As the Atlanta Regional Commission’s environmental planning chief, Pat Stevens has had a front-row seat for 21 years as Alabama, Florida and Georgia have waged legal battles over Lake Lanier’s water.
At stake for Florida are its seafood industry and agricultural interests, while Alabama’s fight centers around power generation and economic growth. But Stevens knew Georgia had something the courts could not ignore: “We have 3 million people using this system; we are not going to go away.”
The monumental ruling last week in the tri-state water war was a practical decision, she said. The federal appeals court simply formalized what has been going on for years.
For decades, the Army Corps of Engineers — over strenuous objections by Georgia’s two neighbors— has allowed metro Atlanta to take water from the lake or downstream from Buford Dam. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel gave the corps clear marching orders: determine, once and for all, how much of Lake Lanier’s water metro Atlanta should get.
In Sunday's newspaper, the AJC takes a deep look at the Corps of Engineers' role in Georgia's water wars. It's a story you'll get only by picking up a copy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution or logging on to the paper's iPad app. Subscribe today.
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