Mr. McKee,

I understand yet differ with your take on the feelings of the Georgians that do not reside in or around Atlanta. Our concerns are not that the city is too large or has too much population. We are concerned because, considering the finite water supply available to the region, it seems to us that Atlanta feels it has unilateral rights to all the water necessary to continue the growth and usage pattern exhibited by Atlantians so far. We have watched as Atlanta has refused to implement appropriate sewage system upgrades until forced to do so by the courts, allowing raw sewage to flow into the river and the downstream communities. We have watched while Atlanta has refused to implement strong conservation measures to control their use of the river and ensure significant reductions in water removal. We have watched as environmental concerns by our Florida neighbors were ignored or trivialized. We have watched as Atlanta has maneuvered to obtain water from other communities through inter-basin transfer and tap other resources such as Tennessee River through boundary manipulation.

We are tired of watching Atlanta do as it pleases with no regard to anyone that is not inside the perimeter of 285. I stand with the "outsiders" and say enough is enough. Atlanta has had decades to resolve this issue and until now has not been willing to consider us "downstreamers." I am sorry that the residents of Atlanta will suffer due to poor planning and mismanagement. I am frustrated that the "economic engine" of Atlanta will slow due to uncontrolled and poorly planned growth. But as we have all learned from the economic meltdown ... sooner or later there is a price to pay for errors made in the past....

John Woodward, Columbus

Don McKee:

Are you smoking dope? How ... can you claim that metro Atlanta is the economic engine that drives the whole state? Name one benefit that any economic related matter in metro Atlanta has ever bestowed upon those of us that you think are the great unwashed.

Teddy Solomon, Alma

Another reader: "While Atlanta may be the economic engine of Georgia it is also the gross polluter of an entire region. Are you willing to swap your children's future resources to keep the old mentality or are you willing to manage and control the 'chronically overdeveloped' metro region? Choose wisely or the rest of Georgia, and the region, will choose for you."

And another reader: "The amount of Lake Lanier water consumed by metro Atlanta is an insignificant drop in the bucket compared to what is dumped downstream. What an absurd argument. How about letting metro Atlanta taxpayers keep the billions in taxes sent to the rest of the state and we'll solve the water problem here and let people in Columbus, Albany and the rest of the downstream users pay for their own kids' education instead of expecting Atlantans to pay for them."

dmckee9613@aol.com