Corps of Engineers Reduces Flows to Florida

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – The US Army Corps of engineers has begun reducing the flow of water downstream into Florida. But it says the bigger impact on Georgia's shrinking water supply will come from retaining new rainwater.

The flow into Florida from the Woodruff Dam, at the south of the Apalachicola Chattahoochee Flint Basin, is being reduced from 5000 cubic feet per second, to 4,750.

Brigadier General Joseph Schroedel concedes that the reduction is small:

SCHROEDEL: The flow at Woodruff has much, much, much less impact on ability to store or retain water, than retaining all flows that come in from the rain.

So far this drought, the Corps of Engineers has not been retaining rainwater; it has released the water downstream. Officials say that the new policy will allow Georgia to store more water for its own use, without significantly impacting the salinity of water flowing into Florida.

They did warn, however, that flows may be further reduced if drought conditions worsen.