[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 156 (Tuesday, October 16, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12888-S12889]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            WATER MANAGEMENT

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, we pass lots of laws in the Congress of 
the United States, and from time to time there is a byproduct of the 
passage of some of those laws. It is called the law of unintended 
consequences. Such is the case with the Endangered Species Act.
  In my State of Georgia, we are in a level 4, 100-year drought. As 
many as 7 million citizens in my State are looking at the possibility 
of there being no drinking water in less than 120 days. Our State has 
imposed restrictions of every kind. Landscapers are out of business, 
car washes are threatened, and there is no outdoor watering.
  My home county of Cobb, in the last 14 days, has reduced, through 
conservation, water consumption by 20 percent.

[[Page S12889]]

I personally commend commission chairman Sam Owens and the entire North 
Georgia Water Planning District for everything they are doing. But in 
the absence of rain, there is nothing we can do.
  Why does this affect the Endangered Species Act? Very simply because 
a court case was filed a few years ago under the Endangered Species Act 
asking for the management of the Chattahoochee River basin to be 
controlled so as to protect sturgeon. The judge in that case finally 
ruled as much and developed the judge's own interim operating plan for 
the Chattahoochee River. That plan means the Corps of Engineers makes 
releases to keep the flow in the Chattahoochee River where the sturgeon 
exist at a level sufficient to sustain the sturgeon. The problem is the 
level is insufficient to sustain human life in North Georgia if it 
continues.
  This morning, just a few minutes ago, on behalf of myself and Senator 
Chambliss, I introduced an amendment to the Endangered Species Act to 
deal with this law of unintended consequences. It very simply says the 
following: The head of the Army Corps of Engineers or the Governor of a 
State, within which a region lies where there is a drought that 
threatens the health, safety, and welfare of the people in that region, 
may suspend the course and effect of the Endangered Species Act until 
that endangerment has passed.
  It is a simple request. We are at a place in time in our country and 
in a region, my home region, the State I represent, where the health, 
safety, and welfare of my people are threatened. They are threatened by 
an act this Congress passed that had no intention to threaten them. If 
we have the power to do that, we also have the power to make the 
exception to see to it that their drinking water is safe and their 
livelihood is safe and at hand.
  This is a critical, critical emergency. It is time sensitive. I urge 
each Member of the Senate to follow this simple amendment and this 
simple proposal and think about what they might do if it was their 
State, if it was their people. It is time we gave the Army Corps the 
latitude and the Governors of the States the authority to protect our 
people.
  I stood in this Chamber 3 years ago and raised my right hand and 
agreed to defend the Constitution of the United States and protect the 
domestic tranquility from enemies foreign and domestic. Today I stand 
recognizing there is a domestic enemy, and that enemy is the Endangered 
Species Act which controls the Chattahoochee River and limits access to 
drinking water and safe water for the people of north Georgia. I urge 
Members of the Senate to join myself and Senator Chambliss in this 
critical and important amendment.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. CHAMBLISS. Mr. President, I join my colleague, Senator Isakson 
from Georgia, in support of this legislation. Georgia is in a critical 
time in the history of our State. Atlanta, GA, is a great place to 
live, a great place to work, a great place to visit, but we are in a 
crisis. The water supply system for metropolitan Atlanta depends on two 
basins, Lake Altoona and Lake Lanier. Lake Altoona and Lake Lanier are 
fed by nature, by rainfall that every year, thus far in the history of 
those basins, has filled those basins since they were built decades 
ago.
  Unfortunately, during the month of August, we received very little 
moisture. But at the time we were receiving very little moisture, we 
had more 100-degree day temperatures than we have ever had in the 
history of Atlanta. A combination of natural forces has put us in this 
situation of crisis, but there is also an unnatural source that has 
helped produce this crisis, and the legislation that Senator Isakson 
has proposed, along with my cosponsorship, seeks to address this 
critical problem and seeks to help find a solution to this problem for 
the short term.
  Georgia's lakes are low and continue to decline as the Army Corps of 
Engineers releases water to protect a handful of sturgeons and mussels 
in the Appalachicola Bay in the State of Florida. Understandably, folks 
who have had mandatory water restrictions for months in our State, who 
are watching these lakes slowly decrease, are wondering where the 
common sense in Washington has gone. They are calling my office and 
asking: How can our Government care more about mussels and sturgeons 
than human beings? Obviously, that is not the case. But water continues 
to be released, and estimates are that Lake Lanier, Atlanta's main 
source of water, will be empty--and I repeat, will be empty--by January 
2008 if the Corps does not stop releasing so much water or if we do not 
get rainfall. That is less than 3 months away.
  It is clear that we are in a crisis. We need to do something to 
ensure we are not cutting off the drinking supply to 7 million people 
in the metropolitan Atlanta area. This legislation does something very 
simple and practical to address this crisis in the short term. It says, 
if the Secretary of the Army, in consultation with the Governor of a 
State, determines that a drought is in effect in a region in which 
there is a Federal river basin that is managed by the Corps of 
Engineers, and the drought threatens the health, safety, and welfare of 
the human population in that region, the Secretary of the Army can 
temporarily suspend provisions of the Endangered Species Act until such 
time as the drought is over and the health, safety, and welfare of 
humans is no longer at risk.
  We have larger issues to address in the long term. Updating the water 
control manuals by which the Corps of Engineers operates the river 
basins in Georgia and getting the Governors of our neighboring States 
together to apportion the water among the States for the long term are 
critical issues that have to be addressed.
  As resources get scarce, these things become more difficult to 
accomplish. Unfortunately, the people of Georgia cannot wait. They need 
immediate relief, and swift passage of this legislation will certainly 
help.

  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the majority 
has time now under morning business.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Thirty-five minutes.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask for 10 minutes of that time, and I ask to be 
notified when I have completed 4 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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