Southwest Georgia farmers will be able to use groundwater from once-restricted basins.

Some still have concerns about their water usage rights

CAMILLA – For the first time since 2012, Georgia will allow southwest Georgia farmers to drill new wells to make groundwater withdrawals from the Flint and Chattahoochee river basins. 

It’s a modification – not a complete lift – to a moratorium that was put in place in 2012 after a period of extreme drought. Aquifers lie under southwest Georgia like a layered cake. Too much water was being taken from the Floridan Aquifer, a vast reservoir that sits beneath the southeastern U.S, resulting in historically low flows in tributaries along the Flint.

Farmers will be able to apply for three different permits, beginning April 1. One of these permits opens the door for new water sources and additional irrigation acreage, but it comes with drought restrictions. 

Georgia’s EPD will take data from 15 monitoring wells located in the suspension area. If any five of these 15 wells falls below their monthly 10th percentile water level, the entire suspension area is placed under drought restrictions. 

A huge piece of the drought restriction is protecting federally threatened or endangered freshwater mussels, which live throughout the river basin. Rachel McGuire, an outreach and education coordinator with the Jones Center at Ichauway, a center for natural resource management and conservation, explained that these mussels aren’t very mobile. They rely on being carried by host fish or large rainfall events and big pulses of water to move downstream.

“They’re very susceptible to habitat water quantity,” she said. “They can only survive so long out of water.” 

These mussels contribute important ecosystem services like water quality improvement and nutrient cycling. Groundwater withdrawals from the Floridan can have a direct impact on flow along the Flint River Basin.

McGuire said researchers at the Jones Center think the moratorium modifications with extra drought protections on permits are environmentally sound. The group contributed much of its data on mussels and water levels needed to sustain their populations to the EPD to help come to the recent change. 

“This is a great example of how EPD has taken a lot of time and solidified important partners to get the data they needed to more responsibly manage the water resources in southwest Georgia,” McGuire said. “In the long-term, we’re not going to sustainably protect these ecosystems if we can’t balance the human need in the basin.”

For many regional farmers, this semi-lift signifies a step in the right direction. But many still have some concerns. 

Casey Cox Kerr, the National Peanut Board chair and a Camilla farmer, said she feels hopeful that EPD and the farming community is working toward striking a balance between protecting natural water resources and allowing the continued growth of Georgia’s No. 1 industry, agriculture. 

Kerr said she remembers attending “water war” meetings alongside her family. She said farmers understood the need for the moratorium, but there was a lot of frustration.

“We in south Georgia collectively had to pause the growth of our agricultural community, but there weren’t similar restrictions across state lines, even though we were using the same aquifer,” she said. “There was this immense pressure to protect our right to water.” 

Clay Hudson, a sixth-generation Baker County row crop farmer, attended a meeting Thursday in Mitchell County with EPD to learn more about the different permits available and what the options for his farm might be. 

Hudson said he relies on water from the Floridan aquifer to irrigate his 1,000 acres.

“When they first said we had to permit all the wells back in the 90s, they weren’t really clear,” he said. “We permitted very conservatively on what we had. Had we known they weren’t going to issue any new permits, and potentially penalize you for going out of compliance, we would have permitted excess acres.”

Hudson said the 2012 moratorium restricted growth on his family’s small farm, and most farmers with less acreage are struggling to break even. Not having enough water to irrigate his crops means getting into a bind during low-profit years.

“The largest industry still in Georgia is farming, but we’re getting to be a smaller population as years go by,” he said. “The threat of banks foreclosing on something is very real. So, to ask for a little bit of water to help grow a crop, I don’t think it’s unreasonable.”

Hudson said he knows protecting the environment is important.

“You’re probably not going to find a better steward than a farmer,” he said. “It’s in our best interest to make sure we’re taking care of this land. It’s what we want to pass on from generation to generation.”

Hudson now has acreage that he’d like to put into production, but he has to first figure out if anything in his farming operation is out of compliance with EPD permits and what he needs to do to get back to being compliant.

He said the drought-restricted permits are not an option for his farm. 

“Those wells are very expensive to put in, and how’s a bank going to loan you money on a crop you may or may not make if it goes into drought protection and we can’t get any water?” Hudson said.

Jerry Heard, a farmer with acreage across Baker, Decatur, Early and Mitchell counties, shares a similar concern. He said the drought-restricted permit, which cuts farmers off in the case of drought, is risky. Farmers are given a 24-hour notice to cease water usage.

“To dig a well, and then they’re going to cut you off – a corn farmer, if you cut him off two weeks before it’s time to cut him off, you’ll drastically reduce the yield,” Heard said. 

Heard said he believes farmers should at least be able to “finish the crop out” before they are shut down under drought conditions. 

Heard’s acreage is also spread out – with as many as 30 miles between parts of his land. To be compliant under these potential permits, farmers would be able only to share wells across contiguous acreage. But Heard said he believes farmers need more flexibility. 

“If we’ve got a well with 200 acres on it, you’re only using half the acres, and I’ve got a well over here that I’m short 30 acres on … I feel like I should be able to transfer those acres from one well to another,” he said. “We should be able to move over county lines, the acres on the well, to get us in compliance.” 

Heard expressed these concerns to EPD during Thursday’s meeting.

“At least we’re at the table discussing it,” he said. “I’m sitting at the table today for the future – my sons and our family farm. I’m sitting here today speaking out for them to be able to have enough water to feed and clothe the people in this country. “

Farmers developing more efficient irrigation practices with water conservation in mind also played a role in this moratorium change, coupled with flow and mussel habitat research.

Gordon Rogers, the executive director of the Flint Riverkeeper, said he’s anticipating the next drought to see how all the changes that have been put in place will work together. In some parts of the Flint and Chattahoochee River Basins, Rogers said Georgia FIT are helping implement drought swap projects, drilling wells to different aquifers in the case of drought affecting the Floridan. This work was made possible with federal funds. 

He said the decision to modify the moratorium was not made lightly – but was backed by rich data from a diverse group of stakeholders. 

“Will there be things that happen that are unexpected? Absolutely. Will they be disastrous? Highly unlikely,” Rogers said. “Even if we approach something that appears to be an imminent disaster, we’ve got the tools to pull back from the edge.”

He said he doesn’t expect to see low flow as drastic as during the 2011-12 droughts.

“I think we’re right on the edge of solving this thing,” Rogers said.