Officials stop Tennessee River water sharing with Whitfield County until TVA finishes study

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Posted 4:42PM on Monday, January 28, 2002

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - A pending request to divert Tennessee River waters to a northwest Georgia community can proceed, but a state official said Monday that any other permits will be delayed for two years. G. Dodd Galbreath, director of policy at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, said suspending the permit process allows the Tennessee Valley Authority time to finish a "once in a lifetime type study" of the river. He said the study would include public hearings. Galbreath said suspending permit decisions does not affect Eastside Utility District's application to divert up to 5 million gallons a day to another river basin in Bradley County, Tenn., and Whitfield County, Ga. Galbreath said that permit would likely be issued within 60 days. "We do intend to issue it barring any unforeseen issues," he said. Don Cope, president of Dalton Utilities, which plans to start buying the water from Eastside by summer, said the permit "will allow us to provide quality water to areas of our county that don't have that right now." TVA estimates that since it built the Chickamauga Dam in 1940, at least 3 billion gallons of water a day flow through Chattanooga on the Tennessee River. Suspending permit approvals also does not affect the city of Cleveland's application to use about 100,000 gallons daily from the river, Galbreath said. He said Tennessee's water sharing law "gives us the authority to require a showing of information," such as the planned TVA study. Galbreath said the decision could affect some development plans. "I think North Georgia is in a pretty delicate situation," he said. The state is also restricting Eastside's permit. Tennessee officials decided to review Eastside's five-year permit after three years. If water flow drops enough, Eastside could be forced to stop providing Tennessee River water to Georgia. Rick Parrish, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the center wants to see a "comprehensive study of the impact of these withdrawals from the river, and we're hopeful that this study by TVA will provide that analysis." Dave Sligh, a spokesman for American Rivers, said he would have preferred delaying the Eastside permit also. "But if there is now going to be a really comprehensive and public study by TVA, then I could support this," he said. "There was just no harm that we could determine from taking 5 million gallons of water a day from a river with over 3 billion gallons of daily flow, especially since TVA determined that only 2 billion gallons of water a day was needed for adequate water quality," Galbreath said. "But we did try very hard to be responsive to the concerns that were voiced about this issue."