In 2004 the state of Georgia adopted a water planning system, and in 2008 adopted a water plan, with regional councils appointed in 2009 by the governor, lieutenant governor, and Speaker of the House. While I wonder why this organizational setup inserted a regional layer of government that is unaccountable to the people in the region, it’s good somebody is doing some water planning.

In the event “gaps” between available water and future (or current) demands are identified, the Council will determine which water and land use management practices should be employed to ensure there is sufficient water and assimilative capacity to meet future needs. EPD will use computer models to test the ability of the recommended practices to close any identified “gaps.”

If you remember Atlanta running out of water a few years ago and parts of the state legislature trying to rewrite history to get water from Tennessee, it would be good to have south Georgia’s aquifer water not being sucked up by Atlanta like Los Angeles absorbs water from hundreds of miles around.

After the Regional Plan is adopted, all EPD permits and Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) grants and loans for water projects will be guided by the Plan.

This would also be relevant to, for example, biomass projects.

The public comment period foor the plan has already expired. The next meeting of the council is this Thursday, September 2, at Okefenokee Technical College in Waycross. The agenda seems to indicate there’s still some room for input.

Here are the appointees for the Suwannee-Satilla Regional Water Planning Council:

Name	City	County
Linda Tanner	Pearson	Atkinson
Eugene Dyal	Alma	Bacon
Michael E. Edgy	Waynesville	Brantley
Doyle Weltzbarker	Quitman	Brooks
Alva Joseph Hopkins	Folkston	Charlton
Miles A. Stone	Fargo	Clinch
Carroll Coarsey	Brookfield	Tift
Donald H. McCallum	Wray	Irwin
Darvin Eason	Lenox	Cook
Scott Downing	Fitzgerald	Ben Hill
Joe Lewis	Tifton	Tift
Jim Hedges	Ashburn	Turner
James R. Willis	Waycross	Ware
Hanson Carter	Nashville	Berrien
Gordon Rogers	Waynesville	Brantley
Grady Thompson	Tifton	Tift
R.R. Rusty McCall	Valdosta	Lowndes
William L. Brim	Tifton	Tift
Dan Raines	Ashburn	Turner
Earl Brice	Douglas	Coffee
Greg Evans	Douglas	Coffee
Jackie Wilson	Douglas	Coffee
Wesley Langdale	Valdosta	Lowndes
Ben Copeland	Lakeland	Lanier
Scotty Raines	Sycamore	Turner
Alternate Frank Sisk	Blackshear	Pierce
Alternate Don Johnson	Nicholls	Coffee
Alternate Joseph Boyett	Waycross	Ware
Ex-Officio	Rep. Jay Shaw
Ex-Officio	Sen. Greg Goggins

That’s an interesting list.

-jsq

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