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In mid-July, a federal court judge through a huge monkey wrench into the economic developer strategies of Atlanta and Georgia. The judge ruled that Georgia had no legal right to withdraw drinking water from Lake Lanier.
Atlanta's continuous growth as soon as that available drinking water could be easily drawn from Lake Lanier. Now that assumption has been called into question.
The lake currently provides drinking water for 3.5 million citizens in Atlanta. The judge held that Congress never authorized water supply has a purpose for damning the Chattahoochee River to create a reservoir.
The judge made clear that Congress must give its approval to the use of Lake Lanier for anything other than power generation, flood control or navigation. The judge gave Georgia, Florida and Alabama three years to work out a water sharing agreement. Without a deal, the judge could order the Corps of Engineers to reduce water withdrawals from the lake to levels existing in the 1970s.
During the August congressional recess, the Georgia congressional delegation met with the governor to plot a strategy. Read more. Based on some early press reports, the controversy could get uglier.
(Global water shortages are going to become an increasing fact of life over the next couple of decades. Last spring, the United Nations released the World Water Development Report which projected that two thirds of the world could be facing water shortages by 2025.)
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