The Metropolitan North Georgia

Water Planning District is nearing completion of a set of plans for allocation

and treatment of our water resources. It may sound like a worry for someone

else, but there is a distinct danger that the Georgia General Assembly

will take the plans seriously and enact one or more new laws. Laws that

will directly affect you and your family!

You have a chance to learn

about those plans tonight and you also have a chance to make your voice

heard. I urge you to do both.

In my column on this issue

last week, I stated that there are serious weaknesses in the plans. Here

is more on why I believe that, in addition to directly impacting you and

your pocketbook, these plans will adversely impact our environment.

The majority of our drinking

water comes from surface sources: Streams. District-wide there are hundreds

of these streams. Normal water fluctuation is from very high in spring

to extremely low during late summer, especially in periods of drought.

The problem is measuring how much of that water is available for our use

and when those measurements are made.

Georgia law requires that a

minimum flow be maintained at all times, and from this one would assume

that someone in the state government knows what the high, normal and low

flows are and that they would also be able to calculate what the "required

minimum flow" means. That information simply doesn't exist to the

degree we need to understand how to allocate the resource, and the impact

on the stream ecosystems can be deadly.

If we assume, for the sake

of argument, that the amount of water discussed in the plan is really

the actual amount available, then we have another serious problem for

the environment.

Throughout Georgia, there are

thousands of permitted and many more un-permitted water pumps which have

not been taken into account by this plan. During the low flow periods,

after all "plan allocated" water has been removed, pumps capable

of 100,000 gallons per day continue to operate and just a few of these

pumps (downstream from municipal pumps) are capable of pumping our streams

dry.

I have seen it happen in Fayette

County. The pumps are legal, but not taken into consideration, making

the impact one of those things we have to contend with. Among other things,

fish populations will suffer, endangered species will disappear, and we

will wonder why this was allowed to happen. Yet this plan intends to use

even more of the water from these same streams!

Another concern I have with

the plan involves the level of required monitoring. Monitoring sounds

like a good idea; after all, don't we want to know what is happening when

the various plans are implemented?

However, an assumption has

been made that everything in the plans will work, and the monitoring is

designed to show the improvement. There will be miles of new sewer lines

and water lines installed, new reservoirs built, new sewer treatment plants

built, hundreds of culverts replaced and thousands of additional items

costing $9 billion to build and another $15 billion to operate and maintain.

I'll ask again, who do you

think is going to pay for this? What are the chances of all of it working?

Monitoring should include provisions for what we do when things don't

work.

Basic questions regarding monitoring

is who collects it, who analyzes it and what is to be done with the results?

According to the plan, collecting this data is going to be our job, or

better stated, the job of city and county governments requiring developers

and the government itself to obtain the data.

Putting it together in some

sort of sensible format is to be the job of the district staff, if there

is staff. But then what? What will be done with the information when it

is collected and sorted?

I think they expect (or hope)

that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) will take action

if action is needed.

I have been to the EPD offices

that manage water and if we are depending on those offices to do something

sensible with this data, we are in for a long wait.

There first has to be an organization

that really cares about the environment. Right now their job appears to

be finding a way not to become involved, and heaven forbid if someone

expects them to make a decision.

There are also environmental

concerns with issues of sediment and erosion control, failure to include

watershed organizations such as forestry and agricultural concerning near-stream

areas. Most utility companies will be exempt from this process and there

are others.

The explanation by staff of

the Atlanta Regional Commission is that "other state laws apply to

these groups." Unfortunately, that logic takes the issue right back

to EPD, but with no water district oversight to at least give the appearance

of good planning.

As I stated last week, I don't

believe that the Georgia General Assembly is receiving a well-conceived

plan, and it is going to cost the citizens of this area more in the long

run.

[Dennis Chase, now retired,

was a fish and wildlife biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

for more than 26 years. Since retiring, he has worked as a consultant

for Fayette County on environmental concerns, serves as an officer of

the Line Creek Association, and has published numerous newspaper columns.]