Water War

We’ve got a major water war on our hands — the longest running water war in the east. The Chattahoochee begins in North Georgia, but it forms the border with Alabama, and the last 100 miles are in Florida — where it has a different name and a different Waterkeeper, the Apalachicola Riverkeeper.

The river system flows into Apalachicola Bay, one of the most productive estuaries in the country. As the former manager of the estuary used to say, “Whoever decided to call the place where a river empties into the sea the mouth needs a lesson in anatomy.” Indeed, 400 miles upstream of the end of the Chattahoochee/Apalachicola system sits the ever-expanding metropolis of Atlanta.

A decade ago, metro Atlanta stretched 60 miles, north to south; now it’s 110 miles and there are no geographic limits to that growth. Metro Atlanta is located so high in the river basin that the Chattahoochee is straining to supply all the water demands and maintain quality standards, despite our usual 50 inches of rain each year. In fact, we have the smallest watershed in the country that supplies a major metropolitan area.

The recent exceptional drought in north Georgia has revealed just how vulnerable our water supplies are and, more importantly, how pathetic our state’s water management efforts have been to date. Residential water use in metro Atlanta is nearly twice the daily average of homes that are considered “conserving.” More than 120 million gallons of water are wasted every day in Atlanta through leaks in the water systems and more than a million homes still use old-fashioned, high-flow plumbing fixtures.

The changing hydrology in the Chattahoochee watershed is also affecting the river’s ability to sustain all users, especially during droughts. During each of the past seven years, approximately 100,000 people have moved into the 16-county metro Atlanta region, hardening the natural landscape with 55 acres per day in new roads, rooftops and parking lots.

There is a limit to the amount of water that the Chattahoochee River and its tributaries can provide to users throughout the basin and remain clean, flowing waterways. Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper has long advocated water demand management based on comprehensive monitoring studies and assessments. Our goal is to secure new and improved water policies and programs that will ensure enough clean water for the people and wildlife in the Chattahoochee River Basin now and in the future, while protecting the entire river system.