Among Other Ideas, Perdue Seeks More Reservoirs to Capture Storm Water

In addition to appealing the judge's ruling, resuming negotiations with Alabama and Florida and trying to get Congress involved in ending the water wars Governor, Perdue is pushing for more storm water reservoirs along smaller North Georgia creeks and disused quarries.

This marks the beginning of a longer term plan to ensure water continues to flow to Atlanta and all of the area that depends on the Lake Lanier basin.

Whether part of his negotiation strategy or part his actual plan, Perdue has suggested tapping the Chattahoochee either north or south of Lanier and beyond federal jurisdiction. He also revisited the controversial idea of utilizing the Tennessee River in Northwest Georgia and opened the possibility of water transfers between Chattahoochee basin and the Flint and Savannah River basins.

Most of these ideas would be years away even with a go-ahead but they serve to show the importance of this issue to a growing Atlanta and Georgia as a whole.

Perdue may also be seeking a nationally recognized politician to broker water deals with Georgia, Alabama and Florida and names like Sam Nunn, Trent Lott, Tom Daschle and even Shirley Franklin are being bandied about.

U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson ruled July 17 that metro Atlanta has been illegally tapping Lake Lanier for decades, stating hydropower, navigation and flood control as the only intended purposes for its creation and gave Georgia, Alabama and Florida three years end their litigation. If no agreement is made by then Atlanta will revert to mid-1970's water withdrawal levels.