Soapbox: Keeping the taps from running dry

‘The judge dropped a ticking water bomb in the laps of Georgia leaders’

Faced with the threat of losing most of Lake Lanier as a source of drinking water in 2012, Gov. Sonny Perdue and state lawmakers have signaled they’re willing to pursue some water-conservation measures during the next legislative session. Joe Cook, executive director and riverkeeper of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, offers politicos a laundry list of solutions.

In a federal judge’s decision earlier this summer, our state may have encountered, if you’ll pardon the pun, a watershed moment.

The judge ruled that Lake Lanier on the Chattahoochee River was not authorized for the purposes of water supply by Congress and therefore, Metro Atlanta communities are not entitled to the water that they’ve been taking from the lake.

He gave Georgia three years to convince Congress to change the lake’s authorized purposes. Without that authorization, some taps in the area may well go dry.

The judge dropped a ticking water bomb in the laps of Georgia leaders. The judge’s decision now forces Georgia’s to get serious about securing alternative water supplies, and it appears to be having an effect.