Water and Drought
Agriculture's Water Rights
Georgia passed legislation in 2003 that required all permitted agricultural water withdrawals from either surface or well water to have a usage meter installed by 2009. Most of the Atkinson and Coffee County permits are in the Satilla River Basin, which are slated to have their meters installed in 2008. UGA Cooperative Extension was assigned the task of updating the contact information and locating the withdrawal source of each permit on a map using GPS coordinates. Atkinson and Coffee counties were selected as pilot counties for updating all of their water withdrawal permits and were given a short two-month deadline. Both county agents and staff members contacted permit holders by phone, office and farm visits, at lunch or whenever possible to update their information. During the process, agents updated or changed other information needed such as gallons per minute pumped, number of acres irrigated, whether they were active or inactive, and what the diameter of the deep well was. The Atkinson County agent updated 327 permits and added 33 new applications for a letter of concurrence to install an agricultural water withdrawal system. The Coffee County agent updated 792 permits and added 56 new applications. With Extension's help, this project has ensured agriculture's right to continue to use water. (2007)
Sources
| Name | Department | |
| Mark von Waldner | mvonwald@uga.edu | Atkinson County Cooperative Extension |
| Eddie McGriff | twobales@uga.edu | Coffee County Cooperative Extension |
| Kerry Harrison | kharriso@uga.edu | Biological and Agricultural Engineering |
| James Hook | jimhook@uga.edu | Crop and Soil Sciences |