Big Dam Backlash Rising in the Sun Belt - Southern Water, Southern Power - page 96

anxiety about water rights at a moment when states' rights and civil rights agendas con-
verged. One constituent explained to Senator Olin Johnston that the acquisition and man-
agement of the collar and buffer lands that surrounded Corps reservoirs represented a fun-
damental seizure of property: The “transfer of local ownership to centralized government-
al ownership was Socialism to say the least.” Furthermore, “big Federal Dams take from
the local people ownership and access to lakes or streams except as regulated by Washing-
ton.” 63 Washington bureaucrats, however, were not the only people responsible for determ-
ining water rights.
The Georgia Water Use and Conservation Committee recommended that the state legis-
lature consider amending Georgia's riparian legal tradition, a legal construction that en-
titles a property owner along a watercourse to use or control access to water so long as
they do not diminish the overall flow or significantly impair downstream property owners'
access to water supplies. This tradition is more common in the eastern United States as
compared with the western water allocation process of prior appropriation, whereby an in-
dividual holds access rights to water and can move large quantities over great distances. 64
The Georgia Water Use and Conservation Committee ultimately recommended that laws
not be changed until the committee uncovered specific problems. However, the commit-
tee did argue that Georgia's industrial development was handicapped by the “uncertainty
as to the rights and duties of the users of Georgia's water resources.” As such, “this uncer-
tainty discourages investment in beneficial water use, and constitutes perhaps the greatest
weakness in our law as it exists.” 65 The Georgia Water Use and Conservation Committee
was not alone in articulating this aspect of the water problem. Whereas the USDA-funded
farm ponds and small watershed projects vested water supply management responsibilities
in adjacent landowners and local soil conservation district operatives, the Corps' projects
redrew property lines and thus transferred water supply management responsibilities to the
federal government on behalf of the nation's citizens.
As Corps and South Carolina officials debated the future of farm ponds, small watershed
projects, and Hartwell's reservoir in the midst of drought and power struggles, the Clarks
Hill project moved into the operational phase. A serious topic emerged immediately that
would affect all federal reservoirs: How would communities or industries access the phys-
ical water in the reservoir managed by the Corps? McCormick, South Carolina, was the
first Savannah River valley community to broach the question. The Clarks Hill dam and
reservoir was not originally authorized to provide a municipal water supply for any spe-
cific community in South Carolina or Georgia. McCormick officials convened a meeting
in 1955 with Corps engineers to discuss the city's proposal “to acquire water” from Clarks
Hill after the reservoir was completed and operating, and because of a recent local water
supply crisis. Corps staffers plus Senators Strom Thurmond and Olin Johnson ultimately
helped McCormick leaders obtain specific legislation from Congress authorizing the Corps