Georgia won a major victory in its long-running water fight with Florida last week, but a group of Lake Lanier residents and businesses says it is too early to celebrate the victory. The Lake Lanier Association warns that new bills in Congress threaten the victory, and the lake.
A special master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court issued a final report last week that basically accepted Georgia’s position in a suit brought by Florida. That suit blamed Georgia’s water use from the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers for a collapse of the oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay.
Specifically, the association is worried about a bill introduced by Democratic Florida Senator Bill Nelson that would require new studies of water flow in the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) basin below Lake Lanier and would likely require larger water releases from Buford Dam.
“Needless to say, Nelson’s goal ignores the purposes for which the ACF facilities were built and seeks to restore natural flows in what is now a very unnatural system, with unproven impacts on the problems that Florida claims,” the association said in a release.
The group is calling for Georgia’s congressional delegation to keep the bill from advancing beyond the committee stage.
The lake is almost 10 feet below full pool, about where it has been for the past three months. It has been below average for much of the past decade, often dangerously so. When water levels drop more than a few feet below normal level, hazards to water recreation increase. That is of immediate concern to those around the lake, but the long-term impacts can be greater.
“The intellectual and financial capital that has been spent on the tri-state water wars for almost 30 years could have paid for numerous infrastructure improvements throughout the basin that would have mitigated many of the problems we face,” the association said.
The Association pointed to efforts around Atlanta. It says that since 1994, 1.6 million people have moved into the area, but withdrawals from the lake have remained steady. Several measures would reduce pressure on the lake, according to the group.
Among them:
- Support new technologies that would reduce the amount of water needed for agricultural irrigation downstream.
- Continue improvements in municipal and industrial water uses.
- Consider raising the full pool level of the lake by up to two feet to create a buffer against drought.
- Attempt to correct the state line with Tennessee to give Georgia access to water from the Tennessee River
- Reduce inter-basin transfers.
- Continue the fight against neighboring states over control of water in the ACF basin.
