Legislature Shows Unprecedented Support for Fair and Equitable Sharing Of Georgia Water‏

While Georgia’s water wars wage on against Alabama and Florida, a new front has arisen within the state’s boundaries as legislators concerned about ensuring water for all Georgia communities introduced bills this week seeking to regulate interbasin transfers.

House Bill 1301, the River Basin Protection Act of 2010, sponsored by Representative Tom McCall, Representative Alan Powell and 64 other representatives, would establish a system for regulating interbasin water transfers of 100,000 gallons or more, without prohibiting them. The Senate’s version, SB 462, is sponsored by Senator Jim Butterworth and Senator Preston Smith and 22 other senators.

The growing support for regulation of interbasin transfers has been fueled by recent proposals to pipe water to Metro Atlanta from as far away as Lake Burton in Rabun County and wells in South Georgia.

“Roughly half the Senate signed on,” said Senator Smith who represents portions of North Georgia impacted by a water transfer from the Coosa River Basin into to Metro Atlanta out of the Coosa River Basin. “It’s increasingly important as Atlanta’s need grows....we want to help solve that problem, but we want to do it in a way that protects the Coosa and other basins.”

Support for the measures is also growing among citizens, local chambers of commerce and river protection groups. More than 2,000 people have signed an online petition urging Governor Perdue and the General Assembly to adopt the legislation. The petition was organized by the Georgia Water Coalition, a consortium of more than 170 groups working to protect the state’s rivers. The supporters come from more than 200 communities across the state. The petition can be viewed at www.nowatergrabs.com

Supporters of the bill call the state’s existing laws regulating interbasin transfers weak. Under current law, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), which issues water withdrawal permits from rivers, need only issue a press release seven days before approving a permit involving an interbasin transfer.

The River Basin Protection Act keeps the existing prohibition on water transfers into the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District and creates a list of criteria for EPD to consider in evaluating whether to issue a permit for an interbasin transfer. These criteria are similar to the criteria found in the statewide water plan for donor and receiving river basins. Both Tennessee and South Carolina have similar state laws regarding interbasin transfers.

The Act also would codify the concept of a safe yield, which is used by engineers to determine the amount of water available for withdrawal without impairing the biological, chemical or physical integrity of the water source. The bill also expands the public notice requirements, and exempts agricultural land, mining processes and distribution of products containing water from the need to obtain an interbasin transfer permit.

Supporters include locally elected officials and planners working to develop regional water plans.

“Interbasin transfers fundamentally and irreversibly alter the natural flows in our rivers and streams and can harm the long-term prosperity and quality of life of the basin of origin,” said Ron Cross, a Columbia County Commissioner and chair of the Savannah-Upper Ogeechee Regional Water Council.

Water planners in Northwest Georgia and Southwest Georgia have also expressed opposition to interbasin transfers.

“The state of Georgia should be encouraging growth and economic development in areas that have water resources to sustain such growth,” said Richard Royal, a former state representative from Camilla and chair of the Lower Flint-Ochlocknee Regional Water Council. “The state should share the development opportunities with these regions and not entertain proposals to transfer water from one region to another especially when other regions have not exercised good water stewardship.”

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page
Follow us on Twitter: @GAFrontPage

Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home will hold Veterans Day Ceremony

The Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home will hold its annual Veterans Day ceremony at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11 in the courtyard. Col. John K. Dewey, the Training and Doctrine Command capability manager for tactical radios at Fort Gordon, will be the guest speaker and Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver will make opening remarks.

The ceremony, which is open to the public, will also feature Fort Gordon’s U.S. Army Signal Corps Band and Post Ceremonial Detachment Color Guard as well as the Butler High School Drill Team.

The Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home, operated through an interagency agreement between the Medical College of Georgia and the Georgia Department of Veterans Service, is located at 1101 15th St. For more information, call Karen Yonce at Georgia War at 706-721-2531.

By Jennifer Hilliard
Medical College of Georgia

-----
www.fayettefrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Georgia Front Page

Military News & Updates

Army General Cites Challenging Recruiting Environment
The Army is now exceeding its recruiting requirements, but that force may contain more soldiers who needed waivers to sign up in the years ahead, a senior U.S. military officer said here today...

Rebuilding Continues in Iraq Despite Setbacks
Coalition construction worth about $2.5 billion is under way in Iraq, despite attacks that have injured workers and damaged buildings, development delays caused by land-deed disputes, and low-level corruption...

Chairman Emphasizes Leadership as Fix to Air Force Problems
Good leadership at all levels will fix what ails the Air Force, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here yesterday (6/18/08)...

Defense Department Program Informs Overseas Voters
A Defense Department program is working to ensure overseas government employees, civilian contractors, servicemembers and their spouses have all the information they need to make their vote count...

Midwestern Guardsmen Respond to Rising Flood Waters
Thousands of National Guard troops in the Midwest have moved into high gear reinforcing levees, conducting security patrols, and delivering food, water and relief supplies as record-breaking floods surged through the heartland...

Electrical Work Keeps Potable Water Flowing to Baghdad
The Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division is working to ensure Baghdad's water supply with nonstop operations for the Karkh Water Treatment Plant near Taji, northwest of...

Chambliss, Isakson Urge Democratic Leader to Strip Agricultural Worker Provisions from Emergency War Supplemental Bill

U.S. Senators Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., today, along with eight other Republican senators, sent a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., urging the removal of language that would grant legal status to over 1 million illegal agriculture workers and their families in the emergency war supplemental spending bill.

“A bill to provide funding for our servicemen and women should not be bogged down by a debate over immigration policy,” said Chambliss. “I strongly disagree that this amendment would serve to provide stability in the agricultural industry and would in fact harm U.S. farmers and ranchers and U.S. workers. Nobody is more interested in the well-being of American agriculture than me, and this proposal is simply the wrong policy at the wrong time.”

“There’s no greater domestic issue in this country than illegal immigration, and the American people will not stand for this attempt to grant amnesty on a bill designed to give our soldiers the resources they need in the War on Terror,” Isakson said. “The war supplemental is not only the wrong vehicle to deal with this issue but I firmly believe this is absolutely the wrong approach in regards to agricultural workers.”

On May 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment to the emergency war supplemental spending bill that would give a five-year visa to 1.35 million workers plus their spouses and dependent children to live and work in the United States. For almost all legal purposes, the amendment requires that the illegal aliens who qualify for the proposed visa be treated as lawful permanent residents. Illegal aliens would qualify for the proposed five-year visa by proving they have performed agricultural employment for 863 hours or 150 work days or earned $7,000 from agricultural employment over the course of a four-year period. Once granted the proposed five-year visa, the illegal aliens would be authorized to work in any job other than agriculture-related jobs for the rest of the year and would be treated as U.S. workers for hiring purposes.

Adding the amendment to the appropriations bill also violates Senate rules because it legislates on an appropriations bill. As such, it will be subject to a point of order on the floor and 60 votes will be needed to keep this language in the bill. Chambliss and Isakson strongly oppose the amendment and will vote against it.

The text of the letter to Senator Reid is below. The letter was also signed by Senators Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, David Vitter, R-Louisiana, Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, Elizabeth Dole, R-North Carolina, and Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky.

May 20, 2008

The Honorable Harry Reid
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington D.C. 20510

Dear Majority Leader Reid:

We write to express disappointment that the Senate Appropriations Committee chose to include in the War Supplemental more than 100 pages of immigration language that would grant legal status to more than one million illegal alien agriculture workers and their families. We urge you to remove these controversial provisions from the bill so we can enact essential funding for our troops without delay. If these provisions remain in the bill, you can expect a vigorous debate on immigration policy.