Perdue lays out strategy to win water war to south Georgians

By Dan Chapman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Sonny Perdue headed south Wednesday to assure communities along the Chattahoochee River below Atlanta that he wouldn’t sell them down the river in any water deal with Alabama and Florida.

Part professor, part stern uncle, Perdue sought to convince Middle Chattahoochee business, political and community leaders that what’s good for metro Atlanta — access to Lake Lanier — benefits all of Georgia.

Conversely, Perdue warned, downstream communities aren’t better served siding with Alabama and Florida for the Chattahoochee’s precious water.

“We’ve got some parts of Georgia that like to blame Atlanta for many things,” Perdue told 125 people at Columbus Technical College. “If we get to squabbling among family members here, then there are people willing to take it away from all of us.”

The long-simmering rivalry that pits sprawling Atlanta against less-developed South Georgia — fueled by a judge’s recent decision to possibly place Lanier off-limits in three years — bobbed repeatedly to the surface. Mistrust and perceptions of inequity permeated the college lecture hall and beyond.

An editorial Wednesday in The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer summed up downstate fears: “By far the most heated debate is, and long has been, over how much water chronically overdeveloped metro Atlanta should be entitled to take from the Chattahoochee before the rest of that water gets to anybody else.”

Perdue’s visit to Columbus, along with a stop in Albany today, comes almost three weeks after a U.S. district judge ruled that metro Atlanta has illegally tapped Lake Lanier for decades. Congress, Judge Paul Magnuson said, never authorized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to release Chattahoochee River water for people to drink. Hydropower, navigation and flood control were the intended purposes, he said.

Magnuson gave Georgia, Alabama and Florida three years to resolve two decades worth of litigation. Congress must ultimately approve any deal. Without a resolution, the judge decreed, Atlanta must revert to mid-1970s water withdrawal levels.

The ruling, if it stands, likely kills the breakneck growth of North Georgia, where roughly 3.5 million people depend upon Lanier for drinking water.

Perdue again laid out his strategy Wednesday to win the water war. Attorneys hired by the state, the Atlanta Regional Commission and other impacted North Georgia communities are working to appeal the ruling. Perdue said other water sources, including additional reservoirs and intake pipes into the Chattahoochee, will also be weighed.

Perdue is also beseeching Georgia’s congressional delegation to rally other lawmakers whose districts use corps-managed reservoirs for drinking water. Nearly 80 reservoirs, according to preliminary research by the staff of U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), provide drinking water without congressional OK. (The corps hasn’t verified the study.)

Much of Georgia’s strategy, though, revolves around negotiations with Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. Perdue offered 40 potential meeting dates beginning next Wednesday. Neither Crist nor Riley had agreed to meet as of Wednesday afternoon.

Georgia’s strategy seems to evolve daily. Perdue cited an 1859 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established Georgia’s western boundary along the Chattahoochee’s western edge. If, as the governor suggested, the river belongs to Georgia — a certainly litigious assumption — then Alabama might one day need Georgia-issued permits to withdraw water for its nuclear power plants, paper mills, and water and sewer authorities.

“That could be an interesting strategy,” Perdue later told reporters.

Southwest Georgians were less impressed with the governor’s unwillingness to rule out the future transfer of water from the region to Atlanta. They also worry that any deal among Alabama, Florida and metro Atlanta will take water from the Chattahoochee and lakes West Point, Walter F. George and Seminole.

Donald Chase, a Macon County farmer, said guaranteeing Alabama and Florida a ready supply of water could lessen the amount of Flint River water available for irrigation. The Flint feeds into the Chattahoochee — literally and legally.

“In these rural counties, the economic engine is agriculture. We’re the ones who pay the school taxes and fund government services,” Chase said. “We’d be back to farming like in the 1950s without irrigation.”

Southwest Georgia isn’t in lockstep marching against Atlanta. Divisions abound within the region. Farmers want water for irrigation. Columbus’ water authority has sued the corps to ensure enough water is available to properly treat its waste. And boaters, fishermen and the communities that economically depend upon them want full pools on corps-managed reservoirs.

“The biggest thing we worry about is that our corner of the world gets sold down the road,” said Joe Maltese, who works with the city of LaGrange to protect West Point Lake. “We don’t want to see Atlanta hurt. ... By the same token we don’t want to see any diminution in the quality or quantity of our water.”