‘Be afraid, be very afraid.’
Those words, enshrined in popular culture after they were uttered in “The Fly,” the 1986 cult movie, are especially appropriate today for Tennessee officials in the wake of an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling last week. The decision restores Atlanta’s access to water from Lake Lanier. Atlanta and Georgia leaders hailed the victory, but even the most myopic of them has to know deep down that the court’s ruling – if it stands – isn’t a remedy to Atlanta’s water woes.
That’s why Gov. Bill Haslam and other Tennessee officials should be wary.
Atlanta and Georgia still must address the city’s chronic water shortage. Tapping Lake Lanier might provide relief for a metro area with 3 million residents for a while, but its resources are not inexhaustible. A sustainable and sound approach to water conservation and management is necessary. Georgia has proved to be reluctant to pursue such policies over the years.
There’s nothing to indicate that will change – especially in the wake of the new ruling. There seems to be a general sense that access to the lake will solve the problem. Not so. It simply postpones the time of reckoning.