Georgia Water Restrictions Could Trickle Down

By Jeremy Morrison, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

Oct. 24–Water management decisions by states to the north might have a trickle down effect for Florida.

With much of the South suffering through an extreme drought, Georgia officials are pleading with federal authorities to decrease the amount of water released from Lake Lanier. The 38,000-acre lake supplies more than 3 million people with water in the Atlanta area and is estimated now to have less than a 90-day supply.

Such a move could make for trouble downstream. Water released from Lake Lanier flows downstate at a rate of 5,000 cubic feet per second (CFS) and eventually empties into the Apalachicola Bay via the Apalachicola River. En route, the flow is used by numerous communities, two power plants and three endangered species.

“This is a complicated problem; this is a complicated river system,” said Tom McKenzie, Southeast spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “You’re mixing rocket science and biology.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in talks with the FWS to determine how much, if at all, the flow might be dropped.

“There are a lot of interests that depend on that water,” said Rob Holland, an Atlanta spokesman for the Army Corps. “All of them would be ill-served if we didn’t re-examine our operation.”

The three biggest roadblocks to dropping the rate of flow are the fat three-ridge mussel, purple bankclimber mussel and gulf sturgeon, a fish. All three are endangered species and carry a federal mandate that the water release rate be maintained.

Ted Hoehn, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said many of the mussels will die if the water is decreased. As the water recedes, he said, the mussels will be left in isolated pools.

“They get stranded and die,” Hoehn said.

The danger to the sturgeon is more delayed but equally as consequential. If the flow is too low next spring, the sturgeon will not be able to make it to their spawning grounds in the Chattahoochee River, which combines with the Flint River on the Florida-Georgia state line and empties into the Apalachicola River.

“Obviously, if they don’t have water — and their rock habitat is not covered up with water — they will not spawn,” Hoehn said. “That would be bad for everything. We would see some immediate effect, but that isn’t the end of the story.”

If the sturgeon are not able to make it to the Chattahoochee, there could be a multigenerational ripple effect.

“What we’re seeing right now is the loss of the breeding population, the loss of juveniles,” Hoehn said, adding that such a loss would be devastating to the species’ survival.

Hoehn also said riverbanks would suffer if flow is decreased and water levels drop. As the banks dry out, they tend to collapse.

“You’ll see a lot of destabilized banks,” he said.

Power play

Also depending on the flow from Lake Lanier is a nuclear power plant in Alabama and a coal-powered plant in Sneads. The facilities use the water for steam in order to produce power.

Unlike the endangered species, there are no laws protecting the power plants.

“It would just be a case of us saying, ‘Hey, we can’t provide this flow anymore,’” said Holland. “If they’re smart, they’re already preparing internally.”

Lynn Erickson, spokeswoman for Gulf Power Co., said the Army Corps has been on site in Sneads helping to identify emergency procedures. If the flow is dropped, the plant most likely will run at a lower capacity.

The Sneads plant only powers about 15,000 homes, but also acts as a surgeprotector for the general area.

“It’s primarily there for grid security,” Erickson said. “That means it’s the voltage regulator for the entire system.”

Of greater concern is the nuclear plant that powers a good portion of southern Alabama.

“That’s a huge producer,” said Maj. Daren Payne, Army Corps department commander for the Mobile, Ala., district. “It’s, like, in the 600 mega-watt range.”

But, Payne said, the nuclear site only requires 2,000 CFS and probably won’t become an issue. Even if endangered species were not a consideration, he said, Atlanta and other points south require maintaining that much flow.

“Something has to come out of Lake Lanier,” Payne said.

Sarah Williams, of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said Georgia officials need to understand that other areas depend on water from the lake, too.

“It’s a drought everywhere, you know, not just in Georgia,” she said, adding that the lack of rainfall already is effecting salinity levels in Apalachicola Bay. “It’s impacting our oyster population.”

Though recent rainfall has averaged about four inches across northwest Florida, according the National Weather Service, it hasn’t been enough to quench months of drought. “Did it help? A little,” said Chris Richards, with the Northwest Florida Water Management District. “One or two rainfalls are not going to end this drought.”

The FWS, along with the Army Corps, should decide within the next month how much flow is needed from Lake Lanier. What will not be known until sometime later is what effects that decision will have downstream.

“We’ve never been here before, this is treading all new ground,” McKenzie said. “We don’t have any predictions.”

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