Water Coalition Urges Meaningful Water Conservation
From a joint press release by the Coosa River Basin Initiative and the Georgia Water Coalition:
As the Georgia Environmental Protection Division convenes the Chattahoochee Water Summit and north Georgia’s rivers and lakes continue to plummet to record low levels, the Georgia Water Coalition (GWC) urged local and regional leaders in Atlanta to actively embrace additional conservation measures. Hundreds of millions of gallons of water are lost every day in the 16-county metro region through system leaks, old-fashioned plumbing, the use of septic systems and other inefficient practices.
“There are more and better ways to conserve water than taking shorter showers and banning outdoor water use,” said Joe Cook, director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative and a member of the GWC.
Every single day in metro Atlanta, 18 percent of the water that is withdrawn from area streams is leaked into the ground, according to the Metro North Georgia Water Planning District (District). That’s 120 million gallons per day of water that is treated and then wasted.
The American Water Works Association says that an efficiently run water system should leak no more than 10 percent of the water it distributes. If the metro Atlanta cities and counties repair their leaks to meet this industry standard, 55 million gallons of water will be saved each day. This is close to the amount of water that the District plans to move from the Etowah River to the Chattahoochee through an interbasin transfer in the coming decades. Today, an average of 25 MGD is removed from the Etowah and Lake Allatoona and not returned via this transfer, contributing to reduced lake levels and reduced flows to downstream communities.
While the District water conservation plan approved in 2003 urges local governments to inventory and repair leaks, it does not include any deadlines, measurable benchmarks or real consequences for failing to reduce this significant waste of water.
Another effective way to conserve water is to install low-flow plumbing fixtures, a requirement for new development since 1993. However, one million metro Atlanta homes are still using wasteful, old-fashioned plumbing, according to the District.
Sally Bethea, director of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, pointed out, “Despite strong public support, the powerful growth industry stopped common sense legislation that would have required plumbing retrofits on the re-sale of homes, as well as all other legislative efforts to mandate efficiency.”
Water is also wasted though septic systems. According to the District, more than half of the new developments in suburban counties are being built using septic systems, yet District water plans do not require any limitations on their use or any phasing out of these wastewater treatment systems. In Hall County, more than 75 percent of the new development is being constructed on septic.
April Ingle, director of Georgia River Network, said, “All the outdoor watering restrictions and dire pronouncements from state officials are going to have little effect, unless the District and local leaders get serious about ending their waste of water. Even as the metro region is increasingly touted as the “growth engine” of Georgia’s economy, that motor runs on water more than any other resource and the fuel supply is low and dropping.”
