Metro water plan: What level of commitment?

Metro Atlanta’s plan for meeting its water needs through 2035 may be most remarkable for what it doesn’t include.

There’s no high-tech proposal to turn sewage water into drinking water, nor a master plan to cut back on the region’s biggest water wasters: landscapes and septic tanks. In fact, the draft offers no cutting-edge water conservation measures in the document meant to guide water use for the next three decades.

During the worst drought anyone has seen, when the region’s main water source, Lake Lanier, dropped to record-low levels that set off alarm bells from the state Capitol to the White House, detractors say metro Atlanta’s best water-planning effort offers few new ideas and relies on 20th-century solutions.

The plan calls for more dependence on Lanier and Lake Allatoona, and building six small reservoirs.

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District’s draft proposal, which is out for public comment through Jan. 31, introduces only two new water-conservation measures from its original 2003 plan. Those call for requiring government buildings to install ultra-low-flow toilets and urinals and requiring newly built carwashes to recycle their water.

Measures continued from the first plan include increasing rates for water, particularly for sprinkling lawns and filling swimming pools; requiring multifamily buildings to install water meters for each unit; reducing water leaks from publicly owned pipes; and conducting residential and commercial water audits.

Because of improvements in plumbing fixtures and natural attrition of old equipment, the 15-county district would shave off 5 percent of its future water use by doing nothing the next three decades. The proposed measures would reduce it an additional 8 percent.

Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland, Calif.-based research group specializing in water, called the proposed water conservation measures “modest and slow when we’re in a situation where aggressive and fast is called for.”

Gleick pointed out that metro Atlanta’s per-capita indoor water use —- 69 gallons a day in single-family homes —- is at least several gallons higher than many Western cities where water scarcity has always been a concern. The ideal, water-conserving home uses 45 gallons a day, he said.

“The good news is [the district’s targets] ought to be incredibly easy to meet because even more is available,” Gleick said. “The bad news is, it’s probably not going to be enough.”

Among the measures not proposed, which Western cities use, are rebates for water-efficient washing machines and drought-resistant landscapes.

Gleick reviewed the district’s 2003 plan for Florida, which is in litigation to prevent metro Atlanta from taking more water from Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River, which feeds Florida’s Apalachicola River and Bay.

Pat Stevens, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s chief of environmental planning who has led the district’s water-planning efforts, defends the water plan as one of the most progressive in the nation in its scope.

The district’s job —- outlined in the 2001 state law that created it —- is to coordinate water, sewage and storm-water plans across a jumble of bureaucracies that include 93 municipalities and six water, sewer and/or storm-water authorities within its 15-county border.

Local experts and consultants considered 100 different water-conservation measures before choosing the 12 most cost-effective, Stevens said.

Local governments are also free to do more, as DeKalb County has done with an ordinance that requires home buyers to retrofit old toilets.

Stevens said in its first five years, the district’s conservation measures reduced per-capita water use by 10 percent, largely through higher water rates, fixing leaky pipes, and a toilet rebate program it kicked off in March.

That may sound like small potatoes, but residential water use accounts for most of the water used in metro Atlanta, and most of the water used inside the home is flushed down a toilet. If every old toilet were swapped out, the savings would be 6 million gallons of water a day, or 10 percent of the current, total water use, according to the district.

In less than a year, Stevens said, about 15,000 toilets that use 3 to 5 gallons of water per flush have been retired, saving about 225,000 gallons a day.

“It’s like losing weight,” Stevens said. “Losing the first 20 pounds is easy and goes fast. That next 10 is hard to get off.”

Katie Kirkpatrick, vice president of environmental policy for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and a member of the water district board, likened the water planning to a marathon. “I think in five years we’ve gotten a good start but we still have 25 years to go.”

But even some insiders are criticizing the lack of accountability in the draft. Brad Currey, retired chief executive of packaging company Rock-Tenn, whom the governor appointed to the district’s governing board, said the plan should keep track of which measures save how much water.

“My view of this comes from industry safety and quality issues,” Currey said. “If you don’t count it, folks on the floor don’t think it’s very important… . We need to keep score of what we’re doing.”

To view the plan, go to www.northgeorgiawater.com.

PLANNED RESERVOIRS

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District’s water supply plan proposes building six reservoirs through 2035, at an estimated cost of $394 million. They are:

> Glades Reservoir in Hall County, a 733-acre reservoir: projected yield of 6.4 million gallons per day

> Bear Creek Reservoir in south Fulton County, on a tributary of the Chattahoochee River: 15 million gallons per day

> Richland Creek Reservoir in Paulding County, a 305-acre reservoir: 35 million gallons per day

> Etowah Reservoir, under consideration by Fulton County in an undetermined location: 30 million gallons a day

> Ocmulgee Reservoir, under consideration by the Henry County Water and Sewer Authority: 13 million gallons per day

> Cedar Creek Reservoir for the city of Gainesville and Hall County, using water from the North Oconee River: 9 million gallons per day

PRICE TAG

> Cost to implement the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District’s water plan through 2035: $5.8 billion

 SHANNON PEAVY / Staff 
GROWING THIRSTY 
By 2035, the 15-county metro Atlanta water district is planning to nearly double its current water supply. At the same time, the population is expected to jump 54 percent, to 7.5 million people. Water conservation would shave off 8 percent of the demand. 

Graph compares the following (years 2006 to 2035): Average use without conservation, Average use with conservation, 2006 water supply and 2035 planned water supply.

Source: Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District