Federal Court Nullifies Agreement on Metro Water Supply

Tuesday, February 5, a federal appellate court threw out a 2003 agreement between Georgia and the Corps of Engineers that would have allowed close to 25% of Lake Lanier’s storage—previously allocated for hydropower—to be used for future metro Atlanta water supply.

When the lake’s construction was authorized by Congress in the late 1940s, the original project purposes were hydropower, navigation and flood control. While the Corps has discretionary authority to allow a portion of the lake to be used for water supply, the court ruled this week that the 2003 agreement represents a major operational change and requires Congressional approval.

UCR has long believed that only Congress could re-authorize the use of Lake Lanier for water supply and believes this decision will level the playing field between all water users throughout the basin. For more information, click here to read a recent AJC article on the ruling.

Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival, April 2-3!

Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Georgia River Network and Georgia ForestWatch are pleased to host our first Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival April 2-3 at the TARA Theater. To purchase tickets online, click here.

Since 2003, the Wild and Scenic Film Festival has grown to receive local, regional, and national applause for celebrating the spirit of environmental activism and has become the largest traveling festival of its kind in North America. The best of these award-winning environmental films will be shown in a total four-hour program - presented April 2 and on April 3, from 7pm to 9pm each night.

Tickets are $10 per person, per night (buy now!) Although tickets will be sold at the door, due to limited seating we strongly suggest purchasing in advance to ensure admission. All advance purchased tickets will be entered into a special prize drawing. If you or your organization would be interested in sponsoring this or any other UCR event, please contact Tammy Morrissey at tmorrissey@ucriverkeeper.org or (404) 352-9828 ext. 12.

Save Energy While You Surf!

Do you Google? If so, it’s time to Blackle! Blackle is similar to Google but has a black screen. The creators of Blackle cite research stating if Google had a black screen, taking into account the huge number of times this search engine is used, 750 megawatt-hours of energy per year would be saved. Blackle is a Google Custom Search partner but does not have all the functions you would find on the Google site since it is not owned by Google.

Bookmark Blackle today and pass it along: www.blackle.com – remember, saving energy saves water!! For more information see this article in Wikipedia.