Water panel passes new conservation measures

By Patrick Fox

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The group charged with developing policy for the 61 retail water systems in metro Atlanta has issued new conservation measures it says will reduce projected consumption by 30 million gallons a day within 30 years.

That would represent about a 5 percent decline from current consumption levels.

The eight measures go beyond the state's new water stewardship law and add to the dozen of measures the group has adopted since it was formed in 2001.

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, which includes 15 counties and more than 90 cities within metro Atlanta, says the new measures will also increase downstream flows to south Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

"These are all measures that local water providers are required to implement over time," said Pat Stevens, director of environmental planning for the Atlanta Regional Commission. "They're long-range conservation measures. They're not drought measures."

Five of the new measures apply only to water suppliers that withdraw water from Lake Lanier or the Chattahoochee River, systems most affected by a federal judge's ruling restricting access to those resources. These include systems in Cobb, DeKalb, Forsyth, Gwinnett and Hall counties and most of Fulton County.

Last year, Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that metro Atlanta has no rights to Lake Lanier water, and he gave Georgia until July 2012 to settle a dispute with Alabama and Florida over stream flows south of the lake.

One of the more sweeping steps adopted by the water authority will be installation of meters with point-of-use leak detection. The meters, attached at the connection, will allow residents to monitor their own water use, almost to the drop. It will also give utilities and customers early notice of leaks.

Kathy Nguyen, Cobb County's water efficiency manager and Authority representative, said Cobb will probably initiate a pilot program before expanding it to its 175,000 customers.

She said the devices enable customers "to set their own goals for what their use should be," Nguyen said. They also alert homeowners to anomalies that could tip them off to leaks days or weeks earlier, she said.

Other new conservation measures include metering of private fire lines to identify leaks and unlawful use; enhancing wastewater detection to ensure irrigation systems are operating properly; multi-family high-efficiency toilet rebates; and outreach efforts to homowners about methods to improve their plumbing systems.

Altogether, the new measures, coupled with the 12 already adopted are expected to reduce anticipated water consumption in the region by 130 million gallons a day by 2035, Stevens said.

The programs will cost money, and water rates are expected to rise as they are implemented.

Typically, large counties like Cobb and Gwinnett, and large cities like Atlanta, operate their water systems with customer fees, not taxes.

The payoff may come before many of the programs go into effect.

"We're trying to show our neighbors to the south, namely Florida and Alabama, as well as the judge that we're doing a pretty good job with water conservation," said Jim Scarbrough, Gwinnett County's delegate on the Authority. "We're not wasting it."