Monday, December 20, 2010

Georgia Water Planning District Takes Measures to Increase Downstream to Alabama and Florida

For many years now, Georgia has been in a battle with Alabama and Florida over who has the right to use the water reservoir of Lake Lanier as a main water supply.   In 2009, Judge Paul Magnuson ruled that Atlanta didn't have the right to keep Lake Lanier water from neighboring states and gave Georgia until July of 2012 to settle the dispute with Alabama and Florida over where the water should flow south of the lake.

Jim Scarbrough, a delegate on the Gwinnett County's water authority said "We're trying to show our neighbors to the south, namely Florida and Alabama, as well as the judge that we're doing a pretty good job with water conservation."  The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, charged with creating the new conservation measures claims it will reduce consumption by 130 million gallons a day by the year 2035.  The new measures will conserve water as well as increase downstream flow to south Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.

One of the biggest changes taking place to put this plan into action is the installation of new water meters with "point-of-use" leak detection.  These will allow residents to get more involved with their water consumption by being able to monitor their own water use, almost down to the drop.  Kathy Nguyen, Cobb County water efficiency manager, said the devices will allow customers "to set their own goals for what their use should be" and alert the homeowners to leaks that occur.

No comments:

Post a Comment