Water Supply: Planning for the South's Future

With more miles of rivers than any other region, the South has always been considered a water-rich part of the country. But as the South continues to grow, so does demand for fresh water. Throughout our region, proposals are cropping up to build reservoirs and pipelines, often in the absence of hard data to confirm the need for such environmentally destructive infrastructure. Moreover, municipalities are often working in isolation of each other, blind to the potential cumulative effects of multiple reservoirs in a single watershed. Demand for fresh water is leading to inter-state conflicts, and a number of southern states have entered bi-state - and even tri-state - negotiations (and in some cases litigation) to resolve water withdrawal and allocation issues.

Water allocation is complicated in the South, due to the world-class biodiversity of our rivers and streams. In Georgia alone, the number of fish, mussel, crayfish, and snail species represents approximately 25 percent of the national total. In Alabama, the Cahaba River supports the greatest diversity of fish species for any river of its size on the continent. SELC is addressing water supply issues across our six-state region. In each effort, our ultimate goal is to ensure adequate fresh water supplies for human use while protecting natural flows in our rivers and streams in order to maintain aquatic habitat and biodiversity.