State can’t afford to pay out promised water grants

The check isn’t in the mail, even for water.

Thirteen cities and counties, including several in metro Atlanta, had applied for state grants to increase water supplies. They found out Thursday and Friday that the state can’t afford the $40 million promised earlier this year as a hedge against the ongoing drought.

“We’re having to cut programs all across state agencies,” Gov. Sonny Perdue’s spokesman Bert Brantley said. “I don’t think anybody should interpret this as any indication of lessened support for increasing our water supply.”

The deadline for applications was Aug. 29, and winners could have received their money any time after that.

State leaders approved more than $21 billion in state spending in April but are now looking to cut at least $1.6 billion with revenues plummeting. They are hoping the economy improves enough — and state revenues pick up enough — to release some of the grant money early next year.

One of those left empty-handed is the city of Cumming in Forsyth County. The city asked the state for $2.1 million to complete its $15 million project to build a third pipe for water from Lake Lanier.

The pipe, which is under construction, will be the city’s deepest, plunging 51 feet under the surface when the lake is full.

Jonathan Heard, Cumming’s director of utilities, said the city will finish the pipe anyway, without the state’s help. The money will come from the city’s reserve.

“The city of Cumming is working to guarantee a water supply to our citizens and citizens of the entire county for years to come,” Heard said.

The city has not been able to use one of its two intake pipes on the lake since last year. That pipe reaches down to 1,053 feet above sea level, just half a foot under the lake’s current level. That’s not nearly enough clearance to pull in the 15 million gallons of water needed every day.

The second pipe, which the city counts on to supply water to about 200,000 people, is at 1,035 feet above sea level.

But if the lake drops to 1,043 feet, “we start having some trouble” pulling in enough water, City Administrator Gerald Blackburn said.

Lanier is more than 10 feet above that danger level for the second pipe. But last December, the lake dropped to 1,050.79 feet above sea level — its lowest level since construction in the 1950s.

The other local governments that submitted grant applications for water supply projects are:

• Banks County, northeast of Atlanta; requested $1.9 million to drill a well and for supporting infrastructure.

• Braselton in Jackson County, northeast of Atlanta, requested $608,800 for a $2.8 million project to build wells and a storage tank.

• Butts County, southeast of Atlanta, requested $461,150 of a $1.5 million project to build a main transmission line.

• Dahlonega, in North Georgia, requested $5.4 million to build a $21.5 million water treatment plant.

• Fayette County requested $4.9 million to help pay for a $23.3 million water supply reservoir.

• Haralson County, west of Atlanta, requested $2 million to build a $26.5 million dam on a tributary of the Tallapoosa River.

• Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County requested $2.7 million in grants and $5.3 million in loans for an $8 million project to build more wells and a pump station.

• Mount Airy, in North Georgia, requested $8,000 of a $32,000 job to re-drill a well.

• Savannah requested $2.8 million to build a $6.5 million re-use water line.

• Thomaston, in middle Georgia, requested $1.6 million to build a $6.6 million water supply reservoir.

• Villa Rica in Carroll County, west of Atlanta, requested $612,322 for a $1.8 million project to build a pump station and water transmission lines.

• Walton County, east of Atlanta, requested $10 million to build the $170.3 million Hard Labor Creek Reservoir.