Report Could Give Florida Leverage In Water Wars (Atlanta, Buford: 2013, cost of)

[LynnHarris]

This is not the type of news I want to hear...


Report Could Give Florida Leverage In Water Wars

ATLANTA — Lake Lanier is at the head of the major dispute between Georgia, Florida, and Alabama...

http://www.gpb.org/news/2011/06/02/report-could-give-fl-leverage-in-water-wars

[crazynip]

Well, the fact remains, Buford Dam was built for flood and river control, not so the ATL can drink. Hasnt a court already ruled that Atlanta has no legal claim to the water?

[LynnHarris]

Not as of yet, the final ruling won't take place until next year.

[LynnHarris]

And the water drama continues...

Florida to Sue Georgia in U.S. Supreme Court Over Water - Bloomberg

[AnsleyPark]

Originally Posted by crazynip

Well, the fact remains, Buford Dam was built for flood and river control, not so the ATL can drink. Hasnt a court already ruled that Atlanta has no legal claim to the water?

In June 2011 the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the 2009 district court decision and confirmed the USACE's authority to regulate Lake Lanier for Atlanta's water supply. So, au contraire - a Federal Appeals Court has determined that congress intended for Lake Lanier, among its other purposes, to provide Atlanta with water. Florida is appealing that ruling.

[MathmanMathman]

I just wonder if Georgia has or has not given up its right to the correct northern border. With the intended border, Atlanta's water issue is solved with access to the Tennessee River.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=tenne...,+Georgia&z=14

So close.

[Zanarkand A East]

I wonder if Westside Reservoir Park will help resolve this. We're past due for better water planning, and I hope this gets underway sooner than planned.

[Atlwarrior]

Sounds like the political season is approaching for two Republicans Governor's to fight each other in court.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by crazynip

Well, the fact remains, Buford Dam was built for flood and river control, not so the ATL can drink. Hasnt a court already ruled that Atlanta has no legal claim to the water?

The isn't quite true.

A few issues

1) The reservoir storage capacity isn't the same as rights to the water itself. That is our water and we have full legal rights to it. Therefore, the federal gov't storing water for other purposes at the cost of our own water supply is not legal. This is why the reservoir was understood and used for regional water (municipal, farms, irrigation, etc...) from day 1 (This includes FL and AL I might add. towns up and down the river make use of constant flow for irrigation and municipal purposes. All intakes and outtakes are monitored, so there is nothing special about Atlanta or Georgia in this, except we haven't been bad neighbors and sued you guys for using the water)

2) FL and AL have also been legally hostile to prevent us from making any other types of water storage. They were trying to basically create a 2 front legal offensive that would make it impossible for us to store water separately or use federal water storage, but the water is still ours. To be quite frank, y'all were bad neighbors. The federal judges have caught a hold of this and reversed the only one single decision against us (which was a single lower level judge in Minneapolis.

3) We allowed the Federal government to build a reservoir in the main area where we could build our own. There aren't many feasible areas available. The access to building the reservoir carried with it the idea it would provide us water.

4) We on multiple occasions invited talks on these issues to the governors of all 3 states to work out solutions. FL rejected the invitation altogether.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Zanarkand A East

I wonder if Westside Reservoir Park will help resolve this. We're past due for better water planning, and I hope this gets underway sooner than planned.

The answer is no... for this particular problem.

It might resolve like 0.01% of the problem we have state/region-wide. It isn't even near big enough for City of Atlanta-proper.

When the state first looked at these issues they did a really good job of doing cost-benefit analysis of many things ...

everything from new toilet rebate programs to tighter regulations to the cost of various reservoirs.

The issue is that reservoir doesn't hold as much water as the rural/exurban lakes (even the smaller lakes), like the one they just made near Canton. That reservoir is also more costly.

Now Atlanta and the Beltline still want that reservoir made for Park purposes and that is ok. They will probably be able to get some federal/state funds for the water storage aspect of it, but ultimately a builk of the cost will come from Atlanta/beltline.