Georgia signs contract to pull disputed water from lake
January 25, 2021 GMT
GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) Georgia has signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that for the first time formally ratifies the rights of two suburban Atlanta counties to use Lake Lanier for drinking water.
The lake northeast of Atlanta, formed by damming the Chattahoochee River, has been used for drinking water for decades. But federal litigation among Georgia, Alabama and Florida over who gets to use water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system had questioned that use.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear more arguments in that case on Feb. 22. But the agreements signed Wednesday date back to a previous Supreme Court ruling in 2012 that ruled that water supply was an authorized purpose of Lake Lanier. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers changed its rules in 2017 to let the lake be used for drinking water.
Georgia ties up loose end from water wars, has ‘certainty of water supply’ in Lake Lanier
Georgia and the Army Corps of Engineers have agreed to a $71 million water contract for permanent water storage at Lake Lanier.
The move ties up a loose end from 2012, when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that water supply was an original, authorized purpose of Lanier.
“This achievement is the culmination of years of hard work on the part of governors Kemp and Deal, and our federal delegation … negotiating with members of multiple federal administrations,” Kemp’s press secretary, Mallory Blount, told The Times in an email Friday, Jan. 22. “The agreement will mean greater certainty of water supply for much of Georgia.”