3-year countdown begins for Atlanta’s water future

In a Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 file photo, men fish from the exposed shore at Lake Lanier in Buford, Ga. - AP

Georgia faces the dire prospect of losing metropolitan Atlanta’s main water source if political leaders can’t broker a solution with Alabama and Florida over rights to a major reservoir within three years.

That doomsday scenario would cut off water from Lake Lanier for more than 3 million residents, driving a stake through the heart of Atlanta’s decades of rampant growth and threatening one of the Southeast’s main economic engines amid a sour economy.

Experts say they doubt a recent federal court ruling will shut the taps off, but it does put Georgia in a weak position and could finally push the three states back to the negotiating table after nearly two decades of stalemate.

After all, said Atlanta Regional Commission Chairman Sam Olens, “FEMA isn’t going to provide enough trucks to have drinking water for 4.5 million residents” in the Atlanta region. About 3 million of the residents get their water from Lake Lanier.

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