Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 391-3-28-.01
The purpose of this rule is to establish the procedures required for the administration and implementation of the "Flint River Drought Protection Act", O.C.G.A. 12-5-540et seq. The use of water resources of the state for agricultural purposes is of vital importance to Georgia and southwest Georgia in particular; and the protection of flows in the Flint River and its tributaries is necessary for a healthy riverine ecosystem and a healthy population of aquatic life. The wise use of water, protection of stream flow, and the overall economic well being of the state will be furthered by proper water management in periods of severe drought. Programs to augment stream flows or provide incentives to ensure that certain irrigated agricultural lands are temporarily not irrigated during times of declared severe drought will promote this wise use of water resources, the associated protection of stream flows for habitat critical for aquatic life, and the economic well being of the state.
This rule establishes the basis for a drought protection program for the Flint River basin and the coordination which will occur with the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority to handle those funds. It states how the Director of the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources may each year predict or declare whether severe drought conditions are considered likely in the Flint River basin. It establishes the procedures for holding an irrigation reduction auction to decrease irrigation acreage in any declared severe drought year and how the auction may be operated. It delineates the process by which certain persons holding agricultural water withdrawal permits may offer to cease irrigating a number of acres in exchange for a certain sum of money and defines how such offers to sell are accepted. If a sufficient amount of acreage reduction is not acquired during the auction, it defines when and how an order may be issued requiring certain permit holders to cease or reduce irrigation and provides for their compensation to stop irrigating. It establishes the irrigation efficiency thresholds for all irrigation systems in the affected areas of the Flint River Basin operating or existing under the Division's water withdrawal permitting requirement, identifies requirements pertaining to the methods an applicant or permittee shall utilize to demonstrate the achievement of the irrigation efficiency thresholds, and establishes the schedule in which all permittees will achieve irrigation efficiency thresholds. It provides for a process in which the director will notify specified permittees downstream of any state funded augmentation project that during specified periods of the project's operation for specified purposes within the affected areas, the permittee shall let the flow provided by the augmentation project pass his or her point of withdrawal. It outlines the procedures for any investigations and enforcement of these rules.
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 391-3-28-.01
O.C.G.A. § 12-5-540et seq.