Finally. Prodded by the fact that metro Atlanta stands on the brink of losing a major water source, Gov. Sonny Perdue is pushing a water supply conservation legislation. But most of the bill’s measures wouldn’t take effect until more than two years from now. And — in deference to the usual special interests that hold sway [...]

Creative Loafing’s Thomas Wheatley tagged along with elected officials to tour the starter holes for a 9,000-foot sewer tunnel that city contractors expect to complete in July 2011. The South River Sewer Tunnel is part of the multi-billion sewer cleanup begun under Shirley Franklin’s administration. Thomas came away with some great photos, as well as a video. [...]

State Rep. Debbie Buckner’s proposed statewide midday lawn-watering ban has about as much chance of passing as water does of flowing uphill. But it’s a good idea. As Buckner notes in an interview on Georgia Public Broadcasting, it doesn’t make much sense to water lawns in the middle of a summer day anyway because much of that [...]

Gubernatorial candidate John Oxendine certainly can’t be accused of avoiding conflicts. The frontrunning Republican in the  2010 contest told Chattanooga’s daily last week that, if elected, he’ll try to convince Tennessee’s next governor to share water from the Tennessee River with Georgia. And, in case that effort fails (which seems likely), he’s already threatening to take [...]

A federal appeals court panel agreed Wednesday that Georgia should be allowed to appeal a trial court ruling that could severely restrict metro Atlanta’s access to water from Lake Lanier. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson ruled in July that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers never had been authorized to allocate water from the lake [...]

Right whale mamas and their babies have been spotted in the endangered species calving grounds of the coast of Georgia. The Savannah Morning News reports: “Surveyors based on St. Simons Island have spotted three North Atlantic right whale calves, each flanked by its mother, off the Georgia coast since December, marking the first sightings this migratory [...]

The AJC has posted an interesting story on Vinings residents who wonder whether Georgia Power’s partly to blame the rapid rise of the Chattahoochee River downstream from Morgan Falls Dam. I didn’t see Vinings after the flood. But, man, the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area parking lot at U.S. 41 was a total mess. It was closed [...]

Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia emerged happily from a meeting with his Alabama and Florida counterparts today over the desperate predicament faced by Atlanta’s northern suburbs when it comes to water. The AJC quoted Perdue as calling it “absolutely the most productive and candid and willful discussion we have had during these seven years. It gives [...]

Senators were skeptical yesterday at a hearing over a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposal to protect public school children from unsafe drinking water. EPA does not have monitoring requirements for schools. Instead, the agency relies on the schools’ water providers to comply with its monitoring requirements and on states to enforce violations. Agency officials appeared before the [...]

Well, that was fast. The controversial $120 million redevelopment of parts of Jekyll Island apparently has been scuttled — one day after Gov. Sonny Perdue and others participated in a groundbreaking on the state component of the project. Critics, led by state Rep. Jeff Chapman, who represents the island’s residents, argued that an agreement between the [...]