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The Environmental Protection Division will hold a public hearing Friday to discuss the proposed water flow changes.
When: 1-3 p.m.
Where: EPD Training Center, 4244 International Parkway, Suite 116, Atlanta
State officials want federal approval to send less water down the Chattahoochee River, eliminating a clean-water standard in place for nearly 40 years and angering environmentalists along the river basin’s 550-mile stretch from North Georgia to the Gulf of Mexico.
Of top concern locally: that less water flowing by Atlanta won’t adequately dilute water discharged into the Chattahoochee from a dozen metro area sewage treatment plants.
Of top concern regionally: that Georgia is trying to hoard water for metro Atlanta during times of drought to the detriment of downstream users including Florida and Alabama who’ve sued Georgia over the “equitable apportionment” of the Chattahoochee.
"It's very alarming because there are so many fragile components of the entire river basin that would be impacted if this happens," said Betty Webb, the city administrator in Apalachicola, Fla., where the river meets the gulf. "We also rely on the fresh water for the production of our seafood industry, especially the oysters."
Judson Turner, the top environmental official in Georgia, says the proposed flow change won’t affect water quality, the amount of water flowing into Florida or any water-sharing agreement with Florida or Alabama. The fix would clarify “confusing” water-flow standards, he added, that shouldn’t equally apply during times of drought and nondrought.
“This is based on what we think we can comfortably afford to do based on current conditions, discharge levels and improvements that we have seen in the reach of the Chattahoochee,” said Turner, who was appointed in December as Georgia’s water czar to coordinate the state’s “water wars” fight with Florida and Alabama. “When we do modeling and real, live examples, we think the science supports what (we propose).”
Turner’s Environmental Protection Division will hold a public hearing Friday to discuss plans to reduce the mandated flow of the Chattahoochee, where the river meets Peachtree Creek, from 750 cubic feet per second. Any threat to lower the river’s flow, even sporadically, raises immediate fears from downstream communities that Atlanta wants to keep as much water as it can for itself.
Georgia, Florida and Alabama have waged legal war over the waters of the Chattahoochee, Flint and Coosa rivers, which all begin in North Georgia, since 1990. Florida, in a 2013 legal salvo, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to restrict Georgia’s water use to 1992 levels, claiming overconsumption north of the border harms Apalachicola Bay and its oyster industry.
Georgia countered that a mandated, minimal flow of water from Georgia into Florida makes the most sense and asked that the case be dismissed. But a "special master," appointed by the Supreme Court, dismissed Georgia's argument Friday and allowed the case to proceed.
Ralph Lancaster, the master, narrowed the parameters for a final disposition, though, by downplaying minimum flows as an option.
“Florida has also indicated that it intends to pursue the latter (consumption cap) remedy and has disclaimed any intention to seek a decree establishing a minimum flow requirement,” he wrote. “It appears that Florida’s claim will live or die based on whether Florida can show that a consumption cap is justified and will afford adequate relief.”
Over the past four decades, the EPD and the federal Environmental Protection Agency have established a flow of 750 cfs at Peachtree Creek as sufficient to protect the health of the river. Cobb, Douglas, Fulton and Gwinnett county sewage-treatment plants discharge water into the Chattahoochee. The environmental agencies are satisfied that 750 cfs adequately dilutes the water so downstream communities, swimmers, fishermen and others aren’t harmed.
They’ve also not raised alarms when the flow dipped below 750 cfs. On five separate occasions over the past 30 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the river and its reservoirs, purposefully lowered the flow at the behest of Georgia. Four of the dimunitions have happened since 2008, the corps said. Each lasted between seven weeks and five months. All occurred during winter or spring months during the drought years of 2008 and 2011.
“We had no problems,” Turner said. “We can afford not to have 750 cfs in the cooler, wetter months. But we need 750 cfs in the hot and dry months. Nobody is talking about lowering the flow in the summer.”
Jason Ulseth, the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, worries that lower flows will harm water quality year-round along the 110-mile stretch of water between the reservoirs at Lake Lanier and West Point Lake.
“There are 3 million people who go into the (Chattahoochee) National Park each year who depend upon a minimum flow of water in the river for recreation,” he said. “One of the top 100 trout fisheries in the nation would be at risk without a minimum flow of clean, cold water. To take that minimum flow out at this time would be very dangerous.”
Few people below Atlanta want the river’s flow diminished.
“Georgia communities downriver from Atlanta long ago got wise to the reality that if not enough water gets to our neighbors to the west and south, it probably wouldn’t get to us, either,” The Columbus Ledger opined in a Tuesday editorial.
Gil Rogers, who heads up clean water programs for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Atlanta, said any rule change will influence the water war.
“If I were Alabama and Florida, I’d be very concerned about removing this long-standing flow standard in the midst of this conflict. It should raise some alarm bells,” he said. “If you take away the flow benchmark, it makes (Georgia's water supply) much more uncertain.”
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