Fresh Loaf

LEAVEITTOWN: The reeling housing market is accelerating Americans’ interest in New Urbanism, helping reverse the march toward suburbia that began post-WWII with the Levittown burbs.

AN INCONVENIENT YOUTH: Al Gore takes the stage with Barack Obama in Detroit to endorse the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, lending his enormous party clout to the young upstart, albeit a little late.

NORREESE HAYNES: The former Clayton County school board member’s lawsuit, an attempt to regain his board seat he was voted out of in March, is dismissed by Clayton Superior Court Judge Deborah Benefield.

BIOMASS PLANT: Rollcast Energy plans to build a $160 million, 50-megawatt biomass power plant in Lamar County that will burn wood waste from logging, land-clearing and other sources.

WINGS AND A PRAYER: Aside from its Athens-Atlanta flights, which it’s initially offering for $49, Wings Air has hopes of becoming a regional commuter airline to compete with increasingly clogged ground traffic.

CHORE OF ENGINEERS: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ water plan doesn’t seem to please anyone, as Georgia officials say it doesn’t do enough to conserve Lake Lanier’s water, and everyone south says it does too much.

PLAYING DIRTY: Former Pike Nurseries CEO Randy Pike was arrested and charged with groping several women at a pool party in Dalton over the weekend.

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UNHAPPY AS A CLAM: Mussels, north Floridians will suffer from Corps of Engineers’ new water proposal, says a Florida congressman, while Lake Lanier Association president says the plan doesn’t go far enough.

LEGAL INJECTION: SCOTUS dismisses challenge to constitutionality of Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure, freeing up other states to kill their prisoners again. Two Georgia death-row inmates are now back on track to be executed.

SEPARATE BUT DIESEL: Ga. DOT explains the problems with bringing truck-only lanes to Atlanta, while the idea’s sponsor stubbornly soldiers on.

BURDEN OF PROF: Two still-unidentified Ga. Tech professors are being investigated for fraud and theft.

LEATHERHEADS: Georgia State is expected to announce today its plans to start a football team in 2010. AJC’s Tony Barnhart lists five things the Panthers must do to succeed. Around this time last year, Mark Bradley wrote why they won’t succeed.

LACROSSE-CULTURAL: Toli, the 500-year-old Native American predecessor of lacrosse, is big in Athens, where on Saturday UGA’s team will host the 21-time world-champion Conehatta Skunks, who are Choctaw.

THE PAYBACK: The Augusta Metro Spirit lists what will be available at James Brown’s estate sale in August.

PRO-STRIFE: Yale art student artificially inseminates herself “as often as possible,” takes drugs to induce miscarriages, collects the blood, and presents it along with videos of her miscarriages as her senior art project.

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SOFT CORPS: In a salve for metro Atlanta’s water woes, the Army Corps of Engineers releases a new proposal reducing the minimum amount of water that can be released from Lake Lanier daily. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until June 1 to approve the plan. Perdue already approves.

GSUED: Georgia State is sued by three academic publishers for digitally reproducing materials for online without asking permission or paying licensing fees.

BELFRY-FOR-ALL: “Dozens” to “tens of thousands” of Mexican free-tailed bats’ noise and guano annoy Augustans.

CLAYTON: School board replaces chairwoman Ericka Davis, who resigned, with Eddie White, who had already announced he’s resigning in June.

BLANK SLATE: NYT profiles the Falcons’ owner, his turbulent 2007 and the reset ‘08 Falcons.

TANGLED WEB: Boortz Web link to mdjonline.com video crashes the paper’s servers.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sent out a press release today announcing an environmental impact assessment will be conducted at Bethel Park, a 62-acre parcel of undeveloped land on Lake Lanier’s western shore. According to the release, development proposals have been submitted by the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta and Forsyth County. The Corps says that 25 acres of the land would remain undeveloped.

Click here to read the release.

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No, not you, Shelbinator.

Mysterious Mickey at Atlanta Water Shortage is pissed — I repeat, pissed — at Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby and his earmark-slippin’ ways. According to 11Alive News — and a bevy of others — the distinguished gentleman from Alabama snuck an earmark into yesterday’s pork-laden budget bill that would prevent the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from making any changes to outdated water release manuals. The article says Georgia has wanted the Corps to do just that for years, to take into account metro Atlanta’s booming growth. Alabama’s held out until the states could agree exactly how they’d share the water. From That Other Paper:

In October, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it would start the three-year process to rewrite manuals for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins, which together supply metro Atlanta’s water. The ACF includes Lanier and drains south into Florida; the ACT includes Allatoona and drains southwest into Alabama.

