Drought impacts oystermen downstream from Lanier

APALACHICOLA BAY, Fla. - Longtime oysterman Keith Millender sees every shower taken or car washed in metropolitan Atlanta as a small threat to his family, which has harvested seafood from northwest Florida's Apalachicola Bay for generations.

The Apalachicola River - which carries water more than 300 miles from Georgia's Lake Lanier into the bay, providing the delicate balance of freshwater and saltwater oysters need to thrive - is running dry.

Despite recent rainfalls, Georgia remains in a drought and months of above-average rain are needed to fill its reservoirs. Lanier, which provides most of metro Atlanta's water, is less than 60 percent full.

The metro area's population has doubled since 1980, surpassing 5 million residents.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has said his state's demand for the water comes down to ``man vs. mussels.'' Atlanta needs water for its survival, he has said in making a case to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to allow Georgia to take more water from Lanier.

Negotiations between Alabama, Florida and Georgia over controlling the water flow have fallen apart and the states plan to settle their differences in court. But families who have harvested oysters, shrimped and sold seafood for generations along Florida's Forgotten Coast say they cannot wait years for a court battle to play out.

Oystering is a $10 million industry in Florida, with about 1,200 licensed harvesters and 25 processing houses in the Apalachicola area. Approximately 3 million pounds of oyster meat was landed in the state last year, about 10 percent of the national harvest.