Water Coalition Unites Millions of Georgians

by Henry Carey, The Sapelo Foundation and Julie Mayfield, Georgia Conservancy (founding partner, Georgia Water Coalition)

Like the noble Chattahoochee River that originates quietly in north Georgia, gathers strength and power and then moves boldly southward, a remarkable and perhaps historic civic movement is sweeping through the State. Under the banner of the Georgia Water Coalition, 87 organizations from all corners of the state and of all types–– from the senior citizens group at the Unitarian Church to Physicians for Social Responsibility to the Georgia Poultry Justice Alliance to all of the major Georgia environmental groups–– have come together in a wildly successful effort to keep Georgia’s water a public resource, available to all Georgians now and in the future, and to advocate for objective, science-based statewide water management planning.

This effort has been supported by the Sapelo Foundation as a result of its new strategic focus on water resources. The Foundation’s focus emerged as a result of an internal planning process facilitated by Alice Buhl, an organizational development consultant. In the course of this process, the Foundation’s board recognized that its past practice of funding a broad array of environmental interests could be limiting the gains experienced in any one sector. Recognizing that conflict over water resources was increasing dramatically due to population growth, the board decided to focus investment in this sector.

Fresh water resources all over our nation are in constant peril of being polluted, overused, mismanaged, siphoned away, privatized, or bought and sold to the highest bidder. It is also a fact that concerned citizens throughout the United States have fought these perils on behalf of their precious water resources in innovative and imaginative ways and on some very intense battlefields. So, what was it that inspired so many citizens in the largest state east of the Mississippi River to agree to lock arms and fight together for their water? Part of the answer is the Georgia Water Coalition. But another part of it is surely a certain powerful possessiveness within the human spirit that is aroused when something that has always been rightfully yours is about to be taken away.

During a lingering Georgia drought over roughly the past 12 years, the state’s population has grown by nearly two million people. The 10-county Atlanta region has added an average of 85,000 new residents a year since 1990, and in 2003 was populated by nearly 3.7 million thirsty residents. The combination of pressures on the water resources in the Atlanta region, in Georgia’s other large urban centers, and in Georgia’s large agricultural sector from a decade of below-normal rainfall has been enormous. The inconveniently finite nature of what they view as a marketable commodity had the agribusiness community and some large industries supporting water withdrawal permit trading as the answer to Georgia’s water shortages

In order to effectively fight this position, Georgia’s environmental community knew it would have to come together in a way it had never done before. At the same time, well aware of damage to river basins and their ecosystems elsewhere in the United States that has occurred in the absence of policies guaranteeing balanced usage of water as a public resource, The Sapelo Foundation feared the emergence of a similar situation in Georgia. Early in 2002, The Sapelo Foundation approached the Georgia Wildlife Federation, the Georgia Conservancy, the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and the Southern Environmental Law Center with the idea to explore the creation of a coalition to address water resource issues. Shortly thereafter, these four groups became founding members of The Georgia Water Coalition, which has now grown to 87 partner organizations.

The Coalition’s first step was to determine its principles and positions, which were developed over a series of meetings with its ever-growing number of partners. The results of those meetings were condensed into a September 2002 report that included 25 recommendations for how Georgia’s water could be better managed into the future. This report continues to serve as the foundation of the Coalition’s work.

The Coalition was not even a year old when it engaged in a heated battle during the 2003 session of the Georgia General Assembly to defeat House Bill 237, which provided for the creation of a statewide water management plan, but also would have allowed the privatization of water through the authorization of water withdrawal permit trading. After almost four months of contentious combat at the legislature, the GWC celebrated a major victory when the bill failed to pass in the waning minutes of the 2003 session and was placed on the calendar for action in the 2004 session. Toward the end of the session, the Coalition found a friend and supporter of its position against permit trading in the powerful Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), the voice of all 159 counties in Georgia and one of the most powerful lobbying forces in Georgia. Never before had ACCG and the environmental community come together so effectively on an issue.

During the interim between the two legislative sessions, the Georgia Water Coalition did what coalitions do best. With partners in all 14 river basins and throughout Georgia’s 159 counties, GWC’s strategy was to generate an irresistible grass-roots civic movement that would result in a virtual uprising of average Georgians demanding that water remain a public resource. Starting in August 2003, GWC supporters all over the state began contacting their elected officials requesting city councils and county commissions to pass resolutions opposing water permit trading and calling on the General Assembly to enact legislation providing for the creation of a statewide water management plan. By the end of March 2004, 167 county commissions and city councils, representing over half of Georgia’s 8 million citizens, had passed such resolutions. Another major coup occurred in the summer of 2003 when GWC advocates were able to persuade the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), another powerful lobbying force in the state that represents the interests of more than 400 Georgia mayors and city councils, to take a stand against permit trading and in favor of statewide water management planning. The growing number of local government resolutions and ACCG’s and GMA’s rejection of permit trading and endorsement of the planning process amounted to a wake-up call for legislators. Shortly after GMA took its stand, the author of HB 237 agreed to recraft the bill to remove the permit trading provisions and focus the bill solely on water resource planning.

HB 237 was quickly revised at the outset of the 2004 legislative session to focus solely on planning. The GWC supported the revisions and advocated during the entire session for the bill to pass so the planning process could get underway in 2004. On the third to last day of the session, both the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the revised bill––without permit trading provisions, but providing for the creation of a statewide water management plan––and sent it on to the Governor for his signature.

Passage of HB 237 as a pure planning bill is a significant victory. But the fact that the Georgia Water Coalition persuaded local governments representing more than 4 million Georgians to publicly support statewide water planning was heralded by seasoned political observers as a victory they believe to be unique in the state’s history. Georgia’s former Lieutenant Governor and long-time conservationist, Pierre Howard, said of this effort, “We have seen democracy at its best, with policy being made from the ground up by the people . . . Our partners have participated in an historic effort that has changed the environmental policy of Georgia for years to come.” And former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes said, “I have never seen anything like this in politics. This is truly an example of the people rising up to defeat the wishes of the rich and powerful. Savor it because it is rare.”

The Georgia Water Coalition is a success story. With its 87 partner organizations and with the solid support of the Sapelo Foundation, the Coalition utilized well-coordinated volunteer-power, clear and consistent messaging, legislative savvy, and solid media relations to derail legislation designed to benefit special interests over the common good. Simultaneously, the Coalition continuously, steadily, and successfully advocated for the creation of a fair and neutral statewide water management plan. The Coalition is a model for successful action by other advocacy coalitions all over America.