The 15-county Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District will host public meetings next week to answer questions about its updated plan for supplying water to the region through 2035.

The closest meeting to Cherokee County, which is part of the district, is from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Cobb County Water System building at 660 South Cobb Drive near Atlanta Road in Marietta.

It is one of three open-house meetings the district is conducting for the public to learn about the draft $1.2 million plan, talk with technical staff and make comments. The others will be in Morrow on Monday and Atlanta on Wednesday.

The primary purpose of the district is to develop regional and watershed plans for water supply and conservation, wastewater treatment and storm water management.

Besides Cherokee, the district also includes Bartow, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Paulding and Rockdale, as well as 93 municipalities within those counties.

The water-planning organization was created in 2001 by the state legislature. The governing body comprises county commission chairs, mayors, and ten appointed citizen members.

This will be the first update to the 2003 Water Supply and Water Conservation Management plan. Funding for the plan is expected to come primarily from district water customers, according to the District.

The update calls for the consolidation of many small treatment facilities to reduce cost and improve performance.

District leaders plan to make several water-conservation amendments, including establishing conservation pricing.

It said by 2014, "local water provider's toilet replacement programs will only include high-efficiency toilets."

In addition, two new required measures include installing high-efficiency toilets and urinals in government buildings and requiring new car washes to recycle water.

But some environmental groups criticized the district for not going far enough in its water conservation efforts. They are upset that the District changed its 2003 plan for reducing water demand from 20 percent to 13 percent by 2035.

Joe Cook, executive director and riverkeeper of the nonprofit Coosa River Basin Initiative in Rome, said he plans to participate in a demonstration with others at the Atlanta meeting.

"Backsliding from a 20 to 13 percent conservation goal on the heels of a three-year drought is unacceptable," Cook said.

Cook said the main problem with the plan is that it puts all of its eggs in one basket.

"The district will not be able to take as much water from Lake Lanier as it wants to," Cook said.

Such critiques have led to another controversial proposal by the district.

The plan calls for taking water outside its coverage area from the Flint River and West Point Lake on the Chattahoochee River.

Additional proposals include building six new reservoirs and six water treatment plants to meet the demands in projected growth of the nearly 4 million metro Atlanta residents and drawing more water from Lake Allatoona, Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River.

Cook said he expects the District to adopt the proposed plan at its Feb. 5 meeting. Then, it will be left up to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to review and approve the plan later in the spring.

To view the plan, see the Web site at www.northgeorgiawater.org.

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