The state of Georgia has teamed up with the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority in filing lawsuits against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, alleging the Corps has failed to address long-standing water supply requests in the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin.
The lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia, were revealed in a press release sent Friday morning by the Attorney General’s Office.
The Corps recently completed a critical step toward a water control plan for Allatoona Lake that “demonstrates the Corps’ intention to not address any of the unresolved water supply requests,” the release says. “This decision comes after a series of requests by state and local leaders over a period of thirty plus years for the Corps to address the need for additional drinking water supply from Allatoona Lake.”
Attorney General Sam Olens is quoted as saying: “It is regrettable but necessary that we must now ask the court to require the Corps to do its job and make a decision. We need to know how Allatoona Lake will be operated for water supply so we can plan for the future. That’s all we’re asking the Corps to do — put politics aside, make a decision, and let the chips fall where they may.”
Olens is the former chairman of the Cobb County Commission.
Water in the ACT basin flows from Georgia through Alabama to Mobile Bay, according to the press release.
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