(Georgia Institute of Technology, 1989-05)
Stevens, Patricia A.; Burkett, Edmund B.
The Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area is a rapidly growing urban area of 2.2 million people which withdraws over 70 percent of its water supply from the Chattahoochee
River. Four major water supply intakes are located on a 48-mile stretch of the river downstream of Buford Dam, a major Corps of Engineers impoundment. This Corps project serves navigation, hydropower, flood control, water supply, water quality and recreation. The release patterns
from the project were not optimally suited to meeting the growing water supply needs of the Atlanta Region. The minimum releases provided for Atlanta in the original
authorization were no longer adequate as the project was being operated. This problem was the subject of a Corps of Engineers Urban Study which recommended that additional
offpeak releases be made from the project on a short-term basis to meet downstream water supply and low-flow requirements until a permanent, long-term arrangement could be put in place.