Atlanta's Growing Thirst Creates Water War
By DOUGLAS JEHL
It has all the elements of a classic regional water war, pitting developers against environmentalists and state against state. Yet this battle is gripping not the parched Southwest, but the normally verdant Southeast, in a sign of future clashes around the country over an increasingly limited supply of fre
sh water.
By DOUGLAS JEHL
It has all the elements of a classic regional water war, pitting developers against environmentalists and state against state. Yet this battle is gripping not the parched Southwest, but the normally verdant Southeast, in a sign of future clashes around the country over an increasingly limited supply of fre
sh water.Atlanta and its swelling suburbs, still ballooning with growth, rely for nearly all their water on the Chattahoochee River, a relative trickle of a waterway that is the smallest to supply so large an American city.
Until now, that dependence has not been a problem. Even in the last 10 years, as greater Atlanta's population soared nearly 40 percent, the withdrawals from the Chattahoochee have kept pace, with more than 400 million gallons now sucked from the river and a reservoir every day, helping to keep countless suburban lawns green.
But for the first time, Atlanta is being forced to admit that the current pattern cannot be sustained. That theme is at the heart of a dispute among Georgia, Alabama and Florida about dividing water rights for the next half-century, and it has left Atlanta to ponder what to do when its share of the Chattahoochee runs out.
With a June 17 deadline approaching for the governors of the three states to reach a deal, the dispute pits the growing thirst of Atlanta against the needs of downstream regions, including Apalachicola Bay, a pristine estuary on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.
The decisions at hand may be the toughest on water that the Southeast has yet had to make, marking an end to an era in which abundant, cheap and barely regulated water has been seen as a kind of natural right in a region blessed by 50 inches of rain a year.
''In the past, water barely even entered into our calculations,'' said J. T. Williams, chairman of Killearn Inc., whose developments have added thousands of golf-course and clubhouse-community houses to the Atlanta area in recent years, with thousands more under way. But now, Mr. Williams said, ''It's getting a little nervous for people in the development industry.''
Georgia officials insist that they do not expect Atlanta to reach a real day of water reckoning until 2030, when they have projected that demands on the Chattahoochee will reach a maximum sustainable limit. But a recent draft report by the Army Corps of Engineers suggests that in some months, the Chattahoochee may already be being tapped near capacity, a warning particularly alarming to Atlanta because its history and geology have left it with few good water alternatives.
But for the first time, Atlanta is being forced to admit that the current pattern cannot be sustained. That theme is at the heart of a dispute among Georgia, Alabama and Florida about dividing water rights for the next half-century, and it has left Atlanta to ponder what to do when its share of the Chattahoochee runs out.
With a June 17 deadline approaching for the governors of the three states to reach a deal, the dispute pits the growing thirst of Atlanta against the needs of downstream regions, including Apalachicola Bay, a pristine estuary on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida.
The decisions at hand may be the toughest on water that the Southeast has yet had to make, marking an end to an era in which abundant, cheap and barely regulated water has been seen as a kind of natural right in a region blessed by 50 inches of rain a year.
''In the past, water barely even entered into our calculations,'' said J. T. Williams, chairman of Killearn Inc., whose developments have added thousands of golf-course and clubhouse-community houses to the Atlanta area in recent years, with thousands more under way. But now, Mr. Williams said, ''It's getting a little nervous for people in the development industry.''
Georgia officials insist that they do not expect Atlanta to reach a real day of water reckoning until 2030, when they have projected that demands on the Chattahoochee will reach a maximum sustainable limit. But a recent draft report by the Army Corps of Engineers suggests that in some months, the Chattahoochee may already be being tapped near capacity, a warning particularly alarming to Atlanta because its history and geology have left it with few good water alternatives.
You probably reckon that article was published this week, don't you? Wrong! It was printed in the New York Times May 27, 2002! Over five years ago! Ain't it a damn shame that politicians don't want to face infrastructure problems that they can't put a brass plaque on with their names inscribed.... "Let the next guy in office worry about it!"
(See also Ole Pecoz's posting in here; "Infrastructure? Where is the Glory?" July 21, '07)
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