off. We all felt like things would continue to get worse before they get better until that happens.”

Tonsmeire’s group started forming in August of last year but did not incorporate as a nonprofit organization in Georgia until September. The members are preparing to hold their first board meeting Dec. 10 in Albany to decide what they want to focus on. Their work comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Atlanta region.

A federal judge ruled in July that Congress never authorized Lake Lanier to be used for the 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, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson 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. On Nov. 18, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it would tighten the spigot at the lake based on Magnuson’s ruling if the three states don’t reach a compromise by July 2012.

Meanwhile, congressmen have urged the governors from the three states to meet as soon as possible to begin negotiating a settlement. Gov. Sonny Perdue responded by repeating his call for Congress to get to work creating a national water policy that would resolve the water rights dispute.

Members of the ACF Stakeholders say they aren’t surprised by finger-pointing.

“That is business as usual, isn’t it?” said Wilton Rooks, vice president of the Lake Lanier Association. “There are so many entrenched positions that have been taken that it is really tough for those particular parties to look at alternatives that are outside those positions.”

Rooks said a “Holy Grail” for his group would be to present a proposed solution the three states and Congress could act on. But he said he doesn’t anticipate them “turning it over to the ACF Stakeholders to figure out. That is not a reasonable expectation. But we do think that if the group coalesces around some principles, the states will want to listen.”

Rooks’ group has tapped the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution for help. The institute, an independent federal agency created by Congress, is working with a similar stakeholders group focused on the Missouri River.

Members of the stakeholders group say they joined for different reasons.

“Like any other issue, clear communications, friend-raising and earning trust are keys to resolving conflict,” said Sam Olens, chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission and of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners. “The goal of the stakeholder group is to seek win-wins for all. Neither litigation nor political boundaries is sufficient to positively transform decades of mistrust.”

Georgia Power said it joined because it operates eight hydroelectric dams and four coal-fueled power plants in the ACF basin.

“As one of the many stakeholders,” said Georgia Power spokeswoman Christy Ihrig, “we hope this group can come together to understand all the issues impacting the ACF and offer thoughtful solutions.”