Our Water Story in Metro Atlanta

Good question. Our water comes from rivers, streams and reservoirs. In fact, 73% of the water supply for the 15 counties of the Metro Water District comes from Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River. The rest of the water comes from the Etowah, Flint and Ocmulgee rivers.

And although we get an average of 50 inches of rain per year, there are limits to what we can use.

What’s more, the rivers that supply our water are relatively small because we are located near the headwaters, or origins, of the streams. We can only draw so much or we’ll damage the ecosystem, so we depend primarily on our big regional reservoirs – Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona – for most of our water.

So let's just build more reservoirs, right? Sounds easy, but it isn’t.

• Reservoirs are expensive – $100,000,000 and up
• The permitting is complicated – It can take 10 to 20 years to get the go-ahead.

Then, there’s that giant hunk of granite and granite-like rock under the region. Stone Mountain is awesome, but the part sticking out of the ground is only the beginning. Georgia’s beloved rock, or other rock like it, extends under a large part of our region, seriously limiting the amount of water that can be withdrawn from the ground. Ever tried to squeeze water from granite?