Scott: Calling The Water War As I See It
Oct 9, 2009    Scott for Georgia   

Calling The Water War As I See It
By Rep. Austin Scott (R-Tifton)

The new War Between the States, the Water War that is, comes down to one thing: economic opportunity. How can metropolitan areas around Georgia attract industry if we cannot guarantee that industry will have the water it needs to operate? And how can our rural areas produce agricultural commodities if we cannot irrigate our crops? We are all employed either directly or indirectly by one of these two economic sectors, and Georgia regularly competes with Alabama and Florida for the jobs that these areas provide. So when a Federal judge issues not one, but two back-to-back rulings against the State of Georgia, as U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson recently did, the people of Georgia deserve a forthright answer to two very simple questions: “How did this happen?” And, “Where do we go from here?” At stake are not only our water, but our jobs and our economy.

How did this dispute over water rights leave Georgia backed in a corner with the clock ticking ever closer toward an unfavorable outcome? For starters, even with Republicans in control of the governors’ offices in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida—and not to mention almost all of the congressional districts where the disputed reservoirs are located—our congressmen took few steps to resolve the water dispute before it escalated to the crisis level. Now, the days of easy negotiations are over and the table has turned on us completely, leaving our Governor with very few options to pursue.

Behind the scenes, I believe that Georgia and Alabama had an agreement to resolve their portion of the crisis on the table and ready for signature. Based on my inquiries, it also appears that the Governor of Alabama withdrew his support for the agreement at the request of Alabama Power—a subsidiary of the Southern Company, which is headquartered in our very own Atlanta, Georgia. I was not present when the decision was made, and if they dispute this, I have no hard evidence to substantiate my belief. But this should give them a good opportunity to correct me if I am wrong.

As for the second question, Georgia must immediately begin to pursue conservation measures that protect our water resources, and our negotiating position. We can improve our negotiating position by showing good faith rather than talking about it. For instance, think of how many millions of gallons of fresh water we could save each day just by retrofitting the male urinals in Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport with higher efficiency units. How many more millions of gallons could we save if all government operations and facilities that receive State funding used their water more efficiently?

And then there are “the leaks”: In researching the water issue on my own, I learned that many experts believe that millions of gallons, likely in excess of 100 million gallons, are lost each day through seepage from leaky water infrastructure, which is termed the “loss ratio” or “not-accounted-for water rate”. As a legislator, I have asked the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to provide me the exact numbers for the loss ratios in the Metropolitan North Georgia Water District. Their response was that they “do not maintain” such data—which I find absolutely incredible. We must know where our greatest problem areas are so we can begin to make the necessary fixes. Their unwillingness to come forth with this data tells me it may be worse than we suspect.

So how do we handle the legal dispute? I do not oppose pursuing further relief from the court system. However, I believe it is irresponsible to move forward without taking significant steps to improve our water conservation efforts in Georgia. The success of 21st century Georgia will require us to take the same leadership role we had in so many areas in the past century—only this time the field has changed and we must make ourselves the leaders in conservation.

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