TERRELL COUNTY, GA (WALB) -
As drought continues to grip South Georgia, its effects are being felt by the region's biggest economic activity - agriculture.
On Monday, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division placed a hold on some new water use permit applications for agriculture in parts of 24 counties in Southwest Georgia.
Jerry Chambliss is like many South Georgia farmers. He's the third generation to work this piece of Terrell County. And like many farmers, he has a diverse operation.
"This year we had 120 (acres) of wheat, we've got 120 (acres) of peanuts on this farm and we've got 100 (acres) of corn on this farm," he said.
You may not think of farms as big businesses, but they really are. Take corn, for example. How many bushels does Chambliss expect to get per acre this year?
"If we can get 185, 200 bushel range in that neighborhood, we'll be very excited," he said.
This morning corn was trading at about 8 dollars per bushel. So for 100 acres, that means that this corn alone could be worth $160,000.
But all of that corn needs one thing to grow. Water.
Chambliss said, "we were putting out an inch and a half a week for about 10 to 12 weeks."
Running the center pivots non-stop not only costs the farmer money, it also really cuts down on some of the streams in our area.
Doug Wilson of the Flint River Planning and Policy Center said, "Ichauway at Milford earlier this year - last couple of weeks - has been below 4 cubic feet per second, which is a historic low for there."
With those low flows, the state of Georgia has taken a fairly dramatic step. A new EPD decision means that new center pivots are not going to get approved - at least not anytime soon.
After all, if you can't draw water out of a pivot, it's not much use and the hold on new water use permits does just that. The moratorium is expected to last through November 2013. But even farmers with existing permits are going to be affected.
Cliff Lewis of the Environmental Protection Division said, "there will not be allowed any expansion of irrigated acreage or expansion of increased pump capacity."
Sixteen months seems like a long time to not issue permits, but the delay gives EPD time to work out a more accurate water budget for South Georgia.
"We should have time to perform certain activities model improvements, model runs and questioning our own assumptions, and improving the data that we have collected over the past few years," said Lewis.
The study should give time for the state to figure out how to best manage this precious resource for everyone.
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