LONG-TERM TACTICS FOR THE NEXT DROUGHT IN GEORGIA: CONSERVATION, WELL FIELDS, RESERVOIRS, AND AQUEDUCTS

The 2007 drought in the southeastern United States produced record low rainfall and flow in many streams in Georgia and Alabama. Even with additional water conservation measures many public water supply systems faced severe drinking water supply problems during much of 2007. Examples of cities in north Georgia with rainfall departures below normal include Atlanta (-24.59 inches), Ellijay (-34.49 inches), and Rome (-17.5 inches). New record low flow occurred in streams as they flowed from Georgia into Alabama. For example, new record low mean daily flow were set at eastern Alabama USGS stations on the Little Tallapoosa River (5.6 cfs, old record of 18 cfs set in 2000) and the Tallapoosa River (3.8 cfs, old record of 13 cfs set in 1954).

Georgia is about to implement a Comprehensive Statewide Water Plan that will address many water quality and quantity issues. Some environmental group's proposed modifications to the plan include protection for communities downstream of metro Atlanta, “efficient water use all the time by all users,” clean drinking water, water to maintain habitat, fish that are safe to eat, and funding for water quality and quantity assessments. Additionally, we recommend that well fields be developed whenever feasible as environmentally less damaging and cheaper that reserviors.

After the Comprehensive Statewide Water Plan with further environmental safeguards is implemented, very long-term plans that provide water supply during droughts and for metro Atlanta population growth need to be developed. Metro Atlanta may need to reach past local small regional reservoirs and well fields to the Tennessee and Savannah basins in Tennessee and South Carolina. A series of aqueducts and basin transfers would bring water from the Tennessee River near Chattanooga by pump and aqueduct to the Conasauga River downstream to the Oostanaula River to Rome, Georgia where the water can, with aqueduct and pumps reach Lake Allatoona. Lake Allatoona is within reach of metro Atlanta. Additional water could be, with pump and aqueduct, transferred from the Savannah River to Lake Lanier. Any such large scale movement of water would have to be between willing seller and buyer, designed with effective watershed protection, occur only after all reasonable water conservation methods are fully in place, and be financed by metro Atlanta.