RiverCHAT A Quarterly Publication of Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (UCR) Spring 2008 POWER INDUSTRY AND RIVER FLOWS ENDANGERED SPECIES, A CONVENIENT SCAPEGOAT? t the height of north Georgia's water crisis last fall, members of the state's Congressional Delegation introduced legislation that they said A would alleviate north Georgia's shortages by allowing states with droughts to get temporary waivers from the federal Endangered Species Act. These waivers would be available in river basins managed by the fed- eral government. In the case of the Chattahoochee/Apalachicola Basin, the federal manage- ment agency is the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps)---operator of four major dams that have largely controlled the flow of water in the basin from north Georgia to Florida for the past fifty years. The Georgia Delegation claimed that Atlanta’s diminishing water supply was being threatened by large amounts of water that were being sent downstream to protect mussels and sturgeon in Florida's Apalachicola River. One House Member said that the health and livelihood of millions of human beings should not be outweighed by endangered mussels. Another Photo Credit: Joe Cook said: "…we're united in this crisis to put our people before sturgeon and Farley Nuclear Plant on the Chattahoochee in southeast Alabama. mussels." Plant Scholz, a coal-fired power plant on the Apalachicola below Woodruff The actual history of the Corps' management of its dams reveals goals Dam that was constructed at the same time, was designed to be opera- unrelated to endangered species and that history shows the significant role tional at flows of 5,000 cfs or above. For the next fifty years, the river flow of the electric power industry in the demand for water downstream of rarely dipped below this minimum because of the Corps' management--- metro Atlanta. even though the upstream federal dams were not authorized by Congress to support the generation of power at electric generating facilities. Four Federal Dams Seven months after the dedication of Woodruff Dam, Corps dignitaries Jim Woodruff Dam, the first federal dam built on the Chattahoochee, creat- gathered 350 miles upstream to dedicate Buford Dam and the creation of ed Lake Seminole on the Georgia-Florida border and was dedicated in Lake Lanier. Lake Walter F. George, 75 miles upstream of Lake Seminole March 1957. Corps engineers who designed the dam believed that the flow was also dedicated in 1957; Lake West Point below Atlanta was authorized in the river at the dam site had never been less than 5,000 cubic feet per by Congress in 1962 and completed in 1974. second (cfs) and adopted an operating plan using that target flow. See Power Plants, page 7 GEORGIA POWER ELIMINATES THERMAL DISCHARGE TO THE RIVER ight years ago, as part of the Metro Now, this water is circulated continuously Atlanta Chamber's Clean Water between the condensers and the cooling EInitiative, Georgia Power made a big towers in a closed loop, preventing the announcement and a commitment. The heating of the river water. The excess heat company said that by 2008 it would eliminate is dissipated to the atmosphere through the discharge of heated water to the evaporation from the towers and a small Chattahoochee from Plant McDonough, its portion of the circulating water is returned coal-fired facility located on the river in Cobb to the river at ambient temperature. County and downstream of several major wastewater outfalls. Water Quality Expected to Improve Making good on its promise, two cooling The elimination of heat dissipated to the towers were installed at the plant at a cost of river will help achieve instream water qual- $96 million and began operation in April. ity standards for temperature and dissolved According to Georgia Power, each unit draws oxygen, thereby enhancing the waste 137,000 gallons per minute of water through Photo Credit: Courtesy of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy assimilation capacity of the river. Georgia Power’s Plant McDonough in Atlanta its condensers to cool the steam that is used Prior to the operation of the cooling tow- to turn the turbines. Previously, this volume of condenser cooling water was ers, Plant McDonough withdrew an average of 344 million gallons per day drawn from the river, passed once through the condenser, and returned (MGD) from the Chattahoochee River. Georgia Power estimates that future immediately to the river at up to 20 degrees F warmer than the upstream withdrawals will average less than 20 MGD and return about half of that to temperature. the river. Staff Alexandra Adams REFLECTIONS Policy Director Sally Bethea 've been thinking lately about the streams and rivers where I rafted its crystal-clear waters on spring break. Executive Director and Riverkeeper that have flowed through my life and some even On a 10,000-mile road trip after college, my friends and