By Joe Cook

Proposed changes to Metro Atlanta’s master plan for meeting projected 2030 water demands could result in the region failing to meet its water conservation goals and increasing its dependence on water from the Coosa River Basin, according to the Rome-based Coosa River Basin Initiative.

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (District) is set to vote Feb. 2 on changes to its Water Conservation Plan that scrap a legislative proposal that would require that all homes in the District built before 1993 be retrofitted with low-flow plumbing fixtures before being sold.

The 16-county district adopted this proposal in 2003 and attempted to introduce the necessary legislation during the 2004 session of the Georgia General Assembly, but real estate and mortgage business lobbyists protested so loudly that the bill quickly died.

“Essentially, our water planners and leaders are trading long-term sustainability for short-term profit,” said Joe Cook, CRBI Executive Director and Upper Coosa Riverkeeper. “If we fail to act aggressively on water conservation, we jeopardize long-term growth in the area and we increase Metro Atlanta’s dependency on a water transfer that takes water from communities in Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama.”

The original retrofit plan would save an estimated 24 million gallons of water each day (MGD) in the Metro Atlanta. Currently, the Coosa River Basin loses about 25 MGD to Metro Atlanta through an interbasin transfer in which water is withdrawn from the Etowah River and pumped into the Chattahoochee River Basin in Metro Atlanta.  

The Etowah supplies about 10 percent of Metro Atlanta’s drinking water, and within the next 30 years, plans drawn up by the District call on that transfer to escalate to more than 100 MGD.

“It seems there’s no end in sight to this water transfer,” Cook said. “It began in 1968 at about six million gallons a day. What will in be in 2030? 2050? Ultimately, it will impact communities like Rome as well as Centre and Gadsden, Alabama. And, with Georgia locked in a legal battle with Alabama over the use of Coosa River, this backsliding on water conservation plans, certainly does not help Georgia’s position in the courts.”

Georgia and Alabama worked cooperatively for more than a decade to reach an agreement on sharing the water of the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river system, but negotiations failed in 2004, and now the states find themselves back in federal court.

CRBI and other environmental groups in Georgia have also questioned the District’s overall water conservation goal. The District has set a goal of 11 percent water use reductions, but other communities have realized water savings of 25 percent with aggressive water conservation measures. In Savannah, the city achieved a 16 to 28 reduction in total water use in targeted neighborhoods in just five years.

“If Metro Atlanta wants to take water from the Etowah, those communities should first prove that they are doing everything possible to reduce water consumption,” Cook said. “The people of Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama shouldn’t be asked to sacrifice water quality in the Coosa and future economic growth in their communities for the sake of Atlanta’s continued sprawl.”

At its Feb. 2 meeting, the District will vote to adopt its new retrofit plan which allows counties to develop their own measures to replace plumbing in older homes with water saving devices and fixtures. The new plan gives counties two years to assess their option. Implementation of these water saving plans will begin in 2008, according to the proposed change.

Representatives of the District have said passing legislation requiring retrofits became impractical and a committee assigned to develop the new retrofit plan concluded that “heavy handed legislative mandates will not work.”

The new plan, while taking the burden off homeowners and real estate and mortgage banking interests, places more financial burden on local governments that must convince owners of older homes to voluntarily retrofit their plumbing fixtures.

“I’m not convinced voluntary programs will work. Had we passed legislation in 2004, we’d already be realizing water savings. Now, we have to wait another two years before there’s any action.” Cook said. “In light of the state’s current legal battle with Alabama regarding the use of our rivers, it seems we should step up to the plate and implement truly aggressive water conservation measures—particularly in Metro Atlanta.”

CRBI is a non-profit grassroots environmental organization and member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance. Its mission is to inform and empower citizens so that they become involved in the process of creating a cleaner, healthier more economically viable Coosa River Basin.

CRBI on the Web: www.coosa.org