High and Dry

Rome water withdrawals

Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama need about a foot of rain to pull out of a historic drought, but the chances of getting it are slim.

Some heavy rains could come during the last half of October, according to the National Weather Service seasonal assessment released Thursday.

But effects from the ongoing La Nina -- a cyclical pressure system chilling the ocean surface in the equatorial Pacific --is expected to lead to below-normal rainfall from November through December.

Assistant State Climatologist Pam Knox said Northwest Georgia is in the throes of a D4, exceptional, drought.

"For many locations, this is the worst it has been since records were started over the last 60 to 80 years," she said.

The northern third of the state has been under Level IV water-use restrictions since Sept. 28 and the metro Atlanta area is down to about 90 day's worth of stored water.

Federal and state officials are tussling over how much of that water will be sent to downstream users -- a scenario Floyd County Commissioner Jerry Jennings said highlights the need for planning.

"Just the fight over releases from Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona says nobody had a plan for circumstances like this," he said. "And the time to do the planning is not when you're in a crisis."

Jennings heads the Northwest Georgia Regional Water Resources Partnership, a 15-county coalition dedicated to protecting and enhancing the region's water sources.

A 2005 study by the organization indicates the population will hit 2.6 million by 2050, up from about 800,000 now.

"The water's got to come from somewhere," Jennings said.

The partnership is currently doing a complete assessment of the water quantity and quality in the Coosa River basin. The report will update old information and set a base line for future planning.

Jennings said consultants will likely wait until the spring to start the final piece, a 12- to 18-month biological analysis, or drought conditions will skew the data.

Government officials in the 15-county region also discussed establishing a water authority during a September retreat. An authority would have the legal standing to pursue water improvement projects, including regional reservoirs.

"For us, the water authority route is the logical next step," Jennings said. "No one county is going to be able to build a reservoir the size that's needed."

The Partnership's goal is to complete and implement a water management plan for the 15-county region.

The area covers the Coosa Valley Regional Development Center, consisting of Floyd, Gordon, Polk, Walker, Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Haralson and Paulding counties, and the North Georgia Regional Development Center counties of Fannin, Gilmer, Murray, Pickens and Whitfield.

Rome and Floyd County

The city of Rome could supply water to Floyd County's customers in a pinch, even if water releases from Carters Lake and Lake Allatoona remain at their current, restricted levels.

"We'll have water," said Leigh Ross, director of the Rome Water and Sewer Department.

While the city and county water systems are linked at nine points, most of them are unused and some modifications would be necessary at those sites. Staffers are drawing up plans, even though it's unlikely the county system will run dry.

"We're hoping that would never happen, but my thought is 'plan for the worst,'" Jennings said.

Rome pulls its water primarily from the Oostanaula River, which is fed by releases from Carters Lake on Gilmer County. The Etowah River, which flows from Lake Allatoona in Bartow County, meets the Oostanaula in the heart of the city.

"We're getting about 70 percent of our flow from Carters Lake," Ross said. "But if the Etowah is flowing higher, it has a sort of damming effect where the rivers come together. It builds the level up."

In response to the drought, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently cut the water release from Lake Allatoona to 500 cubic feet per second from 750 cubic feet per second.

The Carters Lake release also has dropped, to 240 cubic feet per second from 450 feet per second.

Five days later, Rome officials installed a mid-river pump to usher more water into the Ridge Ferry Park pumphouse.

"We still have 400 million gallons of water flowing past the city each day," Ross said.

The city pumps an average of 270 million gallons of water a month from the river, but is permitted to withdraw twice that amount.

Usage jumped to more than 326 million gallons in September compared to 251 million gallons in April, Ross said, but the increase is partly because Floyd County is buying more water from the city.

Steve Hulsey, utilities administrator for the county, said he's been tapping connections to Rome's system for about a million gallons a day.

That's roughly the same amount as Mohawk Industries was buying from the city before it closed local operations early this year -- and mirrors the decrease in production from Floyd County's wells.

"I'm taking this drought seriously," Hulsey said. "We need to recharge the water table and get our customers' priorities in order."

The county's main water source is the Old Mill Spring, which runs south of Cave Spring. Hulsey said production from the spring dropped 500,000 gallons a day due to the drought.

The Kingston Road well, which draws from the Knox Group Aquifers, is dropping more slowly.

"The aquifer runs to Bartow County, and the lake level helps," he said. "But sometimes we're pumping out more than it can recharge."

Other sources include the new Brighton Plant at the former Galey & Lord mill, which draws from Woodward Creek, and the city of Adairsville.

Hulsey said each county customer used an average of 80 gallons of water a day in August, compared with 50 gallons per person earlier in the year.

The city of Cave Spring pulls its water from its namesake spring. It holds a permit to withdraw up to 1.3 million gallons a day.

Plant Operator Terry Sentell said the city doesn't have an instrument to measure the spring, but it appears to be unaffected by the drought.

"We're still pumping about 560,000 gallons a day," he said.

The city provides water service within the city limits as well as to parts of Floyd and Cherokee County, Ala.

By Diane Wagner, Rome News-Tribune