North Metro Water District supports statewide water plan

LAKE LANIER ISLANDS - A Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce audience at Lake Lanier Islands Thursday morning heard that legislators need to make sure they put money behind the state’s first ever water plan.

At the Chamber’s business coalition meeting on water issues Matthew Harper with the Metro North Georgia Water Planning District said the district supports the water plan draft and wants the General Assembly to pass it and to give it financial support.

“Everything else is really back seat,” Harper said. “Unless we get those two things, funding and the approved plan, everything else does not matter.”

The Georgia Water Council, a group of lawmakers and officials, unanimously adopted the plan this week but it must still be approved by Georgia's lawmakers during the upcoming session before it can take effect.

Harper dismissed reports that the 16 county metro Atlanta region was absorbing North Georgia’s drought stricken water supply at the expense of the rest of the state.
Harper pointed out that metro cities and counties return up to 70 percent of their highly treated wastewater affluent to the Chattahoochee River and Lake Lanier.

Harper said the Corps of Engineers is projecting that the lake level will continue to drop but not as sharply as originally predicted because of recent winter rains, adding that conservation is still critical.

“Conservation is so critical to get us through this drought,” Harper said.