While waiting for an appeals court to decide the future use of Lake Lanier, Georgia lawmakers continue to seek answers to the state's long-term water needs, including rebooting talks of tapping the Tennessee River.
Bills have been introduced in both chambers to allow water withdrawn from the Tennessee River basin to be piped south, exempting it from state regulations governing transfer of water between river basins. And this week Senate Resolution 228 passed out of the Senate Natural Resource Committee urging the state to study a plan to divert water from Georgia streams feeding into the Tennessee for in-state use.
Rep. Harry Geisinger, R-Roswell, a longtime supporter of Georgia's disputed rights to the Tennessee River, credits the resurgence of interest to Gov. Nathan Deal's attention to finding new sources of water for North Georgia.
“Governor Deal truly does understand the importance of water, and I think we will make progress on the issue," he said.
The long-simmering border dispute between Georgia and Tennessee last bubbled over in 2008, when Georgia legislators urged then-Gov. Sonny Perdue to negotiate with Tennessee the true location of the line dividing the two states. The goal was to establish Georgia’s claim on a sliver of the river near Georgia's northwest corner. Tennessee officials were not interested in talking about it.
“All they said was 'sue' and [Perdue's] feeling at the time was, ‘We already have one lawsuit going on, and I don’t want to have two,' " Geisinger said.
Georgia’s disputed claim to water from the Tennessee dates nearly two centuries to a survey that set the boundary between the two states. Georgia partisans say the state line was drawn in error and the actual line is more than a mile north, capturing a portion of the Tennessee River.
Supporters point to a 2004 Tennessee Valley Authority study that found the river could support a withdrawal of an additional 1 billion gallons a day without affecting existing reservoir levels. But Tennessee officials have shown no willingness to hand Georgia access to a valuable resource it could use in the competition for new industry.
Tisha Calabrese, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said the Volunteer State has not been contacted by anyone in Georgia.
“I can tell you, however, that Tennessee is prepared to respond to any specific proposal that may arise in the best interest of the people of Tennessee and in accordance with the law,” she said.
Georgia environmental groups hope the Tennessee River bills will keep alive their efforts to toughen state rules on interbasin transfers.
Several bills, backed by environmentalists and "downstream" lawmakers, seek tougher standards on interbasin transfers within the state, but they face long odds. Sierra Club lobbyist Neill Herring said the more popular Tennessee River bills at least keep interbasin transfers alive as an issue.
Beyond that, Herring said relying on the Tennessee River basin to meet metro Atlanta's water needs is "wishful thinking." Even if Georgia succeeded in moving the state line, the financial, environmental and engineering problems associated with moving the water south are monumental, he said.
State leaders should instead concentrate on getting Congress to recertify the metro area's use of Lake Lanier and raise the level of the reservoir to accommodate the demands of users downstream of Atlanta, including Alabama and Florida.
"Lanier will meet the needs that these people are talking about," he said.
For Georgia policy-makers, the plan’s downsides are outweighed by the fact that the Tennessee River is the closest existing source of large amounts of water to support projected population growth.
“We can’t stop when Lanier gets worked out," Geisinger said. “We’re going to have to supplement it with something, and that something is probably going to have to be the Tennessee River.”
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