Fresh Loaf

The recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson that told Georgia to start kissing ass or coming up with water-supply solutions might have also sparked a cottage industry of sorts: developers with nifty ideas about how to make a profit while also ensuring more water for cities who fear their taps — and tax base — could run dry.

It’s happening right here.

Last week, sources told CL that Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport officials had been approached by a private developer with the idea of selling Dawson Forest — a 10,000-acre tract of North Georgia land owned by the airport — and building a reservoir. The city bought the tract of land in 1971 in anticipation of a second airport.

According to tentative details, a tributary of the Etowah River would be dammed to create the large body of water. Officials were tight-lipped and sources couldn’t connect all the dots, but Dave Williams of the Atlanta Business Chronicle was able to get the goods.

From Williams’ report:

Jerry Daws, president of Republic Resources Inc. of Atlanta, has been pitching council members this summer on a plan to convert 2,000 acres of the 10,000-acre Dawson Forest tract into a reservoir that could serve as an alternative to Lake Lanier.

Under the proposal, the other 8,000 acres would be set aside as protected wilderness.

…

Under Daws’ proposal, the city would sell the property to the Etowah Water & Sewer Authority, which serves Dawson County.

The utility then would work in a public-private partnership with a new corporate entity to be formed by Daws to build a $600 million to $650 million reservoir by damming Shoal Creek, a tributary of the Etowah River.

The project would yield 100 million gallons of water a day, the same amount of water five municipal utilities have been pulling from Lake Lanier this year. Some of the water would be piped south to serve Atlanta, Sandy Springs and possibly Johns Creek. The rest would serve customers in Dawson County and other counties in the region, including Forsyth, Cherokee and Pickens.

Williams has a lot more details, including some important points from environmentalists. Check out his article in full.

One councilmember told CL that the proposal’s “attractive,” but overall City Hall’s cool on the deal. Selling land purchased with airport bonds for such a project is questionable. Don’t forget that the Etowah River is part of another water basin mired in an interstate legal battle with Alabama. While that case has been delayed to allow Alabama, Florida and Georgia time to work out its water issues among themselves, our neighbor might not be too keen with the the Peach State carving out a massive lake, storing large amounts of water before it flows into their jurisdiction.

There’s also the issue of the land itself: Before the city purchased the tract, the U.S. military tested nuclear-propulsion technology at several facilities deep in the wilderness.

According to Georgia Forestry Commission and state Environmental Protection Division officials contacted for an excellent 2007 Pickens County Progress article about the land, little if any threat still exists. EPD maintains radiation monitors and tests the Etowah River for levels. The article says that monitoring activity hasn’t stopped rumors about Dr. Moreau-esque situations in the wilds of Dawson County (cue “X-Files” theme):

Stories of accidents, sickness, and animal mutations persist. Hunters claim extra sets of antlers or absence of antlers on full-grown bucks, atrophied legs, and albino pelts. At one point, the tale of a Cyclops deer circulated. Such stories remain by and large unsubstantiated, though science does point to the fact that genetic mutations can be hereditary.

Of his thirteen years inside Dawson Forest, Nathan McClure jokes, “I’ve never seen any 5 legged deer or other strange creatures on the site.”

Other residents of Dawson, Pickens, and Forsyth Counties remember the days of the red sky, in 1959, which many at first believed to be the end of the world but later attributed to GNAL operations.

During this time, the sky in the vicinity was a deep crimson color, and some families gathered inside to pray, fearing the Apocalypse. Was this phenomenon related to operations at the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory? No one knows for sure, and though June 1959 does go down on record as the period of most acute irradiation of the forest, those who remember the red sky do not remember dates for possible correlation.

Supposedly it’s just a small sliver of contaminated land, and that’s still off limits to the general population.

Now back to the proposal at hand.

Any agreement with our neighbors to the north would require the OK from City Council and the mayor (whomever that might be). If airport officials agree to part with the land, the decision as to whether such a deal is in Atlanta’s best interest could come down to Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Rob Hunter.

A watershed department spokeswoman told CL last week that other developers over the years have proposed reservoirs and converting the land to green space, none of which have come to fruition. (Engineering firm Arcadis has already studied the feasibility of building a reservoir on the land.)

What’s different this time, however, is that metro Atlanta is the most populous region in Georgia — a state that doesn’t have much of a hand in this drawn-out poker game with Florida and Alabama. People are getting antsy. Right now, it doesn’t look like it has too much of a reliable source of the most important resource a burgeoning society needs.

If the region — and the state — want to keep a-growin’, it’s gonna need that vital natural resource.

Bookmark It

Posted in News | Add a comment

Tags: dawson county, dawson forest, Development, drought, environment, Green Atlanta, Growth, Reservoirs, Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson, water, Water-Shortage.