The water war that has raged among Georgia, Florida and Alabama seems no closer to ending than when it began more than 20 years ago. The recent ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, holding that Georgia has a right to use the water in Lake Lanier, has been challenged by Alabama and Florida, which have asked the full 11th Circuit to reconsider. If that fails, the decision likely will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
No matter what the courts decide, it is time for metro Atlanta to take accountability for its water usage.
The quickest and cheapest way to increase water supply is conservation. In 2010, Georgia passed the Georgia Water Stewardship Act, measurably improving water conservation law in Georgia. But while Georgia may appear to be ahead of our neighbors on the books, actual implementation of the conservation measures has been slow.
State and local governments must continue to expand conservation practices and work toward diligent implementation of the clean water laws that protect the water resources so critical to our economic and personal well-being.
We must also educate our residents. Many Georgians are unaware that local water utilities often offer rebates to replace older, inefficient toilets and provide water-saving devices to customers free of charge. For example, just for signing a pledge card to reduce individual water consumption, the city of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management will provide customers with a kit containing a low-flow showerhead, kitchen and bathroom faucet aerators, a flow measurement bag and toilet dye tablets to measure efficiency. Such efforts are not only better for the health of the state, but for the health of our wallets.
Finally, rather than crashing blindly down a path of building new lakes and reservoirs, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take over two decades to complete, the state should evaluate existing lakes and reservoirs for water supply use. Recent reservoir expansion studies pinpointed up to 20 existing reservoirs that, with modifications, can each provide an additional 3 billion to 5 billion gallons of storage.
This is just the beginning. There are more than 100 small lakes and reservoirs that were created for other purposes — for example, to power a textile mill that is no longer in operation — that could be used to bolster our water supply.
With many of the lakes, it may be possible to offset the cost of treating the water and connecting it to our water supply by utilizing the lakes as micro-hydropower projects. Not only would the cost of converting existing reservoirs to water supply be a minute fraction of the cost of building new reservoirs, the significant environmental damage of new reservoirs could be avoided, and the water supply could come online in months.
Approximately 652 million gallons of water are used every day in metro Atlanta. It is predicted that in Georgia’s 16-county Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, the population will increase to nearly 8 million by 2030. Without more efficient use of the region’s water resources, the demands of population growth could lead to exhaustion of available water supplies as soon as 2017.
Metro Atlanta can take steps now to focus on conservation, education and the judicious use of existing reservoirs. The best defense is a good offense.
So what are we waiting for?
“When the well is dry,” Ben Franklin said, “we learn the worth of water.”
Stephen O’Day leads the Environmental and Sustainability Practice Groups at Smith Gambrell & Russell LLP. Jessica Lee Reece is an associate in SGR’s Environmental Practice Group.
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