October 23, 2007

Excuse me, but the severity of the crisis has not been overstated

ajc.com > Metro
Feds weigh drinking water vs. mussels

By MATT KEMPNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/23/07
In what might be hopeful words for a drought-parched metro Atlanta, a regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said there is “much flexibility” to provide drinking water for people and still comply with the Endangered Species Act.

But Alabama’s governor on Monday asked President Bush not to take emergency drought actions requested by Georgia, saying they would be “to the detriment of people who live and work downstream in Alabama.”

Also Monday, federal biologists waded in Florida’s Apalachicola River, assessing what it would take to keep endangered and threatened mussels alive if less water is released upstream at Lake Lanier.

Georgia has demanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers keep more water in Lanier to meet the needs of metro Atlanta during the deepening drought.

The corps has turned to the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether mussels in Florida could live with less water in the Apalachicola, the name the Chattahoochee River takes as it winds through that state.

Sam Hamilton, the Atlanta-based regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service, wrote an Oct. 18 letter to the corps saying that “while the Service is concerned about the adverse effects” that lower flows might cause, “much flexibility exists in the Endangered Species Act to solve problems in ways that meet human needs while minimizing harm to highly imperiled species.

“A careful change in the rate of water releases could allow some mussels to move to deeper water and therefore minimize expected losses,” Hamilton wrote.

Already, the corps says, the Fish and Wildlife Service has authorized the corps to allow some of the rainwater feeding Lanier to stay there, a key step toward helping the depleted lake recover.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is prepared to work “quickly” on reviewing how much water the mussels can live with, Hamilton wrote.

Tom MacKenzie, a spokesman for the service, said he couldn’t predict the timing. Carol Couch, the director of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, has said federal officials could do it in a week. Maj. Daren Payne, the corps’ deputy district commander, said the Fish and Wildlife Service expects to finish fieldwork by the end of the month and render an opinion by mid-November.

Even if Georgia officials get what they want from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the corps, the water battle may not be over.

Payne predicted that if the corps reduces flows, there’s a good chance that Alabama and Florida would sue to get more water.

In his letter to Bush, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said Georgia’s push to get the president to allow lessened releases from Lanier would hurt Alabama. “Georgia has repeatedly framed its request as a contest between people in the Atlanta area and endangered mussels in Florida. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Riley wrote. “In reality the action that Georgia seeks will have dire consequences on people and their livelihoods downstream in Alabama.

“Georgia has overstated the severity of the crisis in the Atlanta region,” he added.

Meanwhile, in Florida, federal biologists are trying to figure what it would take to keep mussels alive. The creatures die if they are exposed for too long when the river level drops, but they also can die if they’re in water that is flowing too fast, he said.

The scientists are trying to figure out just where the endangered and threatened species live, MacKenzie said.

“It’s not like looking in an aquarium and counting fish,” he said. “Literally it can be feeling around with your hands. It’s a time-consuming, laborious process.”

Staff writer Stacy Shelton contributed to this article