WASHINGTON — Members of Georgia's congressional delegation are considering floating legislation as early as September that could make it legal for municipalities to draw drinking water from not only Lake Lanier but nearly 80 other federally managed reservoirs in 27 states.
Question is, would such a national water policy get through Congress? And even if it did, would it make a difference?
Probably not, say many leading water experts.
"This is a national issue — no question about that," said George Sherk, who taught water law at Georgia State University and wrote a book on interstate water conflicts. He now teaches at the Colorado School of Mines.
"Does that mean there's a national solution?" Sherk added. "The answer is probably no."
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and many of the state's representatives in Congress say the best option to solving the tri-state dispute over Lake Lanier's water may be a comprehensive national policy that would cover any reservoir managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
At the very least, they say, other states should back Georgia in any legislation regarding Lanier because they might someday face similar problems in their own backyards.
Just like Lanier, an estimated 77 other Corps of Engineers-managed lakes in 27 states are used for municipal water supplies even though they aren't specifically authorized for that purpose, according to researchers in U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson's office. Five other Georgia lakes are also on the list, including Allatoona Lake and Lake Hartwell. The Corps of Engineers hasn't verified those numbers.
Despite the similarity, creating a blanket policy covering all those lakes in all those states might be akin to trying to squeeze water from a stone.
First, there's the politics involved with getting different states to agree on something as contentious as how water should be used and by whom.
Any national policy on drinking water, meanwhile, would also probably have to address a raft of other hot-button issues, such as endangered species laws and flood control.
Even if Congress passes a resolution stipulating that all Corps of Engineers-operated lakes can be used for drinking water, it would still probably be left to governors or other state officials in the states to sort out how much they each get.
And then there's the fact that all bodies of water are different. Some parts of the country might not want their cities to draw drinking water from their local lakes because they get water elsewhere. Tapping reservoirs could hurt recreation or production of hydroelectric power, for instance.
"One region's problem is not necessarily another region's problem," said Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, an environmental research and advocacy group in California. "And the risk, of course, is that Congress could make the problems worse rather than better."
A matter of approach
Georgia's lawmakers may not have a choice except to try for a national solution to the state's regional water squabble with Alabama and Florida.
A federal judge ruled July 17 that Congress never authorized Lake Lanier to be used for drinking water when the lake was created with federal funds in the 1950s.
As a result, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled, Atlanta has been illegally tapping the lake for decades, taking water from the Chattahoochee River that should have flowed to Alabama and Florida. Magnuson ordered that Atlanta's allocation of water from the lake revert to 1970s levels if Congress doesn't approve a solution within three years.
Members of Georgia's congressional delegation are stuck between a rock and a hard place as they ponder their legislative approach.
If they introduce legislation specifically regarding Lake Lanier, they'll undoubtedly get a fight from members of Congress from Florida and Alabama. And since Florida alone has 27 members of Congress, compared with Georgia's 15, the odds aren't good. Alabama has an additional nine senators and representatives who could stand in the way.
"We're outnumbered (by more than) 2-to-1," said U.S. Rep. John Linder, a Republican. "We need a nationwide statute."
Drafting nationwide legislation to cover all Corps of Engineers-run lakes might garner more support on Georgia's side from lawmakers in other states that may someday face a similar fight over their reservoirs.
"If we did it collectively, then you automatically would get a certain number of folks who can agree on a national policy of sorts," Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss said.
So far, no other state is expressing public worry about their corps-run lakes. But Isakson, also a Republican, says that could soon change.
Magnuson's decision in the Georgia case "is going to get a lot of people's attention," Isakson said. "I think there's an absolute need for national attention to water."
The problem with pursuing a national approach is the timing. With the clock already ticking on Magnuson's three-year deadline, Georgia and its congressional delegation need to do something sooner than later.
"We've got three years to get legal," said U.S. Rep. David Scott, a Democrat. "What we do depends on what congressional action we can take that's the quickest."
Chambliss said he wants to have some sort of legislation in the works by this fall — perhaps as early as September, when Congress returns to work after a monthlong break.
But he knows sweeping legislation won't be easy.
"You see already how complicated health care is," Chambliss said.
Promise to match support?
There's one other purely political approach Georgia's congressional delegation is considering that may make the most sense.
The idea is to introduce legislation specifically regarding drinking water and Lake Lanier. But before they do so, lawmakers from Georgia would make sure they have the backing of their peers from those 26 other states with federally managed reservoirs.
In return for supporting Georgia over Alabama and Florida, the Georgia delegation would promise to support those other states if they ever faced a similar problem.
"If we can just get the attention and the support (from other states), we might not actually need a federal or national solution," said U.S. Rep. John Barrow, a Democrat.
"If they say they are willing to support us, (we'd say), 'You will find a similar amount of support from us if you run into the same problem' — whether it's in Las Vegas or Spokane or some other place," he said.
"Today it's us ... but tomorrow it might be you," Barrow said.
Bob Keefe writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: bkeefe(at)ajc.com.