The River and the Region

Abstract

Belying its comparatively small size, the Chattahoochee River has consistently provided upward of two-thirds of metropolitan Atlanta’s drinking water. But beginning in the early 1960s, warnings were periodically issued that called into question the ability of the river to indefinitely supply the lion’s share of the region’s water. Seemingly ignoring these warnings, Atlanta’s regional leaders pushed ahead, using the supposed threats to the region’s water supply to support their efforts to shape the metropolis into a deeply manicured, low-density sprawl. Choosing this path eventually led to a courtroom showdown with neighboring states Alabama and Florida, in a case that could seriously curtail Atlanta’s future withdrawals from the river and undermine the region’s progrowth agenda. This article describes how and why this happened by telling the story of a complicated set of relationships that developed in 1970s between Atlanta’s regional planning agency, the state of Georgia, and several federal agencies.