One environmental representative says he is tired of “playing nice” with Alabama negotiators and challenges them to come up with a proposal more suitable than that now on the table.
Brad McLane, founder and executive director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, recently addressed the Centre Rotary Club. Alabama Rivers Alliance is a non-profit organization working for clean, healthy water in Alabama. McLane holds a bachelor’s degree in natural resources from the University of the South in Tennessee.
“I always enjoy coming here,” said McLane. “The Alabama Rivers Alliance has a network of water groups across the state, about 60 groups. And I have to be kind of a river politician. I’m not really allowed to have a favorite river or favorite lake. I have to love them all equally, but I’m kind of partial to Weiss Lake because I grew up playing here probably more than any other lake. My family moved from Birmingham to Atlanta, but they bought a place on Weiss Lake where I spent a lot of time in the summer.”
The water wars, McLane says, isn’t a pleasant topic and like many, he wishes it would “just go away.”
“But it’s not going to go away and we are going to have to really work awfully hard to have an impact on this water wars deal,” said McLane. “The Alabama Rivers Alliance also works with the Tri-State Conservation Coalition, a coalition that includes 40 groups, including national and local groups. They are concerned about these water discussions and that includes the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce and the Weiss Lake Improvement Association which are really two of the strongest members of that coalition.”
“I was raised in the south and one of the things that I learned and probably a lot of you learned was ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,’” said McLane. “If I were following that, I just wouldn’t talk about the water wars at all because there’s just not a lot of nice things I can say. I’ve tried to be pretty diplomatic in dealing with Gov. Siegelman and his administration. I’m getting tired of trying to play nice with them. We’re not making progress. We have a bad water deal on the table. It’s one that needs to be fixed. It’s needed to be fixed for a long time.”
The water talks under the ACF and ACT compacts, have been ongoing for more than four years now, McLane said, and have been extended time and time again. During this time, Alabama has given “much too much” away, he said.
“Versions One and Two of Alabama’s ACT Water Allocation Proposal, dated Sept. 1, 1998 and Nov. 12, 1998, respectively sought seasonally-adjusted flow numbers of 2,350 cubic feet per second. They sought that the state of Georgia permit no more than 179 million gallons a day of water usage out of the Coosa River Basin,” said McLane. “2,350 cfs as a minimum flow.”
“We didn’t stick to our guns, though,” said McLane. “We compromised pretty quickly when Georgia came up with their proposal which didn’t look very good. Alabama’s Version Three Proposal, dated Nov. 8, 1999, sought a seasonable variable weekly average minimum instream flow. We started off talking about some numbers that needed to be there all of the time and it became weekly average flows and that proposal sought minimum flows ranging from 1,800 to 2,200 depending on the season and an absolute bottom line of 1,600. The proposal also included some general guidelines that provide for reservoir operations that protect instream flow, variability, ‘to the maximum extent’ practicable. This proposal also placed certain conditions on water permitting and consumption. That proposal still looked pretty reasonable to me.”
The Jan. 20 ACT proposal draft, again, gave considerable ground to Georgia. Alabama’s weekly flow essentially became bi-weekly average flow.
“It said, ‘On average, you are going to have enough water,’” said McLane. “But averages tend to hide a lot of things. Just remember to be skeptical anytime this proposal is based on the averages being okay.”
On Dec. 13, McLane said, Alabama came out with the proposal it has now which provides for a bi-weekly average flow of 1,800 cfs to 1,200.
“Unless the lake in Georgia gets too low, there’s no guarantee of any flow,” said McLane. “Experts with the state tell us that’s not going to happen based on those predictions. They can hold those lakes up. If that’s not going to happen, why don’t they just guarantee a minimum flow to us? As long as there’s any water in the lake upstream, that’s above bottom of conservation storage. They need to give us some minimum flow.”
But in the end, Alabama has sacrificed and compromised numerous times on the deal. The question is, McLane said, ‘What has Georgia given up?’
“Overall water consumption from the federal reservoirs in Georgia alone will be allowed to increase more than 500 percent for the next 30 years,” said McLane. “Alabama’s draft proposal, minimum flows on the Coosa, has dropped over 40 percent from this Version One ACT proposal. So we’ve given away 40 percent of the minimum flows and essentially compromised it. The allowable daily interbasin transfer for the Coosa over the Chattahoochee of 150 million gallons a day is only 29 cubit feet per second below the total water usage in the basin including interbasin transfers. We’ve compromised an awful lot.”
“I can’t really point to anything that Georgia has given in these talks,” McLane added. “I’ve read every one of these proposals for the last four and a half years. Maybe we were asking too much in the beginning of this process. I never would have guessed in 1998 that we would have given this much. We’ve given away enough that I really question whether this proposal is worth anything to us. We are better off with no deal at all. This water agreement absolutely has to be changed. We are going to have a hard time bringing about change. I’m not getting anywhere with Gov. Siegelman or his administration. They only tell me, ‘We’re on it, we’re working on it.”’
McLane also expressed concerns about the “reasonable use” wording now found in the current proposal, which needs to be addressed.
It is vital to keep the water issue before the public, especially during this election period, McLane said. Currently, Alabama Rivers Alliance is working with other organizations toward that end. On behalf of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, he encourages citizens to contact their friends and neighbors and encourage them to become involved in the ongoing water discussions.
“This has gone on too long,” said McLane. “We’ve given away too much. It’s not too late to make some changes. We’ve been waiting too long for a deal to be put on the table that will protect Weiss Lake, the Coosa River, the Tallapoosa River and the treasures of the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa Basin.
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