Fresh Loaf

The Kremlinologists over at Insider Advantage posted a news report that should bring some holiday cheer to critics of the statewide water plan. The Georgia Water Policy Council, under pressure from environmental groups and local governments, decided on Friday to hold off giving the plan its final blessing until after the new year. Critics disagreed with a last-minute change made by the state Environmental Protection Division that draws district boundaries according to county lines rather than watersheds. The agency has also come under fire for how members of the regional water-planning bodies would be selected. According to the current draft, candidates would be nominated by local power brokers from a variety of industries and sectors, and then hand-picked by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker.

The report says the vote is set for Jan. 8, which, according to my research two weeks ago, was the date all along. Oh well. Viva agua!

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Water management a la personal finance:

“You don’t have to be a banker to know that if you spend 75 percent of your savings, and then all of your income, you’ll soon become bankrupt,” said Dan Sheer, a bearded and expressive Maryland hydrologist.

That was the analogy Sheer dropped to illustrate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ mismanagement of water resources during a meeting yesterday of top water planners and experts at the Atlanta Regional Commission. Sheer, who has been working with King and Spalding, the district’s legal counsel, was one of several speakers who briefed members of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water District on the water-shortage situation as well as an update of the 18-year legal proceedings among Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

And the dominant message of the afternoon was clear: “Don’t blame Atlanta. Blame the Corps.”

(more…)

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The statewide water plan that is being discussed — be sure to get your comments in because they close at the end of today — has thrown kerosene onto the “Atlanta-is-an-all-consuming-monster” argument that has echoed for years throughout Georgia. And a last-minute change to the plan by the state that critics viewed as sharing water based on economic needs rather than watersheds has become a chief concern among many.

In Macon last night, residents weren’t too happy.

From the Macon Telegraph:

“How can you manage water quality when you are crisscrossing river basins like that?” asked Bud Queen, president of the High Falls/Towaliga Watershed Alliance. Queen argued that such a system is unfair to Georgians living in the southern half of the state, because they won’t have a say in how water is used upstream.

Having a lot of say in how that water is used will be regional councils, and it’s who makes up those councils that concerns people. According to the draft plan, the councils will have no more than 18 members and three alternates selected from a pool of people nominated by leaders from a variety of industrial, business, environment and government groups, among others. The governor picks 10, the lieutenant governor selects 4, and the house speaker chooses 4, and each chooses one of the alternates. And it’s that odd hybrid model of people-suggestin’/guvmint-selectin’ council-building that has people angry.

(more…)

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