A plan for water conservation that has been proposed by Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) may not be good for South Georgia.

From the Cordele Dispatch:

Crisp County Commissioner Brad Faircloth said he is concerned that “we who have been good stewards of our water resources will be penalized for a lack of planning in the metro Atlanta area.”

Atlanta has a serious problem, Faircloth concedes, but he says the rest of the state is now being asked to give up control of its water resources so that the metro area will have adequate supplies.

The EPD plan, he says, calls for regional planning boards to inventory water resources in each region. Then they would budget for expected use in the area and report what’s left over.

“My question,” Faircloth asks, “is ‘what happens to what’s left over?’”

Faircloth expects the EPD plan to be introduced in the 2008 Legislature. “It will be too late to contact senators and representatives after the session convenes,” he stressed. “Now is the time to let them know how you feel.”

If the EPD plan is approved, . . . it will give the state agency “unlimited, massive power over control of the state’s water resources,” he insisted.