Regulate water transfers carefully

By Sally Bethea

By a rough guess, nine out of 10 people don’t know what interbasin transfers, or IBTs, are, although they are a major reason why metro Atlanta exists. IBTs are a water supply practice that involves pumping water from one river, distributing it for use in homes and businesses, and then discharging the treated wastewater into another river.

In metro Atlanta, these transfers take place in almost every county. Straddling five major river basins, the metro region moves water from the Chattahoochee to the Ocmulgee; the Etowah to the Chattahoochee; the Flint to the Ocmulgee; and the Chattahoochee to the Oconee.

More than half the state’s population lives in counties that rely on interbasin transfers; in terms of volume, more than 90 percent of the state’s water transfers occur in Atlanta. But these transfers incur very real economic and environmental costs — for the metro region and for our rivers and downstream communities.

On the Flint River, low flows have been reduced by 60 percent since the 1970s, in part because of these water transfers. Last summer, outfitters on the Flint, a popular whitewater destination, lost 4,000 customers to low flows. Before it flows south to Alabama and Florida, the Chattahoochee loses some 47 million gallons a day to water transfers; and less water flows into Alabama in the Coosa River because of transfers to Atlanta.

Alabama and Florida, with whom we are embroiled in a 20 year legal battle over water sharing, look upstream and see Georgia impulsively moving water around, while doing nothing to ensure that these water transfers do not harm our rivers or downstream communities.

This failure to take a responsible approach to moving water from one river to another has not played well at the water negotiating table. A federal judge has given until July 2012 for Georgia to reach a water sharing agreement with Alabama and Florida.

Folks downstream have metro Atlanta over a barrel. Unless Georgia treats them respectfully, we will not earn their trust and gain the federal authority we need to use Lake Lanier for water supply after 2012.

Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division has recently taken a positive step by proposing a new rule aimed at evaluating IBTs before they are approved. The right rule can send the right message to downstream communities, but EPD’s proposal contains a legal loophole that makes it optional.

In a few weeks, the 18-member Board of Natural Resources will vote on the proposed rule. This board has the opportunity to make a thorough evaluation of each water transfer mandatory, to ensure that these water diversions do not harm our rivers or the economic interests of communities downstream — both in Georgia and in neighboring states.

Interbasin transfers will continue to be a practical necessity in metro Atlanta, but the failure to strictly regulate them is irresponsible and has become impractical. This lack of protection pits regions of our state against one another and tells our neighbors that Georgia is not serious about concessions that are necessary to restore legal access to Lake Lanier as a water supply source.

Sally Bethea is executive director of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in Atlanta.