Focus is on amending Lake Lanier statute

By Rosalind Bentley

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. Rep. John Linder, a Republican from Duluth, knows that when it comes to the tri-state water debate, time is certainly of the essence.

In July, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson gave Georgia, Florida and Alabama three years to end a water war that has raged between the states for nearly two decades. Alabama and Florida contend that Lake Lanier — metro Atlanta’s main source of water — was created for three primary purposes: hydropower generation, river navigation and flood control. Magnuson ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers was illegally releasing water from the lake to meet the needs of metro Atlanta, which has an effect on industries and endangered marine life downstream.

Now Gov. Sonny Perdue has enlisted the help of the state’s Congressional delegation in trying to settle the dispute and beat the three-year deadline.

Linder, who is co-chair of the Congressional Water Caucus, talks here about strategy, conservation and intent.

Q: Judge Magnuson’s ruling was a thunderclap, wasn’t it?

A: I’m surprised by it, but I don’t think you’re going to be able to appeal it.

Q: You don’t?

A: Well, we can appeal on arcane measures, but he stuck to statutes, and he was correct in that. Now the problem we have is that our Lake Lanier was begun with a statute that had it for three purposes: navigation, flood control and hydroelectric power. Over the years, that has changed but the statutes didn’t change. Florida and Alabama would like some of that water for two power plants, which also wasn’t in the statute.

Q: Gov. Perdue has said he’s going to seek help from the state delegation in fashioning a plan to address the judge’s mandate. Has he reached out to you already?

A:Yes, he has. And we’re all of accord, Democrats and Republicans alike. Three years is a very short time for a solution. This will be appealed and it may be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and that takes a lot of time. If it fails, it’s going to be a very short time for us to try and pass a statute to fix it.

Q: The governor also wants you to find other municipalities around the country that are using water from reservoirs that were not originally designed for such use. He thinks those anecdotes will help Georgia in the coming battle.

A: We’re doing that right now. Congressional Research Service is working with our staffs, and we’re finding many, many reservoirs that are being used for drinking water that were not originally designed for that [by statute]. When Lake Lanier was formed, Atlanta could never conceive of needing that water, and, according to the judge’s ruling, was offered the opportunity and turned down the opportunity to join [in contributing to construction costs]. However, population has expanded such that it became drinking water and now there are fewer and fewer areas that we can build reservoirs because of the population explosion.

Q: But, as we saw our population growing, shouldn’t we have stopped ourselves and said, ‘Hey, you know what? We don’t have an unlimited supply of water for this growth. Maybe we should look at building some more reservoirs.’ Why wait until now — when we’re at a crisis point — to move it to the front burner when it could have been, perhaps, avoided?

A: Part of it is it takes forever to get a permit. And some of these procedures take eight to 15 years. The federal government and the corps agree and then they get sued before they start building it. All of this comes down to a really, really simple thing; the Endangered Species Act has become a blunt weapon.

Q: Aren’t there other ways to address the water supply issue without taking on something as drastic as trying to modify the Endangered Species Act? I mean aren’t there some simple things we can talk about, such as conservation?

A: Sure. But all these things have to be brought to the table.

Q: During our last drought the governor established a 10 percent water usage reduction goal for communities. The state Environmental Protection Division director said many communities met or surpassed that goal. But then, the drought was declared over, and a lot of watering restrictions were lifted. Why relax restrictions and conservation measures that seem to be working?

A: I don’t know what your point is, because you can’t store all the water that falls indefinitely. You can’t just stop it from being used. As long as Lake Lanier is at full pool or near full pool, there’s not a reason [to keep restrictions]. First of all, we drove a lot of people out of business with that. [The problem] is simply not going to be solved just by conservation.

Q: What will be the economic impact on metro Atlanta if you guys can’t hammer out something in the next three years as the judge has told you to? I mean this dispute between the states has been going on 20 years now. There could be an exodus in terms of development.

A: If the 3.5 million people in metro Atlanta who depend on it start having to buy water from out of state, it’s a huge economic impact. Huge. I don’t know if people would leave, but they would surely not be moving in.

Q: So what PR battle will you guys wage?

A: We’ll offer a statute that expands the use of water in reservoirs where the human use of that water was not in the original statute. Back during that time, the people who wrote the statute thought it was just obvious that humans would be using it and didn’t have to include it.

Q: Wait a minute. In the judge’s ruling, it was pretty clear that Lanier was not intended to be a water source, and he went on to say that local governments took it for granted that they would be able to use that water. Magnuson wrote: “Local governments allow unchecked growth because it increases tax revenue but these same governments do not sufficiently plan for resources such unchecked growth will require.” He’s essentially saying that we grew too much and assumed we’d be able to use the water because it was there.

A: Yes. ... But things change. The corps is in charge of the lake, and the judge was pretty hard on the corps also.

Q: So you want to change the statute in the next three years to allow Lanier to be used as a water supply?

A: Yes.

Q: Say you manage to do that. Projections are that metro Atlanta is only going to continue to grow. So what plans do you have beyond that measure that will provide ample water supplies for that expanding population?

A: My concern is worrying about three years from now and Lake Lanier. I think any future reservoirs that are built will include drinking water in them, but it takes years and years to build one. The environmental requirements and approval from the corps takes years and years.

Q: If it takes years and years, shouldn’t we start now?

A: Sure. We should have done it when [former Gov.] Roy Barnes proposed it. This stretching out for years and years does no one any good, and it’s terribly costly.

Q: Let’s say you can’t get the statute changed. Let’s say the three states can’t reach an agreement in the three-year period. Then who’s going to resolve it?

A: It’ll be done ultimately by courts.