ATLANTA — Georgia state Sen. Chip Pearson, a Republican who serves as chairman of the state Senate Economic Development Committee, is urging immediate action on the state’s drinking water crisis, noting that increasing water storage capacity is the first step for meeting current and future needs.

Pearson wrote in an August 18 Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion column, “The simple fact is that Georgia has plenty of water, mainly from precipitation, but we obviously lack adequate water storage for current and future needs.”

He urged implementing the provisions of the Water Conservation and Drought Relief Act, signed in May 2008 by Gov. Sonny Perdue to expedite the construction of new reservoirs throughout the state. “Every corner of the state is a potential place for water storage,” he wrote.

According to Pearson, increasing the state’s water storage capacity should be part of a three-year water plan he is recommending that the governor enact to put “us in a position of meeting our current and future water needs, regardless of the ruling’s ultimate outcome.”

He was referring to a federal judge’s recent ruling that metro Atlanta has no right to draw drinking water from US Army Corps of Engineers-managed Lake Lanier, as WaterTech Online® reported.

Pearson also said the state needs to:

● Permit new reservoirs immediately.

● Provide funding to increase water storage.

● Raise the level of Lake Lanier by 2 feet and claim that water as Georgia’s.

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