Chattahoochee River Water funding dries up

Chattahoochee River between Columbus and Phenix, Ala. (Dave Bender)

Georgia environmental groups - like many non-profit organizations - are feeling the economic pinch. One organization sharply curtailing its activities is Columbus-based Chattahoochee River Watch.

The group's $100, 000 annual operating budget goes towards monitoring pollutants and silt along the river, and in the creeks and steams that feed it.

But that money is drying up, because donations are way down.

Bill Edwards was the group's salaried executive director and now serves as chief volunteer:

"With the cutback in funding, Chattahoochee RiverWatch is going to have to sit down and reprioritize what it's going to do and how it's going to raise the money to do it."

Edwards says the group will severely cutback it's operation but hopes to resume activities in the spring or summer - depending on funding.

Officials with other environmental groups report similar shortfalls in donations since the economic downturn.

Click here for more GPB News environmental coverage.

Ft. Benning: more water for BRAC

Secondary settling basin at one of the post's three aging water-treatment plants. (Dave Bender)

Fort Benning near Columbus today inaugurated an upgraded, higher-flow water treatment system, fed from the Chattahoochee River. But officials say the post's use won't affect the river's drought-strained water levels upstream.

The step is part of an upgrade for the post's three aging water treatment facilities, which had previously only drawn water from the nearby Upatoi Creek.

Army officials say they expect a sharp increase in usage in coming years: 30,000 troops and their families that will join their ranks, as an entire armor school from Fort Knox transfers here as part of the nationwide Base Realignment and Closure program (BRAC).

Post garrison Commander Colonel Keith Lovejoy is responsible for coordinating the project with state and local agencies.

Lovejoy says he doesn't foresee future water usage conflicts with the Army Corps of Engineers, and says they are planning their water usage together:

“They are controlling all of our growth here. they're the ones that are issuing the contracts here; they're the ones making sure the pipes are right, they're making sure that we have enough water.”

Lovejoy adds that all of the agencies dealing with the issue, meet regularly to ensure the 184,000 acre training base has enough water for the nearly 110,000 troops that pass through it's gates annually:

“...As a matter of fact, once a month we get everybody together: the Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Columbus Water Works, Flint Electricity; just put everybody together in the same room to make sure that the impact, and what everybody's doing to everybody else is working.”

Dr. Carol Couch of the Environmental Protection Division says the post's water needs won't significantly affect the Chattahoochee's water levels.

Couch says the area has six-to-10 times the water flow of upstream communities in the Atlanta area. She says state meteorologists see the drought continuing this summer, and is encouraging Georgia's residents make conserving water a regular part of their life:

“Conserving ought to be something we do every day, and adapting and modifying how we use water. and it isn't really a radical change in lifestyle; it's just something that ought to be as natural as – for most people today – clipping a seat belt together.”

Columbus Water Works officials say the city purifies and returns about 90 percent of the water it uses to the river, and don't foresee the post's expected usage to be a problem.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of events at Fort Benning, and the effects of the expected BRAC move to the area.

Columbus: two children drown while swimming

Two young Columbus brothers drowned in the Chattahoochee River on Saturday.

Nine-year-old Alijah, and eight-year-old Arturio, Rozier died when they drowned during a swim on Saturday afternoon at an isolated area of the Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center south of town, according to a report in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.

A nearby boater saw the two in the water, and alerted Columbus Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services who were called to the scene. Divers pulled the two from the water, but attempts to resuscitate the children failed, and they were later declared dead at the city's Medical Center.

Water Council Holds Last Policy Draft Session

Once-floating boat dock, now high and dry at West Point Lake, due to drought. (File /Dave Bender)

A series of public meetings on the statewide water plan wraps up today. The plan was drafted by the Georgia Water Council, under the direction of Georgia's Environmental Protection Division.

The agency's asking for public input in this last round of meetings, one of which will be in Columbus.

Community leaders outside Metro Atlanta have long-criticized what they view as the capital's water-guzzling policies. They fear that the water plan favors metro Area.

But the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce has countered that notion saying the proposed Water plan does not make preferences.

The water Council will submit the final draft to the state legislature when they convene in January. The plan asks for 30 million dollars to actually plan some more, so that Georgia can avoid critical water shortages experienced in North Georgia right now.

Click here for more GPB coverage of the water crisis.

Corps: Rains Won't Do Much For Lanier

Recent rains haven't covered the sand bars on the Chattahoochee River at Eagle Phenix Dam in Columbus, Nov. 27, 2007. (Dave Bender)

The rains that swept over much of Georgia in recent days comes as good news, at least for the southwestern part of the state: Columbus and Rome got the most serious soaking in Sunday and Monday's rains.

