Rome stakes water claim The Water Council’s town hall-style meeting at The Forum draws a full house of concerned citizens. 10/19/07 By Diane Wagner, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer Respond to this story Email this story to a friend Tom Farmer, board president of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, talks Thursday during a water meeting at The Forum. (Ryan Smith / Rome News-Tribune) ... ...Nearly 300 people packing The Forum in Rome sent a clear message Thursday: The proposed statewide water management plan must serve the entire state. “The projection of the water needs for the Atlanta area should not take priority over the potential in other North Georgia communities,” Rome City Manager John Bennett said. Representatives from The Water Council hosted a town hall-style meeting to collect comments about the second draft of a document that’s been in the making for about two years. Comments received by Oct. 31 will be folded into a third draft — scheduled for another round of public hearings in November. The Water Council is expected to adopt a final version Dec. 21 and present the plan to the Georgia General Assembly in January. Click to read or leave comments on the state water plan. Click here to read a list of local concerns prepared by Rome City Manager John Bennett. The Rome meeting drew residents and business owners, environmentalists and farmers from as far away as Dalton, Acworth and the Weiss Lake area of Alabama. Speaker after speaker called for limits on interbasin water transfers and a requirement that the used water be returned to its basin of origin. Joe Cook, executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, said that, without restrictions, the metro area will be pumping 60 million gallons of water a day from the Etowah River in 2030 and flushing 60 percent of it down the Chattahoochee River. “That’s a tremendous consumptive loss for the Etowah, and it is simply not acceptable,” he said, sparking cheers from the crowd. A greater emphasis on conservation was another recurring theme. Dr. Tom Farmer of Rome said the water-poor metro area loses millions of gallons through leaking pipes and a refusal to require the installation of low-flow water fixtures when an old house or building is sold. “Conservation rules need to apply to all of us,” he said. “Metro Atlanta can’t continue to grow irresponsibly at the ecological and economic expense of the Coosa River basin.” Ron Papaleoni, general manager of the Lake Allatoona Preservation Society, said the plan also needs more specific steps for increasing water supplies in the future. “We’re not going to be able to conserve our way out of this drought; … we’re going to have to look at other measures,” he said. Suggestions ranged from promoting regional reservoirs and aquifer storage to desalinization of the Atlantic Ocean and water transfers from the Tennessee River. “If we’re going to grow at half the rate predicted, we’ve got to do more than we are doing,” said Don Cope, president and CEO of Dalton Utilities. “There needs to be a significant increase in the level of funding if we’re going to have a viable plan.” The Water Council will be accepting comments through Oct. 31 on its Web site.     No Related links found

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