What's funny about whitewater rafting in Columbus, Georgia
is that years ago they ended the homemade raft races on the Chattahoochee
River. Something about liability and insurance.
But now they're going to allow tourists to "ride the wave" when water is
flushed from behind the Oliver dam? The only difference I can see is a
matter of money. Or to put it another way, one group is a bunch of local
rednecks having fun and the other is a group of money paying tourists.
The water in the Chattahoochee flushes southward between
Phenix City and Columbus to the rhythm of the needs of Georgia Power. From
it's birth in the
mountains, north of Atlanta to its merging with the Flint
at Lake Seminole to make the 108 mile run to the Gulf of Mexico as the
Apalachicola River, the Chattahoochee is nothing more than a series of
energy producing, water holding, settling ponds.
There are 13 dams that interrupt the
Chattahoochee’s 320 mile flow to Lake Seminole.
The Chattahoochee River is tamed, regulated, restricted, controlled, used
and abused.
Definitely abused. Atlanta’s theory of
sewage treatment seems to be that s#!t rolls down hill and it’s sitting on
top.
AJC
“Atlanta admits its ancient combined sewers
are an environmental disaster.
Every time substantial rain falls, they
barf up millions of gallons of raw sewage and contaminated runoff that
turn local streams into open sewers. The foul mix overflows into back
yards and eventually finds its way to the Chattahoochee and South rivers.
The city must fix the problem by 2007. The
question is how."
No. The
question is why has it taken this long and not even a plan in place?
Atlanta has had years and they have accomplished nothing. So much for
Democrat leadership.
Even Columbus, Georgia’s latest quest for glory, that of having the
southern most whitewater run in the US will depend on
Atlanta leaving enough water
and the benevolence of a company they were
just in court with. Columbus Water Works has settled a case involving the
amount of water Columbus could withdraw from behind the Lake Oliver
hydro-electric dam without paying Georgia Power for the lost energy
potential in that amount of water. Columbus's claim was, pretty much, to
all the water it wanted for itself and to sell. Wonder how much good will
is left between those two parties?
This link is to a story about
whitewater rafting on the Upper Ocoee
River being at the mercy of the TVA.
Now to the point of this post. Columbus
wants to build a marina. But for it to be considered viable requires the
river to continue to be dredged for barge traffic. Two things have to be
considered--environmental concerns and barge traffic. And the barge
traffic is the rub, my friends. There is hardly any barge traffic and what
exists cost taxpayers about $27,000 dollars a barge.
“On average, fewer than two barges per
day use the ACF, yet the federal government spends $20 million a year to
maintain the navigation system.”
Jim Phillips, the local Chattahoochee River keeper tried to address
both the environmental and economic concerns about dredging to Jason
Dennis of WTVM.
“ The Chattahoochee river keeper agrees
there needs to be a better to get rid of the sand and dirt that comes out
of the rivers, but eliminating it (dredging) altogether, he said, is
wrong, economically and environmentally.”
Unfortunately, he has no reasons beyond a (very
justifiable) fear that Atlanta will suck the Chattahoochee dry.
©2002LCM3
Georgia
Power opens the dam gates.
