Water Wars

Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, both Republicans, went to Army Secretary Francis Harvey to halt the Army Corps of Engineers' releases from Lake Lanier and to prod the Corps, which is under Harvey's command, to move faster to resolve a decades-old dispute among Georgia, Florida and Alabama over the use of water from the Chattahoochee River, which the lake impounds.

While I can appreciate the public's apparent enthusiasm concerning the herding of these politicians into a single line, I have to express some reservations as to their goals. So pardon me if the tree-hugging, socially cooperative attitude offends.

Just how big does Atlanta need to be? Isn't it already suffering from enough of the ills of "big city" life? Do we have to consume the Chattahoochee until it becomes a mere trickle downstream?

I was born in St. Josephs' hospital and grew up in and around Atlanta, and find most of this recent development rather short sighted and unpleasant. I used to float down the river as part of the Chattahoochee River Raft Race when it was clean enough to... well... swim in. Imagine that!

We are already facing water shortages, and the lakes levels drop more precipitously every summer - and we want more! To hell with the fish, birds, animals, the wetlands, the environment, and anyone downstream. And remember, much of what gets sucked out eventually goes back in as "treated" sewage. I certainly wouldn't want to live downstream of Atlanta's waste water.

It's classic Clownifornia behavior. Wealthy lawyers who pad their fortunes fighting over water rights in an overdeveloped landscape. As it is, the carpetbagger developers have stripped the majority of Atlanta and its surrounding suburbs of forests, topsoil, and character. And although there are currently watering bans and restrictions in effect, the developers of these crackerbox $500,000 McMansion projects and their faulty sprinkler systems continue to dump hundreds of gallons of water into the roadways under cover of darkness - each.

Read More Here

Yeah boy, I can't wait...

Update June 21, 2006.
Water debate awash in spin by John Sugg