Shelby’s provision would bar the agency from spending money updating the manuals unless the corps provides certain information up front, including a 25-year projection of water use in both basins.

Ladies and gentlemen, via press release, Sen. Saxby Chambliss … he’s pissed, too!

“The governors of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are finally at the negotiating table finding a way forward on this very difficult issue,” Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said Wednesday, referring to recent water-sharing negotiations. “It is mind boggling to see this language in the omnibus bill intended to block that progress.”

The gentleman from Alabama says he’s just looking out for the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of his state. I suppose that would include Atlanta-based Southern Co., which, according to Open Secrets, was his biggest political contributer in 2006. The company’s subsidiary, Alabama Power, operates 24 power-generating facilities in the state.

According to SourceWatch, Shelby is an interesting character — friend of Big Tobacco, a holdout on a bill that cut off business ties to firms associated with Darfur, and basically an earmark-happy kind of guy.

For example, even though Shelby has put the quash on the Corps’ planned updates, he’s nonetheless gonna give it some new digs. Included in his earmarks was $5 million for what the Associated Press calls his “pet project.” The senator wants to uproot the Corps from its current field office — even though it never requested it — and then raze the riverfront spot to allow the area to be developed.

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What does 270 miles of traveling south and a day in Tallahassee get you? According to today’s meeting of the governors of Florida, Georgia and Alabama, just some more time.

Gov. Sonny Perdue trekked down to the Sunshine State’s capital to meet with Governors Charlie Crist of Florida and Bob Riley of Alabama and, according to a statement from Crist’s office, agreed to send high-level staff members to Washington, D.C., in mid-January to hammer out a deal between the three states regarding reduced water flows in the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa, and Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basins. The governors said they would then meet again in February to conclude the 17-year-old tri-state dispute over the precious resource. That deal would then be presented to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. FWS officials would have the right to object to any changes in releases that may be harmful to endangered marine life located downstream, such as the mussels that have played such a prominent role in the entire water shortage drama.

The governors also decided today to move up to March 15 a June 1 deadline imposed by the Corps for the states to agree to a water-sharing strategy.

According to the statement from Crist’s office, “representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also participated in today’s meeting to provide factual information on current conditions of both the ACF River Basin and the ACT River Basin.”

No word yet if David Ratcliff, chairman, president and CEO of Southern Company, was in attendance, as he was at the Nov. 1 D.C. sit-down between the governors.

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Everyone’s talking about Lake Lanier and its water-level woes. It is, after all, a big deal — Lake Lanier supplies water for 60 percent of the state. But I ain’t drinkin’ it.

I, along with about 80,000 of my closest friends from Marietta and Cartersville, get my water from Allatoona Lake — or Lake Allatoona, to those who actually refer to it.

Like a bridge over no water.

Speaking to a representative from the Allatoona Lake Visitor’s Center, I asked if the lake had been drained this year, as it is every winter. The woman laughed at me. “Yeah,” she said, “it’s down about 21 feet this year.” The usual drop is around 17 feet. Interesting fact, eh?

I decided to take a trip to see the damage the drought had done to the lake six million people visit yearly.

And it looks the same, just much, much smaller.
(more…)

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services said today that releasing less water from Lake Lanier would not endanger several federally protected species living downstream, but the announcement is not the godsend for which state officials had hoped. Effective immediately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can reduce flows out of Lake Lanier to 4,500 cubic feet per second, or CFS, until June 1, should drought conditions not improve. On average, the Corps has been releasing 5,000 CFS from Lake Lanier.

The Corps had originally hoped to reduce releases to 4,150 CFS, but FWS officials say they did not have enough time to research the effects such a move would have on all the species which rely on water flows. FWS studied how the change in releases would affect the Gulf sturgeon and three mussels species — the purple bankclimber, fat threeridge, and Chipola slabshell.

FWS officials say the reduced releases stand to affect the fat threeridge mussel the greatest. The sentinel species is at risk of losing 9 percent of its population. Should lesser releases be needed, FWS officials say they will work with the Corps.

