Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

A different kind of water talk

If the politicians can’t or won’t get anything done, maybe somebody else can.

That seems to be the operative, if not quite so bluntly stated, philosophy of a new participant in the interstate water discussions, an organization called the ACF Stakeholders.

The “ACF” of course stands for Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint, the water basin at the heart of a three-state dispute over riparian rights that has gone on in some form for decades, and in political and legal earnest for the last 18 years.

It is a basin that includes Lake Lanier, the source of water — at least for now — of the massive and ever-sprawling metro Atlanta area. It includes the downstream communities of LaGrange and West Point and Columbus which, though in Georgia, have sometimes found themselves at odds with the state’s leadership over water allocation priorities. It includes the Flint, whose users pay anxious attention to the disputes over the Chattahoochee and the proposals for inter-basin water transfers and new reservoirs. And of course it includes large chunks of Alabama and Florida, where individuals, industries and local water systems depend on an adequate water supply.

A small, informal group of people interested in the three rivers first met a little more than a year ago. Their premise, according to the organization’s Web site, www.afcstakeholders.org, was that “the political and legal systems had failed to find a solution … Maybe it was time for the stakeholders to have a voice in the process” and that any sustainable solution “must be consensus based.”

A year later, this past August, ACF Stakeholders incorporated, organized a steering committee and drafted a charter and bylaws. Its official motto is “Working together to share a common resource.” Its interim president is Wilton Rooks of the Atlanta area and a former member of the Lake Lanier Association; interim treasurer and member of the Executive Committee is Billy Turner, former president of Columbus Water Works.

The purpose of the organization, Turner recently said in an interview, is “to bring together the most knowledgeable, diverse group representing all water interests in the ACF watersheds.” Stakeholder organizations and individuals from throughout the ACF basin sign on as members through the Web site.

The group’s governing board will be selected by representatives from the Upper Chattahoochee, Middle/Lower Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola sub-basins, and will hold its inaugural meeting Dec. 10 in Albany.

So while the governors negotiate and the courts deliberate, People with different skill sets and perspectives on the river will be trying to work it out separately. It’s in everybody’s interest that they succeed.

— Dusty Nix, for the editorial board