By KELLY DAVIS
Anderson Independent-Mail
January 18, 2005

The lakes are full and drought seems a distant memory, but work to sort out how South Carolina and Georgia should share water in the Savannah River basin is making progress, with the goal of minimizing conflict during future, inevitable dry spells.

"Georgia and South Carolina have been like cats with their tails tied together over a fence," said retired physician Dr. Juan A. Brown, chairman of the Anderson Area Chamber of Commerce’s Water Resource Committee.

A new commission instituted by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, headed by Department of Natural Resources commission Chairman Michael McShane and including appointees from Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is beginning to work on an agreement between the states on Savannah River water use.

Partly to argue for water policy favorable to Upstate South Carolina and northeast Georgia, the region’s business interests have started work on an economic impact analysis of the river, specifically the upstream reservoirs.

Members of chambers in several surrounding counties heard the results of a feasibility study for the analysis Tuesday from the Appalachian Council of Governments, including the figure that 12 million people visit the four major reservoirs annually, Dr. Brown said. By comparison, Myrtle Beach attracts 12.5 million visitors annually.

"(Water resources) have been very high on the governor’s list, dating back even before his election," Gov. Mark Sanford’s spokesman Will Folks said. "Obviously, the 1998-2002 drought was a big issue during the campaign."

Upon his election, Gov. Sanford appointed several transition task forces, including one on quality of life issues. From that, Mr. Folks said, came the recommendation to review the state’s water laws because of the threat of drought to economic development.

Economic development is the main reason the Lake Hartwell Association wants to see an agreement between the states, President Mike Massey said. The organization wants to keep the reservoir levels as high as possible, and believes an agreement could help.

"Right now, it’s kind of first-come, first served," he said of current water-allocation rules. "In the future, there’s going to be problems with enough water in the basin, and people out of the basin are going to want it. There would be years of court battles and litigation."

Mr. Massey said the association did its own study of the most recent drought’s impact, and came up with a conservative estimate of $123 million in losses between 2000 and 2002. The economic impact analysis, which could cost $200,000 to $400,000, would be a much larger study of the lake’s overall economic effect on the region in dry and wet periods.

"I think this is going to be a long process," Mr. Massey said of the new water-use commission. "The lake will go down and come back up before they’re finished. That’s a good thing because they’ll have an opportunity to discuss these issues in both situations."

Kelly Davis can be reached at (864) 260-1277 or by e-mail at davisk@IndependentMail.com.

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