The National Weather Service in Peachtree City says Columbus got over two and a half inches inches of rain, and Rome just about half that amount. Rob Holland of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the limited rainfall mostly helped the Chattahoochee River downstream from Atlanta:

"The level of Lake Lanier is not going to be affected very much by the recent rainfall. It did not come far enough north and fall over the basin that feeds the lake itself. However, they did get significant rain in the lower part of the Chattahoochee basin."

Holland says that flow should allow the Corps to halve the amount of water released from Lake Lanier from some 4,000 to about 1,500 cubic feet per second for about a week. Lanier is currently at 19 feet below nominal levels - a record low.

Click here for more GPB coverage of the drought.

Corps starts twice-daily water releases

The Chattahoochee River south of Atlanta is filling up faster than normal, thanks to U.S. Army Corps of Engineer releases to keep downstream locations covered.

The Corps says it's started twice-daily releases from Lake Lanier, in order to protect Fla. shellfish on the Apalachicola River. Federal law requires the Corps to keep three point-two-billion gallons flowing southward daily.

Columbus Water Works President Billy Turner official says that's likely to continue, if the quantity of water meets the Endangered Species requirements.

Fish and Wildlife officials will monitor the health of the mussels downstream, to determine of they can survive in lesser amounts of water. If so, the Corps will gradually cut back on the amounts released.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the drought.

Cott beverages not feeling the drought

(Supplychainer.com)

Soft-drink maker Cott, with bottling plants in Columbus and Blairsville, says cutbacks in water usage aren't leaving them dry-mouthed.

CEO Brent Willis, says their type of manufacturing puts back almost as much water it uses:

“It's reverse osmosis water, so it's very clean by the time we're done with it, so it's runoff. And that water then flows back into the Chattahoochee River and is recycled. So 95-percent of the water we pull into the plant goes back into the ecosystem, and the remainder goes into our product.”

Willis says the Columbus site sells about 3-million-gallons of cola and fruit-flavored concentrates annually to 60 countries.

The Blairsville plant makes close to 24-million-gallons of bottled water for major clients, Walmart among them.

Click here for more GPB coverage of the drought.

Columbus: no fines for breaking watering ban

Chattahoochee River (Columbus State University partially visible on left bank), during late afternoon water release. Dillingham St. Bridge to Phenix City, Ala., is in the distance. (Dave Bender)

The Columbus City Council on Tuesday decided not to levy fines for residential outdoor water usage – this, despite the stage four, total ban on such use in Muscogee Co.

Columbus Water Works Executive Vice President Bob Tant, who attended the session, says the motion to impose fines on offenders was tabled for future review by the Columbus Water Board.

The proposed fines would have ranged from $100 to $1,000, depending on how many citations the offender had received. Residential users now receive a warning notice for breaking the ban, a letter for the second infraction, and a possible water cutoff -- depending on circumstances -- according to Tant.

Tant says the total ban is unfair to Columbus:

"We feel that it's somewhat unfair that we have invested in our utility, so that a large portion of the water will go back to the river; and other communities in north Georgia -- under the same restrictions -- have developed on septic tanks, and have no sanitary sewer systems, and are not returning that water to the river, so, we think it's a problem."

Tant says city residents have largely followed the ban. He noted that overall usage dropped from 39 to 23 million gallons a day, since the ban went into effect at the end of September.

Latoya Moore, a Water Works customer service representative, said that, although the majority of clients were limiting their water usage, they were receiving approximately five complaints a week from disgruntled users dissatisfied with the ban, or requesting exemptions.

Tant added that Columbus, dubbed the “Fountain City,” has turned off all the decorative downtown waterworks. He said educational institutions, like Columbus State University and Muscogee Co. schools have followed suit, and are leaving some lawns and athletic facilities dry.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the drought.

Perdue organizes drought command center

In order to force the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the flow of water out of Lake Lanier, Governor Sonny Perdue has gone to federal court, has declared north Georgia a state disaster zone, and has asked President Bush for help.

The Governor says he has put together a drought command center, in case he doesn't get his way from the federal level.

"Plan B are strategic measures of tankering-in water and other things, assuming there would no adequate rainfall. Those are not possibilities that we'd like to think of, but they're possibilities that must be planned for. I'm not trying to panic people, but they expect us to have a plan in place".

The Corps says it is bound by federal law to keep a base flow in the Chattahoochee River. Other rivers, creeks and lakes in north Georgia are also running low, in what is now considered an epic drought.