By Lewis Regenstein

It has been sad to see most of the Atlanta media obediently parroting Gov. Sonny Perdue and many of our other elected officials as they try to evade responsibility for the current water shortage crisis.

Until recently, the politicians had been exceeding their usual mendacity by irresponsibly, ignorantly and deceitfully calling for the Endangered Species Act to be amended to halt the massive water releases from Lake Lanier that they falsely blamed on endangered mussels and sturgeon in Florida.

At the height of the crisis, when state officials were warning that Atlanta might be less than three months away from running out of water, Gov. Perdue proclaimed for the TV cameras, "... When it comes to choosing between mussels and drinking water for children, I'm fed up."

The press also thrived on this irresistible if bogus story of mollusks versus humans.

A good example of the sensationalism and irresponsibility is the huge headline for a front page story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of Sunday, Oct. 28, by Stacy Shelton, "Man vs. Mussel," with a large color photo of "an endangered species found only in this part of the world," a mussel known as the fat threeridge.

The story's subheadline ominously explained the choice facing us: "Lake Lanier is the main source of water for 5 million humans in metro Atlanta. Several hundred miles downstream, the Apalachicola River is home to two rare species of mussels. The debate: Who has the biggest need for 1 billion gallons released daily ... to keep the river -- and the mussels -- alive?"

This misleading headline, accompanied by a lengthy article taking up much of the front page and followed by a full page continuation, perpetuated the blatant misinformation that most all of the Atlanta media, with some notable exceptions, has been spreading. (To be fair, reporters don't usually write their own headlines. And if one reads the entire Shelton article, it is clear that not just mussels are the beneficiaries of "Atlanta's" water, and that "the reality is much more complicated." But many people never get beyond the headlines.)

An earlier front page story in the AJC's Metro section was headlined, "Feds weigh drinking water vs. mussels." And on Oct. 19, the AJC reported that "Georgia's entire congressional delegation gathered at the Capitol" in Washington, with state Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch, "predicting that Lake Lanier would run dry in about 80 days. ... The lawmakers blamed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for depleting metro Atlanta's water supply [and] acting irresponsibly by releasing billions of gallons of water to help threatened and endangered mussels, while area residents are under watering restrictions and business leaders warn the drought could drag on the state's economy."

Some AJC stories, particularly the more recent ones, accurately discussed the complexity of the situation. But the impression the public has received from this barrage of sensational headlines and stories is typified by an Oct. 27 letter in the AJC, attacking "people who prize a mussel over a child needing a bath or a family needing drinking water."

The reality, of course, is quite another story.

In fact, the water releases from Lake Lanier are not being undertaken primarily for endangered mussels, and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has the flexibility to allow adjustment of these discharges. It does not need to be amended and weakened, as would happen with passage of legislation recently introduced by the entire Georgia Congressional delegation, which has apparently been deceived on this issue, by people who are either ignorant about it or have a vested interest in undermining the ESA.

It is the political clout of the governors of Florida and Alabama, and Georgia Power, that is responsible for the "excess" discharges from Lanier, not for mussels, but for businesses and industry, drinking water, and power plants downstream, plus a multimillion-dollar seafood industry in Apalachicola Bay (amounting to over a billion dollars on the coast) which, like the mussels, depends on the flow of water from "up north."

Consider, for example, the economic stakes involved in the fight.

Georgia Power's sister company, Gulf Power, owned by the Southern Co., operates the coal-fired Plant Scholtz power unit below Florida's Lake Seminole that can use 130 million gallons of river water a day. And the Farley nuclear plant on the banks of the Chattahoochee River in southeast Alabama, also owned by the Southern Co., needs so much water that Alabama Gov. Bob Riley says the Army Corps of Engineers has conceded that no additional water is required for the endangered mussels. Both plants are considered essential to the homes, businesses and economies of those regions.

The Army Corps of Engineers has never liked the Endangered Species Act, and wants people to think it is so strict that it requires the agency to starve Atlanta of water to protect some mussels. This is untrue.

The act contains lengthy provisions providing for government officials to obtain "exceptions" or exemptions from the act's provisions, and allowing for expediting interagency consultation procedures in certain emergency situations.

Thus, the act has the flexibility to allow public officials to seek and obtain permission to keep additional water for Atlanta.

Thusly have the beleaguered mussels served as a convenient scapegoat for some of our public officials who, with the help of much of the news media, have been conning the public in an effort to deflect blame from themselves.

They have largely ignored the approaching crisis and helped cause these water shortages by encouraging overpopulation and overdevelopment, the massive destruction of forests and trees (which produce water vapor and thus rain), allowing wasteful water uses, and not fixing leaks.

Indeed, the politicians, developers and business leaders have enthusiastically encouraged unbridled, runaway growth in the region, inviting the world to come to Atlanta, destroy much of its natural infrastructure, build homes and office buildings, and help us use up our limited supplies of water.

The solution is not to cripple the Endangered Species Act or wipe out endangered species. This will not help us out of the mess we have created for ourselves. It will only make things worse.

Lewis Regenstein is an environmental writer and author, and 37-year veteran of the environmental movement.

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