Environmental group decries statewide water plan

Members of the Georgia Water Coalition, an environmental group, joined several state lawmakers in criticizing the recently approved statewide water plan. They say the three year, multimillion dollar assessment of Georgia’s water needs lacks effective conservation mandates. The group also questioned the plan’s potential effectiveness, saying the regional water planning districts it creates should have been based on river basin boundaries rather than political ones.

State water plan may get full Legislature approval today

Georgia's first-ever statewide water plan has sailed through committees in the House and Senate this week. Today the proposal could get the vote before the full Legislature. If the 'yes' vote comes and gets the sign-off by Governor Sonny Perdue, the plan goes into action.

The plan would launch the effort to detail just how much water is in the state's rivers, lakes and streams. A three-year plan costing more than 30-million dollars would get a funding kickoff suggested by Perdue of just-over 11-million dollars in the first year. 11 planning districts would then work to decide how to divide the state's water resources.

Governor addresses statewide water plan in Augusta

With a population boom in metro Atlanta people in Augusta worry that the statewide water plan will dry up their water supply in eastern Georgia.

Governor Sonny Perdue sought to quash those concerns today.

"Look closely and read my lips: You have nothing to fear," Perdue told a small gathering of community leaders and media at the Daniel Field airport in Augusta on Wednesday. His stop here with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle (R) and House Majority Leader Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons) is part of a two-day series of press conferences across the state to promote their legislative agenda.

People in the Augusta area worry that the water plan plan might make it easier for metro Atlanta to raid the Savannah River, which is the area's main water supply.

The governor says the water plan does not authorize or even suggest that interbasin transfers would happen.

He also says the transfers would not be feasible.

But he stopped short of ruling them out completely.

"We can't preclude everything in our state that we might be paranoid about," he said. "A statewide water plan doesn't mean a plan imposed on every community. It means a structure and protocol that would empower local communities within commonly held topography or watersheds to make the decisions that are in their best interest."

There are also concerns over how each district in the water would be designed, and how the plan would be funded.