Perdue warns of more water wars, calls for national policy

By Aaron Gould Sheinin and Bob Keefe


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday called for a national water policy, warning that more than a dozen other states could face the same crisis now dogging Georgia over its use of water from Lake Lanier.

But Perdue, in a meeting with editors and reporters at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, also warned that if Georgia ultimately loses access to Lake Lanier, the contingency plans for Georgia’s water supply would be “more nonsensical, more expensive [and] less environmentally friendly.”

Among other highlights of the hour-long interview, Perdue:

● Said he is more than willing to negotiate a solution with Alabama and Florida, but said, “It’s the other states that have left the negotiating table.”

● Was more critical of Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, who in 2007 nixed a water-use agreement with Georgia just hours before a deal was to be signed.

● Insisted that Georgia has a right to the water that originates in the state and that falls in the state and will fight to keep it.

● Pledged that Georgia will seek to overturn the federal judge’s ruling that said within three years, if no agreement is reached, the state can no longer draw drinking water from Lake Lanier.

Perdue, along with several members of the state’s congressional delegation, believe that there are at least 48 other federal reservoirs in 17 states from which jurisdictions draw drinking water despite water supply not being an intended use.

That is the crux of the federal lawsuit that has ensnared Georgia, Alabama and Florida for nearly 20 years. U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled this month that the Army Corps of Engineers never should have allowed Georgia to draw water from the Lanier reservoir, saying that is not among the lake’s “major uses,” based on a Corps operating manual from 50 years ago.

Creating a national policy, Perdue said, could solve Georgia’s problem as well as those of the 17 other potentially impacted states, should Magnuson’s ruling be upheld and be used as a precedent. Even Magnuson, for instance, expressed incredulity that the Corps never updated its own rules to allow water use.

Perdue said he would travel to Washington to push for federal action, something that Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, also support, as well at least several of the state’s 13 U.S. House members.

Those 17 other states who potentially face the same problem had better be prepared, Perdue warned. “Other states and other municipalities may be at threat in the same way if this ruling is upheld.”

Perdue said the issue never had to come to this.

“Do I believe we’ve been treated fairly?” Perdue said. “No. Do I believe other states have used federal laws that don’t have anything to do with the issue? Yes. But the fact is we are neighbors. I’d love to sit down and get an agreement.”

That echoes what Riley said to reporters in Washington, where he met Wednesday with his congressional delegation as well as with Isakson and Chambliss. He said Magnuson was “absolutely correct” in his ruling and that order opened the door for negotiations. But, Riley said, Alabama will only go so far. Georgia must abandon any pretense that Atlanta’s needs outweigh the rest of the region’s.

“We can’t begin to look at this as one metropolitan area,” Riley said.

That, Perdue said, has never been a problem: “I don’t know anyone has that attitude.”

But Perdue was critical of Riley’s defection from a 2007 agreement that could have alleviated much of the controversy. The two states had even picked a location to sign the deal, he said. But then Alabama backed out for reasons he said he still doesn’t understand.

And when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar agreed to visit Georgia earlier this year and invited Riley and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to come, too, the other two governors declined.

“If I stand up and say I’m willing to negotiate, but I never can make it and I don’t come, what does that say?” Perdue said. Alabama “very clearly favored a litigation strategy rather than a negotiating strategy.”

Regardless, Perdue said, Georgia will keep its water one way or another. Should Lake Lanier be taken away as a resource, the state has every right to tap water that flows in it.

The state’s contingency plans could include what’s known as interbasin transfers, meaning redirecting water from one basin to another, or tapping the rivers that flow into Lake Lanier and redirecting it.

“The state of Georgia is due the use of that water, and we will make use of that water,” he said.