Metropolitan regions that want economic growth will have to better plan for water supply expansion and water conservation, to help handle the population influxes linked to new economic activity.

By 2025, fast-growing metro Atlanta could be parched, unless serious regional planning begins now for developing future water supplies, and boosting water conservation, according to a 16-county North Georgia water planning agency. More from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (free reg. req.):

It's been two years since Georgia, Alabama and Florida ended rancorous high-level negotiations over how to divvy up the Chattahoochee River, metro Atlanta's primary water source. Since then, drenching rainfall has washed memories of the searing drought of 1998 to 2002 off the front page and out of the public's mind....But...as metro Atlanta's population doubles in the next 25 years, rising demand and a static supply would equal a serious water shortfall.

According to the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District's 2003 plans, the region would face a water deficit of 284 million gallons a day by 2030 without aggressive conservation measures and new lakes to store water. The potential shortfall is close to the amount used today by everyone in Gwinnett and Fulton counties and the city of Atlanta.

The option is to spend more than $60 billion over the next 30 years to pay for water and sewer improvements and ongoing maintenance, according to the district. But progress so far is hit or miss in the district, which comprises 16 counties and hundreds of communities.

Two reservoirs are under construction, and five more are in the works while other, more basic water-wise polices have hit stumbling blocks. Most local governments are reluctant to impose stormwater fees on property owners to pay for systems to handle urban runoff and reduce water pollution. And some have been unwilling to charge a sliding fee for water that penalizes wasters.

Last year, the real estate industry scuttled the district's No. 1 conservation measure, which was to require home sellers to update their plumbing fixtures to meet today's low-flow standards. All the talking and planning have so far yielded few long-lasting results.

But here's the worst part: Even with all the well-laid plans about how to maximize the water from our rivers and streams, no one knows how much can safely be taken out.

The watersheds contain only so much water that can be used for drinking, cooking, flushing, showering and sprinkling lawns. The rest must stay in the rivers to keep them and their aquatic species healthy. Site-specific, scientific research that includes monitoring stream flows and surveying aquatic species hasn't been done.

....The study of the water supply hasn't been done because it's so expensive, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars statewide, said Nap Caldwell, a senior water policy adviser with the state Environmental Protection Division who is working on Georgia's first statewide water management plan.

"We fumbled around for years not knowing what the right questions are," Caldwell said. Now that the scientists know what they need to do, "We have to figure out how we're going to pay for it."

The Central Puget Sound region (King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, including the cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue and Everett) faces a similar challenge. Despite ad hoc, negotiated-by-committee flows on several major rivers, a number of experts here pointedly note that no one really knows how much water needs to be left in stream for salmon, and how much can be safely taken out for residential, commercial and industrial use. Future water supply expansion to meet Central Puget Sound's projected population growth of more than 60 percent by 2050 will depend not only on continuing aggressive conservation messaging, but also on finding ways to define, store and transfer new water supplies drawn from excess winter river flows, our abundant rain, and quite possibly one day from Puget Sound itself, via desalinization. One long-standing method now drawing consideration on a broader scale - here and elsewhere - is water storage in high-capacity aquifers, or natural underground layers of water-bearing permeable rock, fractured rock, gravel, sand, silt, or clay.

Like the Atlanta and Seattle regions, much of Florida is grappling with how to secure adequate water for future population and economic growth. The Orlando Business Journal reported yesterday that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has signed into law bills updating the state's growth management policies, including measures to link future growth to adequate water supply; and encourage existing regional water planning bodies to develop alternative supply sources such desalinated sea water and reclamation of treated wastewater for irrigation and industrial uses.

As part of the approved package, a $100 million annual trust fund ($200 million in the first year) has been created to fund water quality protection and water resource development projects. Often at odds, environmental, business and local government interests joined together in support of Florida's new water legislation. Naturally, water districts around the state and taxpayers will have to pony up too, for improving the water supply and infrastructure, but regional planning can control costs.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at June 29, 2005 11:02 AM

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