Agriculture Water Permitting: Turning Regional Plans into Permitting Decisions

Proceedings of the 2007 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 27-29, 2007, Athens, Georgia.During 2006, the Flint River Basin Water Conservation and Development Plan (FRBP) and the Coastal Georgia Water and Wastewater Permitting Plan for Managing Saltwater Intrusion (CZP) were adopted by Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Both had big impacts on permitting of agricultural water withdrawals. Moratoria had been in place postponing new permits. With acceptance of the plans, a flood of backlogged applications, some as old as six years, had to be processed. Permit rule changes in the plans or brought about by concomitant new legislation had to be implemented. The newly formed Agriculture Permitting Unit was relocated to Tifton, and UGA personnel assisted in transforming EPD permitting processes to speed up processing to handle the backlog and implement new regional plans. Existing permits and new applications were incorporated into a geodatabase since most permitting decisions are location specific. GIS tools and models were developed to systematically and objectively evaluate applications, and procedures were established to improve the communication between EPD and agricultural applicants.Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Institute of Ecology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2202. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397) or the other conference sponsors