THIRSTY CITY
THIRSTY
CITY
Politics, Greed, and the Making of Atlantas Water Crisis
SKYE BORDEN
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
2014 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
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Production by Ryan Morris
Marketing by Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Borden, Skye, 1984-
Thirsty city : politics, greed, and the making of Atlantas water crisis / Skye Borden.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5279-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Water supplyManagementGeorgiaAtlanta. 2. Water consumptionGeorgiaAtlanta. 3. Water resources developmentGeorgiaAtlanta. 4. Atlanta (Ga.)Economic conditions. 5. Atlanta (Ga.)Politics and government. 6. Atlanta (Ga.)Environmental conditions. I. Title.
TD225.A82B67 2014
363.6'109758231dc23
2013038325
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to Alan Panebaker, who loved the water.CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T his book would not have been possible without the help of so many people. First and foremost, thank you to my husband, James Walter, for loving, supporting, and encouraging me throughout law school and beyond it. And thank you to my wonderfully talented mother, for her kind advice and keen editing eye, and to the rest of my family for believing in me.
I would never have written this book, or even become interested in water law, if it werent for the mentorship and teaching of Professor John Echeverria. Thank you, John, for sharing your knowledge with me and for slogging through the first rough drafts of this book. Id also like to thank the long line of inspiring teachers who led me to find my academic passion, particularly Gene Johnson, Cheryl McKiearnan, and Jon Isham.
Thank you to the librarians at Vermont Law School, especially Christine Ryan and Michelle LaRose, for remaining patient despite my constant interlibrary loan requests and legal research questions. Thank you, as well, to the Auburn University in Montgomery Special Collections Department, the Emory University library staff, and the staff at the Atlanta History Center for curating the historical resources that assisted my research.
Finally, thank you to my editor Michael Rinella, his assistant Rafael Chaiken, Senior Production Editor Ryan Morris, copyeditor Dana Foote, and everyone else at State University of New York Press for their willingness to work with an unpublished author, their interest in the book, and their guidance throughout the entire publishing process.
PROLOGUE
I n its most narrow sense, this book tells the story of Atlantas water supply, but in many ways it also tells the story of every major citys water supply. Some exceptional circumstances do exist in Atlantas history, of course. Not many American cities have ever been burned to the ground by enemy troops, and very few urban areas have experienced as much racial tension, suburban sprawl, or rapid growth as the Atlanta metro region. Yet, despite these outlying events, so many of Atlantas experiences are reflective of trends shared among the majority of our nations largest urban centers.
At every major water law epoch since the citys inception, Atlanta has contributed in some fundamental way to the nations dialogue. After the Civil War, when America engaged in a cleanliness campaign to sanitize urban areas, Atlantas blighted slums registered some of the highest mortality rates in the nation. During the New Deal, when the federal government created programs aimed at bringing running water to all American citizens, two Atlanta neighborhoods became the first test sites for Americas slum clearance program. As America waded into the twentieth centurys big dam era, Atlanta moved to the front of the line to receive pork barrel spending. When industrial and municipal pollution threatened Americas waterways, legislators took a tour of Atlantas pollution along the Chattahoochee before writing the groundbreaking Clean Water Act. As the nation grew increasingly urbanized and suburbanized, Atlanta experienced the fastest growth in the world and suffered from one of the nations worst cases of suburban sprawl.
Unfortunately for Atlanta today, it continues to be at the epicenter of many of Americas current water woes. Like so many others in an era of resource scarcity, Atlanta is embroiled in a multistate water conflict. Alabama, Georgia, and Florida have been fighting over water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River basin for the past two decades with no end in sight. The legal battle impacts at least 60 percent of the citys water resources and it has brought uncertainty and scarcity to the regions water supply.
Like hundreds of other American cities, Atlanta also struggles with century-old water infrastructure. Its drinking water pipes are crumbling with age, and the citys outdated sewers constantly spew a cocktail of raw sewage and toxic pollutants into Atlantas rivers and streams. The city currently faces crippling federal fines and ballooning municipal expenditures as it attempts to upgrade its neglected water system.
To fix its infrastructure problem, Atlanta is spending billions of dollars that it can scarcely afford. In the upcoming years, it will probably spend at least a billion dollars more to construct a water supply sufficient for its growing population. For now, however, Atlanta remains perched on a tightrope between water scarcity and infrastructural calamity, delicately balancing between two equally unpalatable fates. Another drought, another lawsuit, another deadline the EPA refuses to extendanything could knock the fragile city off its course.
Atlanta is certainly in the midst of a water crisis, and this book is about that, too. The history of Atlantas water supply is inherently also the history of its crisis, for the citys current water problems have been a century in the making and entirely its own doing. Every day, the city confronts the shortcomings of its past miscalculations and indiscretions. Current lawsuits comb through phrases written seventy years ago, and todays construction crews unearth sewer lines that were last seen during the Roosevelt administration. The city is haunted by the ghosts of its past.
This book starts at the very beginning of Atlantas water story. 9 fit the pieces of the puzzle together and explain how the cumulative weight of Atlantas past actions created the citys current problems.
In explaining the origins of Atlantas crisis, I also hope to provide some insight into the ways in which the city should develop in the future. If its current leaders act with courage and foresight, I believe that Atlanta can avoid recreating the mistakes of its past. For that reason, I conclude with a description of the way in which the city is resolving its current problems. In doing so, I also offer a glimpse into the future problems that may be caused by the city today.
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