The reduced releases will also benefit other downstream lakes, such as West Point, by allowing them to retain more water.

Here’s a snippet from release by FWS …

The modification provides for a pathway to increase composite storage – that is the amount of water stored at Lanier, West Point, and Walter F. George. If the Corps does not hold back some water now, and if extreme drought conditions continue, it is possible there may not be enough water in storage next summer to meet the needs of the users.

“We live here too, and fully understand what is at stake in the negotiation about how to allocate water,” Hamilton said. “As citizens throughout this basin, we are learning that choices have consequences and we cannot outgrow our carrying capacity, living beyond what our region’s natural resources can support.”

“While fish and wildlife conservation is only a small part of this balancing act, we approach our role seriously,” Hamilton said. “It is our responsibility to ensure these indicator species, which help us assess the health of the system, are given the best chance possible to ultimately thrive. The better they do, the better we will do. Because if this drought has shown us anything, it has shown us we cannot thrive as a citizenry on an unhealthy river system. ”

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From That Other Paper’s Stacy Shelton:

Federal and state officials for the first time Thursday agreed on how much drinking water is left in Lake Lanier.

We have 79 days.

That makes today’s decision, which could slow the flow of water from Lanier to Florida, especially critical. The verdict from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists on whether federally protected mussels can live with less of Lanier’s water is being closely watched in Washington and three state capitals.

Unload that shotgun and stop filling those jugs, worried citizen — Pat Robbins, chief of public affairs for the Corps’ Mobile District, the office that oversees Buford Dam at Lake Lanier, said in a phone interview that the estimate quoted above does not include the dead pool located below the dam’s gates. “We have months,” Robbins said. Estimates have varied wildly since the crisis was announced.

Expect today’s verdict to anger at least one of the many parties involved in this water debate, which includes three governors, power companies, a seafood industry dependent on the flows, a huge metropolitan area, environmentalists, other states struggling with water supply issues … the list goes on.

The Corps planned to release even more water in March to sustain the endangered Gulf sturgeon spawning in the river. No word yet on how today’s verdict may change those plans, but we’ve got a call in with the Corps and will update when we hear news.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue today withdrew the state’s lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The governor filed the motion on Oct. 19 in the Middle District of Florida in efforts to halt the Corps’ water releases from dwindling Lake Lanier.

“With the recent intervention by President Bush to compel our federal partners to come to the table, I am optimistic that this matter can be resolved outside of a courtroom,” Perdue said in a statement. “I never want to resort to legal action to settle disputes, but the seriousness of this drought forced me to explore every option available to protect Georgia’s water resources.”

On Nov. 1, the Corps sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposing an incremental reduction of releases into the Apalachicola River from its current rate of 5,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) to 4,150 cfs. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to deliver a ruling on Nov. 15.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday that Lake Lanier has enough depth to supply 280 days of drinking water. Oops, make that 279 days today. The state estimates there are 111 days worth of drinking water left.

Who to believe?

The state has hardly proven trustworthy in managing water issues. But let’s not forget, the Corps of Engineers is the same group that assured everyone the levees around New Orleans were safe before Katrina proved otherwise. So I’m not exactly ready to take their word to the bank, either.

In the meantime, our neighbors to the south don’t appear to be taking the drought very seriously.

In Columbus, the head of the water department is going to ask the state to exempt Columbus from water restrictions so people there can water their lawns and wash their cars.

And in Phenix City, Ala., across the river from Columbus, there are no water restrictions at all.

Ah, all for one and one for all. Right? Oops. Except when it comes to conserving water.

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All the talk of “conservation pools” and “basins” can be difficult to understand without some accompanying visuals. The PDF file below of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may be a little help. It also includes some photos of dams and water levels at other lakes and reservoirs along the system — I can’t tell if that’s grass or algae sprouting on West Point’s lake bed.

To see what I was talking about yesterday when I explained that in 110 days we’ll hit the bottom of that conservation pool — but not the bottom of the lake — take a look at slide 18.

Corps Presentation of ACF Basin During 2007 Drought

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Add another number to the mix.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a phone interview today that the state’s estimate of Lake Lanier’s remaining water supply is wrong.

Corps spokesman Rob Holland says that Lake Lanier has 280 days of available water supply, a stark contrast to the state’s estimate of 80 days.

After 110 days, Holland says, the level will reach the bottom of the conservation pool — which is not the same thing as