Environmental Impact Assessment for Water Allocation and Reservoir Reallocation in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basins: A Programmatic Evaluation Approach

This paper describes the programmatic evaluation approach being used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and a team of Federal agencies in preparation of environmental impact statements (EISs), which address the range of potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts for the future allocation of water resources within the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) and Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basins. The programmatic approach includes hydrologic modeling to produce a range of flow conditions, which are anticipated to bracket the range of flow conditions that would result from any allocation of water resources. The environmental impacts for the modeled range of flows are then presented in the EISs, which will form a basis for decisions by the Federal Commissioner to the River Basin Compact Commissions on whether to proceed with implementation of allocation formulas currently being negotiated by the States of Alabama, Florida and Georgia. Implementation of the water allocation formula will likely include changes in reservoir operations and reallocations of reservoir storage in upstream reservoirs to provide for future water supply needs in the basins. Follow-on environmental assessments will also be prepared for implementation phase actions.