For decades, Atlanta and North Georgia have been pulling water from Lake Lanier for drinking supplies, but now there's a formal contract in place with the federal government that allows access to the water for that purpose.
According to a recent report in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the State of Georgia allows Gwinnett and Forsyth counties, as well as the cities of Buford, Gainesville and Cumming, to withdraw water from Lanier specifically for drinking supplies. The contract is valid as long as the lake exists.
While the water in Lake Lanier has certainly been used for drinking water supply over the decades, there's been no formal agreement to allow for such withdrawals.
"It resolves a longstanding problem of water withdrawals,” said Cesar Yabor, the chief of public affairs for the USACE Mobile District, in comments to the AJC.
The contract, according to the AJC, requires the state to pay more than $74 million over 30 years for rights to drinking water. Georgia will have rights to 242 million gallons of water per day when the lake is full. Full pool is 1071.
It is unclear if the contract will have any bearing on a lawsuit filed against Georgia by the state of Florida. That lawsuit, set to be heard again by the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 22, alleges Georgia uses too much water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin to the detriment of Florida's oyster industry. Lake Lanier is located at the northern end of the ACF Basin.
