Georgia Ruling = H2O Crisis

Lake Lanier, as seen in 2008, has been suffering from lower and lower levels due, in part, to water being drawn by Georgia. In 1975, Gwinnett County's population of about 130,000 used about 13 million gallons a day (MGD); today's population of about 820,000 averages 93 MGD.

A federal judge ruled recently that metropolitan Atlanta has been illegally taking water from Lake Lanier, which he said the federal government built more than half a century ago for hydroelectric power generation and other uses -- not for drinking water.

Unless Georgia and downstream neighbors Alabama and Florida can work out a water-sharing agreement in three years -- something they haven't done during a two-decade-long ''water war'' -- north Georgia will have to return to mid-1970s levels of withdrawals from the lake. Alternatively, Congress could approve a reallocation of water from Lanier.

Charles Bannister, county commission chairman in Gwinnett, a growth powerhouse that gets all of its drinking water from Lake Lanier, says: ''It's devastating, or could be,'' he says. ''Gwinnett would become a desert, perhaps.''

If U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson's July 17 ruling set off trepidation here, it ignited celebrations downstream in Alabama and Florida. Those states have long eyed Atlanta's unchecked growth with concern, alleging that Georgia had no right to take unlimited drinking water from Lake Lanier.

Farther downstream, leaders in Apalachicola, Fla., say their seafood industry has been hammered by lower stream levels caused by Atlanta's withdrawals. Mayor Van Johnson says he's ''grateful'' for Magnuson's ruling. His elation is tempered by the fact that Magnuson froze withdrawals at current levels instead of immediately ordering them cut.

The ''harm to the ecosystem here in Apalachicola has been going on a long time,'' Johnson says. ''Three more years. I don't know if Apalachicola Bay is going to survive that kind of timetable.''

Apalachicola Bay produces 90 percent of Florida's oysters and 10 percent of the oysters consumed in the USA; its fishing beds have always provided an economic net for the area's 6,000 residents. Until now, lower water levels in the river system flowing south from Georgia have thrown off the delicate balance of salt and fresh water in the bay, allowing saltwater to creep in and drastically reduce catches of shrimp, crab, fish and oysters, Floyd says.

In 1975, Gwinnett County's population of about 130,000 used about 13 million gallons a day (MGD); today's population of about 820,000 averages 93 MGD. The county recently completed a $700 million water reclamation plant that will eventually recycle and return two-thirds of the water Gwinnett takes from Lanier.