(May 11, 2009, The Miami Herald)
The states of Florida and Alabama are meeting Georgia in federal court in Jacksonville over the allocation of water from Lake Lanier, which is the city of Atlanta’s water supply.
U.S. District Judge Paul Manguson will hear arguments Monday from the three states over the legality of the water supply allocations [...]
(May 6, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Atlanta’s water and sewer department is sitting on $3.9 million it should have refunded to thousands of customers.
Delinquent accounts now total more than $50 million and the department fails to collect millions more every year.
ills are based on estimates, rather than meter readings, for 10,000 accounts every month.
And, rate hikes [...]
(May 1, 2009, The Atlanta Journal Constitution)
The rates approved in 2008 increased bills by 27.5 percent the first year, 12.5 percent the second, 12.5 percent the third and 12 percent the fourth. Franklin said Atlanta’s rates already are higher than other major cities.
Auditors suggested the later hikes might be reduced by as much as 2 [...]
(April 5, 2009, The Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Two years ago, while metro Atlanta’s drought burned through the record book, Karin Guzy of east Cobb turned off her in-ground sprinkler system.
It hasn’t been on since.
Instead, she waters her garden from two 250-gallon water cisterns. The large buckets easily fill from light rain collected off her roof.
Guzy doesn’t [...]
(March 21, 2009, Robert Glennon, AlterNet)
The following is an excerpt from “Unquenchable: American’s Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It” by Robert Glennon. Copyright 2009 Robert Glennon. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC.
Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from the introduction of Glennon’s new book and follows a narrative about the water [...]
(March 4, 2009, Robert Glennon, The Huffington Post)
Drought has prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state emergency. Water agencies are preparing to impose mandatory water rationing. We’re all hoping that melting snow in the Sierra will save the state’s farmers and city dwellers from hardship.
But once rain starts to fall – and it [...]
(Feb. 23, 2009, On The Scene, Fox News)
In case you didn’t know, the Southeastern United States has been in a drought for the last several years. The City of Atlanta was in danger of losing their water supply and many small towns in Tennessee simply ran out. To keep the Southeast from going completely dry, [...]
(Feb. 16, 2009, MyFoxAtlanta)
ATLANTA – Angry water customers filled a state house room to air their complaints about extremely high water bills in the city of Atlanta. And Georgia lawmakers say they may take action to cap water rates in certain circumstances.
(Original Article Here)
(Feb. 13, 2009, The Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Atlanta water officials say they’ve discovered one reason why some recent water bills were sky high: Computer software in about 450 water meters miscalculated usage and charged homeowners much more than they should have.
Watershed Management Commissioner Rob Hunter said the department discovered the problem involving some of the 2,800 [...]
(Feb. 6, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Water conservation amounts differ
The director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division told state lawmakers Thursday that metro Atlanta could save up to a third of the water it uses with aggressive and expensive conservation measures.
Metro Atlanta’s water planners have been less ambitious. In a draft conservation plan, they’re shooting for a [...]
(Jan. 30, 2009, The Anniston Star)
For metropolitan Atlanta, the stakes — or the lake levels — could not be higher.
First, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower-court decision that invalidated the “secret” plan to draw more water from Lake Lanier than was agreed to by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Governments in metro [...]
(Jan. 29, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Atlanta does not have a problem with its water billing, it has customers who don’t pay its bills.
In fact, the city is “doing a wonderful job” dealing with its 1.2 million customers.
Those were the highlights from Rob Hunter, commissioner of Atlanta’s Watershed Management Department, during a 45-minute session with the [...]
(Jan. 25, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
A year ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue and state leaders made water their top priority. Georgia’s first water management plan zipped through the House and Senate and landed on Perdue’s desk in under three weeks.
“We will conserve and use this precious and vital resource wisely,” Perdue told lawmakers in his 2008 [...]
(Jan. 23, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it has the legal authority to supply metro Atlanta’s drinking water from Lake Lanier.
The Corps’ legal opinion, released late Thursday, is a good harbinger for metro Atlanta in proceedings unfolding in a federal court in Jacksonville, Fla. That’s where a federal judge is [...]
(Jan. 15, 2009, The Auburn Plainsman)
The United States Supreme Court turned down a petition Georgia filed reviewing a ruling that favored Florida and Alabama Monday.
Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s main source of drinking water, will be providing less water for the capital.
Georgia filed the petition against the federal appellate court’s decision last year. The Supreme Court will [...]
(Jan. 12, 2009, WRDWAugusta)
Georgia’s long-term water plans face another threat, this time from the US Supreme Court. A court decision today questioned the state’s right to use more water from Lake Lanier, northeast of Atlanta.
Florida and Alabama are angry about Georgia’s use of more water for drinking purposes.
Georgia has been in a severe drought for over [...]
(Dec. 12, 2008, AlterNet)
Lawmakers in Sacramento need to understand the role of water in California. An antiquated water system designed for 20 million inhabitants combined with global warming and a burgeoning population are three valid reasons why the legislator must act quickly and decisively.
Currently southern California is experiencing its worst drought since the inception of [...]
(Nov. 3, 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
“These are people that have never asked for assistance before,” she said, referring to a third of her callers. But with “downsizing and all that, they find themselves in a situation they thought they never would be in.”
Georgia Power reports 12,000 more disconnects in the third quarter of this year [...]
(Oct. 22, 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Metro Atlanta could use up to one-third less water instead of spending millions of dollars on new reservoirs, according to a report released Wednesday by a national river advocacy group.
Washington-based American Rivers offers nine solutions to the region’s water crisis in its report titled “Hidden Reservoir: Why Water Efficiency is [...]
(Oct. 14, 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Attorney General Henry McMaster predicted future water wars in the Southeast and said Tuesday that a lawsuit South Carolina brought against North Carolina will set a precedent for settling the disputes.
“This is the kind of thing we’re going to be seeing from now on,” McMaster told [...]
