1970s
A second dam below Lake Lanier was proposed to provide more water for metro Atlanta —- but it was never built.
1980s
A network of regional reservoirs were planned for North Georgia —- but they never got off the drawing board.
1990s
The Corps of Engineers proposed releasing more water for metro Atlanta —- but downstream opposition stymied the plan.
The path to peril
1959: Competing demands
Lake Lanier opens for business under the management of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which over time uses the water and the dam for power generation, flood control, drinking water, etc. This enables Atlanta's phenomenal growth over coming decades but sets up competing demands that limit supplies in droughts.
1972-88: Dam discarded
The Corps of Engineers studies, recommends and finally discards the idea of building a second dam six miles downstream of Lanier to serve future drinking water needs. Sixteen years of planning comes to nothing.
1986: Reservoirs not built
Georgia proposes building a dozen or so regional reservoirs to "drought-proof" North Georgia. Environmentalists and other states object, and little progress is made. State funding is later set aside to build one regional reservoir, but it is never constructed.
1988: Reallocation
Instead of building a second dam, the corps backs a plan to reallocate millions of gallons a day from Lake Lanier for drinking, which the agency says would need congressional approval. That hasn't happened because of downstream opposition from Florida, Alabama and within Georgia.
1990: Water war begins
Alabama, later joined by Florida, launches the ongoing water war with Georgia, filing suit to block the reallocation at Lanier and raising concerns about water withdrawals from Lake Allatoona as well as Georgia's plans to build regional reservoirs. The three states agree to await the results of water studies, then begin years of negotiations trying to resolve their differences; the negotiations —- and litigation —- continue today.
1992: Plumbing
Georgia requires use of lower-flow plumbing fixtures in new homes, but more than 1 million older homes in the Atlanta area may still have water-wasting fixtures.
1998: Environmental concerns
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designates the fat three-ridge mussel, which lives downstream in Florida, as endangered. Along with protective designations for another mussel and a type of sturgeon, it eventually creates another legal demand on Lanier's water. Environmental concerns dog other possible water solutions, including regional reservoirs.
2002: Rain
A deep drought from 1998 to 2002 focuses government attention on water needs, as droughts did in 1980-82 and 1985-1989. When rains return, the immediacy of the issue and attention to costly solutions fade.
2003: Rosy assumptions
Planners determine metro Atlanta will have water through at least 2030 if reallocation, more aggressive conservation and a handful of planned local reservoirs happen. But the planners don't anticipate droughts worse than past ones. Later that year, facing a budget crunch, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division eliminates the job of its regional reservoir coordinator.
2004-07: More planning
Georgia EPD takes three years to produce a statewide water management plan that critics consider a plan to do a plan. Officials request a water study that would cost more than $30 million, adding to millions of dollars the state has spent over two decades studying water supplies.
Meanwhile, reallocation of Lanier's water remains unresolved. Legislators do not approve a top conservation recommendation: requiring low-flow fixtures when older homes are resold. Alabama sues to block one of the biggest proposed reservoirs in metro Atlanta, just as it nears completion.
Even now, when we were told that there was less than 100 days of water left, the big plan by our state government is: it's going to rain, we know it.
It is government in a nutshell: create a problem, watch it grow and hope you retire before it explodes in your face. If it does explode in your face blame it on the previous administration. We have become a nation of pathetic, self-serving bureaucrats and it doesn't matter what the party affiliation is.
To a lot of politicians, long term planning smacks of socialism. Thus restraining population growth and suburban sprawl is contrary to American values.
I quit reading the article when it turned into a hit piece on a GOP governor.