3 States Compete for Water From Shrinking Lake Lanier

Some local utilities have direct intake lines in the lake. Others have intake lines in the river just below it. Both types of links rely on the lake water. And while the Army Corps of Engineers has sought to assure local users that there is no imminent danger of the lake going dry -- saying that 280 days' worth of water remains even without a drop of rain -- it is clear that its shrinkage is already having serious effects on at least some utilities.

The city of Cumming, whose intakes in the lake provide water to about 200,000 people, has had to install emergency pumps because of the receding level. One of its intakes got so close to the lake's surface that the water above it began to swirl, just as it does over a bathtub drain, and the intake began to suck air.

"A catastrophe on the level of Katrina seems to be looming at this point," said John Heard, utilities director for Cumming. "The forecast is not favorable."

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) has charged that, by releasing so much water, the Corps has created "a man-made disaster."

The "nonsensical action to further release vital water from Georgia's already depleted federal reservoirs must not stand," Perdue said last week. "There is simply no scientific justification to operate these reservoirs in this manner during a historic drought."

Downriver, naturally, no one finds the flow of water "nonsensical."

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) has noted that the Farley Nuclear Power Plant, which provides power for much of his state, depends on certain river water levels for its cooling system. Other industrial plants rely on the Chattahoochee flow, as well.

"More than 800,000 households in the region -- in Alabama, Georgia and Florida -- rely on the Farley Nuclear Plant for their electricity," Riley said Thursday. "Any attempt by Georgia to reduce the flow would be damaging to these families."

Riley also chided Georgia for its lack of conservation efforts as the drought developed this summer. For example, he noted that the state did not impose a ban on outdoor watering until the end of summer.

"Atlanta can't spend all summer during a drought watering their lawns and flowers and then expect someone else to bail them out," Riley said.

Once the water gets to Florida, it flows into the Apalachicola River and then to the bay.

In court papers, Florida's principal leverage in forcing a larger flow has been the fact that three federally protected species -- two types of mussel and the Gulf sturgeon -- are believed to need fresh water to maintain their habitat.