I Ithrough my veins. encountered a sudden, bone-chilling snow storm while Christina Cooper rafting the Snake River in Wyoming, and we sat beside Administrative Assistant James River Although it was the in Virginia that sup- a river in Indiana on one of our last days on the trip, Bill Crawford plied water to the Richmond hospital where I was born, pondering what adventures lay ahead. Business Manager my first memory of water was the unnamed stream behind our house in Atlanta In the past twenty years, my time on and around rivers Mary O. Harrison where my family moved in the has increased---from the Nantahala in North Carolina, Communications and Marketing mid-1950s. the Darien River on Georgia's coast, and the Potomac Coordinator outside of D.C. where I tried (unsuccessfully) to maneu- Darcie Holcomb The sound of this small creek ver a whitewater kayak---to the Kenai River in Alaska, Headwaters Conservation Director lulled me to sleep every night the Rogue and Sandy Rivers in Oregon, and the through my childhood and Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia where I watched Mary Manson teenage years, until I left for col- the tidal bore race upriver from the Bay of Fundy. Photo credit: Betq Honarvar/ Receptionist lege. Not knowing much about Atlanta Journal Constitution Tammy Morrissey rivers or watersheds back then, I always wondered Visiting my sons when they worked summer jobs in Events and Outreach Director where the stream went after it left our neighborhood. national parks, I saw the upper reaches of the Now I know its course---into Nancy Creek, then Yellowstone River and the magnificent falls in the Lynn Naylor Peachtree Creek and the Chattahoochee River, ulti- Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, as well as the jade- Development Director mately flowing hundreds of miles to help sustain colored Merced River in California as it plunged over Elizabeth Nicholas Apalachicola Bay in Florida. Nevada and Vernal falls, flowing through Yosemite. General Counsel On family vacations, it was the alligator-filled Sanibel As these rivers of my life come flooding back to me, I Harlan Trammell River on the island off the west coast of Florida where realize how many of my most important memories have Boat Captain we spent weeks every year. In North Carolina during a river, a stream, the marsh or the sea flowing through Jason Ulseth college, the river I remember is the Haw near Chapel them. Watershed Protection Specialist Hill and a chilly Valentine's Day picnic on its banks, as well as the Ichetucknee River in north central Florida Board of Directors Sonny Cohen Denise Donahue Dionne Driscoll NEW MEMBER OF UCR'S DEVELOPMENT TEAM Mike Eckert ynn Naylor joined UCR's been invited to become part of Gary Gaines development team in April the UCR staff team. Over the last Billy Hall Las our new development decade or so, I have become director. With more than 25 years quite alarmed at the growth in Richard Jacobson of experience in helping organiza- north Georgia and its impact on Ben Jordan tions achieve significant growth, in the environment, especially the Dave Kirkpatraick terms of funds raised as well as Chattahoochee River, so I am Kay Lee volunteers involved, she brings thrilled to be part of the premier Jim McCaffrey important skills to our work. Lynn organization that is fighting for the Elena Mola was the executive director of the health and the well-being of my Steve O’Day Georgia Firefighters Burn river." Foundation for 13 years; more J. Rutherford Seydel II, Chair recently, she served as the chief DJ Strickland Sweet, our former David Shaffer development officer for the development director, moved National Kidney Foundation of back to her home in Wyoming Georgia. Lynn Naylor after getting married and to take a Our mission is to advocate job as the director of the Fremont and secure the protection Lynn and her husband have a special interest in the County Fair in Riverton. We thank her for many important and stewardship of the Chattahoochee's headwaters, as they own a condo in new initiatives at UCR, as well as her energy and creativity Chattahoochee River, its White County near Helen. She says: "I am honored to have that helped raise our profile in the community. tributaries and watershed. ATLANTA OFFICE 3 Puritan Mill UCR AND PARTNERS HOST ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL 916 Joseph Lowery Blvd. Atlanta, GA 30318 ith hundreds people in attendance, Upper Thanks to Film Festival sponsors: Patagonia, Whole 404-352-9828 Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Georgia River Foods Market, John A. Williams, REI, SweetWater WNetwork, and Georgia ForestWatch Brewing Company, Cadmus Construction - Building a GAINESVILLE OFFICE hosted Patagonia's Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Better Environment, Weatherford Place - A Solar 615 F Oak Street Festival Tour at the Tara Theater in Atlanta in April.