From a purely selfish perspective, northeast Alabama could reap positive results if Georgia’s recent “victory” in the water-war litigation leads to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision that will give the metro Atlanta area the water it wants from Lake Lanier.
Faced with the draconian demands imposed on it by Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, Georgia was scurrying to find more water in case no sharing agreement could be reached. The plans to solve its water woes bounced from the ridiculous to the sublime and points between.
Conservation was pushed. To Georgia’s credit, there were some significant savings, but never enough to make up for what was needed. At the other end of the spectrum were plans to relocate the Georgia state line so that state could gain access to the Tennessee River. When that proved impossible, Georgia officials talked of cutting a deal with Tennessee that would swap a high-speed rail line to Atlanta for river water.
Meanwhile, other officials talked grandly of building a series of reservoirs in North Georgia and supplying metro Atlanta from there.
With the exception of conservation, none of these schemes generated much enthusiasm in Alabama — especially here in the northeast corner of the state.
Drawing water from the Tennessee River just before it dips into Alabama carried with it the same environmental and economic problems that drawing water from Lake Lanier created for people living down the Chattahoochee. Officials from our region let their Georgia counterparts know that any effort to siphon off the Tennessee would mean more litigation and would expand the scope of the water wars.
Alabamians here also were skeptical about the reservoir idea because many of the streams that would be dammed fed streams that flowed into our state. Thus, what was supposed to be Alabamians’ water would never make it here.
However, what concerned this region most about Georgia’s fallback plans was the way Georgians looked longingly at the lakes that impound streams that feed the Coosa. If metro Atlanta was denied access to the water it wanted from Lake Lanier, then Lake Allatoona and Carters Lake were sure to be suggested as alternatives. Then it would follow that activities, towns and industries in our area would be affected just as those downstream from Lake Lanier are today.
All of which is to say, if metro Atlanta gets what it wants when the corps rules, the pressure will be off us — for the time being, at least.
However, it would be shortsighted to think Alabama’s water-sharing problems are solved. No matter how the corps decides, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and even Tennessee need to come together and decide on a water-sharing plan that will serve everyone well into the future. This is a regional problem. We who live in the region should solve it.
