Shoal Creek, home to the federally protected Etowah and Cherokee darters, has been targeted as the site of a 1200 acre reservoir.
On June 29, Metro Atlanta breathed a collective sigh of relief when a federal court overturned a 2009 court ruling that could have shut off the spigots from Lake Lanier.
In that initial ruling U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that since Congress did not authorize the lake for water supply when it was constructed, Metro Atlanta (and communities around the lake) had no right to use it as such. Why Congress didn’t include water supply as one of the dam’s stated purposes in the 1950s is beyond me.
Mayor William B. Hartsfield had a airport and gorilla named in his honor. His lobbying to get Buford Dam built should have warranted consideration for naming the lake in his honor as well.
For Congress received many visits from Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield, and his primary interest in the dam project was water supply. He knew that during droughts, the Chattahoochee at the city’s water intake became perilously low, and he understood that a giant bathtub in the Appalachian foothills could guarantee flows downstream. While no Georgia community took water from the lake when it was initially constructed, Atlanta was immediately dependent on it.
During a drought in the summer of 1958 (the year the lake became full), the Atlanta Constitution toasted Buford Dam and Mayor Hartsfield: “Because of the reserve supplies of water turned into the river by Buford Dam, the river has been in full flush of health. Without the dam, Atlanta water users surely would have been on ration basis weeks ago.”
The June 29 Circuit Court ruling has been heralded as a great legal victory for Georgia, but don’t go celebrating too fast. Even if the ruling withstands appeals from our neighboring states, Metro Atlanta communities will never have unlimited access to Lake Lanier. Adequate flows to keep the river healthy and meet downstream uses will have to be maintained.
That “Culture of Conservation” that received so much attention when Atlanta was under the gun of the Magnuson decision must remain. During the past two years, Georgia passed landmark water conservation legislation and Metro Atlanta communities stepped up their conservation efforts. But, there’s still more that needs to be accomplished through conservation, and Georgia shouldn’t allow this “victory” to devolve into a culture of complacency.
Every drop Metro Atlanta conserves is a drop that won’t have to come from the Coosa River Basin through water transfers and diversion schemes, and there’s been a rash of those proposed since the threat of losing Lanier was imposed.
What the new legal landscape means for the Coosa River Basin and reservoir/water transfer schemes like those proposed for Calhoun Creek and Shoal Creek in the Upper Etowah River Basin remains to be seen. But, certainly the pressing need for these Lanier alternatives is lessened. And, that’s good news for the Coosa and the state. Replacing Lanier with new reservoirs would be an environmental and financial disaster, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars and likely wiping out large populations of federally protected fish species.
Thus, investing in conservation and working cooperatively with our downstream neighbors reaps multiple benefits—we save money and we save our ecological heritage.
Meanwhile Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has said that Alabama will appeal the decision to the full Circuit Court, and litigation in the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) River Basin between Georgia and Alabama is still pending.
Lake Allatoona and Dam are at the heart of litigation in the Coosa River Basin between Alabama and Georgia
That litigation has been delayed by a federal judge to allow Georgia and Alabama to negotiate a settlement, but attorneys representing the state of Alabama told the court after the 11th Circuit decision that Alabama wanted the lawsuit on the ACT to proceed because continued negotiations with Georgia have failed to produce a settlement. Georgia attorneys countered by urging the judge to continue the delay. In the Coosa case, the operation of Lake Allatoona as water supply is at the heart of the dispute. Metro Atlanta transfers water from Allatoona and the Etowah to meet about 14 percent of its water needs. Currently the total water diversion amounts to about 16 MGD, but earlier proposed agreements between the states would have allowed a transfer for up to 150 MGD.
By court order, the current negotiations are being held in private. Details of any proposed agreements remain a mystery.
