Meeting Summary: Upper Flint Council April 9, 2026

Meeting Summary

Upper Flint Regional Water Council Flint Energies, Reynolds, GA

April 9, 2026

Welcome & Introductions

Mark Masters (GWPPC) welcomed everyone and thanked participants for attending. Mark reviewed the agenda and objectives for the day’s meeting. He then had the Council members and observers introduce themselves.

Mark shared links to the recent water planning webinar series and updated the council on the promotional videos being produced for each council – the Upper Flint Council video was completed and posted on the council webpage.

Chair’s Report 

Chairman Graft thanked everyone for attending and encouraged good discussions and questions. He noted that they invited stakeholders to the council meeting, and he hopes to see greater turnout in future meetings.

EPD Updates

Victoria Adams (GAEPD) presented updates from the 2026 Seed Grant Application period, which ended on October 31, 2025. One application for the Upper Flint Region will be funded. The accepted proposal is from the UGA RBC and will look at “Advancing Instream Flow Evaluation in Water Planning.”

Victoria also provided an update on progress of the changes to the State Water Plan, with major changes in Section 14 for council numbers, composition, and term length. It is currently with the Governor awaiting signature.

Data Centers

Sub-Committee Report 

Chairman Graft provided an update on the data center sub-committee and recent webinar. The webinar covered the different types of data centers and cooling technologies, potential issues with data centers for consideration, and that zoning andordinances have been developed in different areas in the state for data center development.

Victoria Adams (GAEPD)

Victoria provided responses from EPD to questions that came up during the data center committee meeting. There have been updates to the DRI process, including for technological facilities and solar power generation facilities. The regional commissions administer the DRI review process. She provided information for DRI FAQ page on the DCA website (https://dca.georgia.gov/developments-regional-impacts-dri-faqs) and list of DRIs in the state (https://apps.dca.ga.gov/DRI/Submissions.aspx).

Spalding County Manager 

Dr. Ledbetter gave a presentation on the history of data center development and an overview of the Spalding County ordinance for data center development.

This was followed by questions and discussion:

Question: What is the acreage of facilities in Spalding County and how are they different from those in Loudon County Virginia?

Response: It varies in Spalding, but up to 240 acres. The types of proposal and approved project are fundamentally different the Loudon County. Georgia’s data center lands are larger, which doesn’t make them better but spreading them out can help.

Question: What happens to the water that is used?

Response: In Spalding, it is treated and then goes into the sewer system

Question: In an area like Metro Atlanta, has anyone thought about what projected impact would happen with additional massive amounts of water?

Response: Spreading them across the state could help

Question: Can you share your (Dr. Ledbetter) experience with developing the Spalding County ordinance and why there is a lawsuit?

Response: Cannot comment to the lawsuit at this time. It took about a year to get through the ordinance process, primarily with county commissioners, and they considered how they could resolve some of the pros and cons in the ordinance

Comments: The DRI process is a place that the council can provide feedback. The council is interested in the data center sub-committee developing a DRI response. The council also wanted to bring awareness to rural counties that do not have the resources to develop their own ordinance – and consider how those areas could be supported. If the Spalding County ordinance provides a good template – then this could be used model ordinance. The City of Griffin is preparing to propose a draft ordinance at the end of April.

Report from Griffin

Council member Brandon Lewis (City of Griffin) provided an update on water quality in the Flint River and litigation. Following the unregulated contaminant monitoring rule, Griffin found PFAS in their source water at double to triple the EPA maximum limit (Flint River). It will be significant capital cost to address contaminants and they have filed notice against the City of Atlanta, using lessons from locations in north Georgia. They are also drafting a complaint for 18 additional polluters of PFAS.

Griffin has until 2031 to ensure PFAS are below concentration in drinking water. They are currently doing PFAS treatment studies to plan for treatment that could also be effective for emerging contaminants in the future.

Discussion Summary

Question: What is the most efficient way to remove PFAS? At what point in treatment?

Response: Not to use it in the first place – right now the focus is on drinking water – and treatment is very expensive. There are concerns about the time it will take to recover funds from responsible polluters

Question to EPD: where do we think the federal government may land with PFAS in wastewater?

Response: EPA staff said they are currently drafting effluent guidelines for manufactures of PFOS and PFOA but they don’t have a timeline for that and haven’t suggested what those values might be

Question: In the draft complaint, are there pollutants other than PFAS?

Response: Yes, there have been issues with the Airport and it also includes sedimentation, sewer spills, fuels spills, glycol spills

Flint Riverkeeper (FRK) provided additional information on the recent fuel spill at the Atlanta Airport. The spill was leaking for 9 days before they knew – FRK found fuel up to 10 miles downstream of the airport and found glycol up to 18 miles downstream. Litter is an additional contaminant. There have been 9 fuel leaks in the last 10 years from the Atlanta Airport.

Council commented that they should include the water quality impacts of the Airport in their plan as a downstream region.

Implementation Assessment

Caitlin Sweeney provided a progress update on the implementation assessment for the Upper Flint Region. At the end of the presentation Chairman Graft called for council volunteers to review the assessments. The reports will be finalized by June 2026.

Volunteers: Adam Graft, Gordon Rogers, and Raines Jordan

Priorities Discussion

Laura Rack (GWPPC) led the council and observers in a 2-part priorities discussion to prepare for the upcoming review and revision of the regional water plan.

Council members discussed three questions during the first part of the exercise:

• Over the past 10–15 years, what are the most important

  changes you’ve observed in the management of water supply and water quality in this region?

• When you think about the Upper Flint region 20 years from now, what does “success” look like for our water resources?
• What water-related issues will have the greatest influence on the region’s ability to grow and thrive over the next five to ten years?

Council members noted the improvement in collection and availability of high-quality data by the agriculture, municipal, and industry sectors in the past 10-15 years. There were also increased water conservation efforts and returns in the agricultural and municipal sectors. Council members noted policy improvements that are happening now, like Skywater flow restoration and the GA-FIT project in southwest Georgia. In general, there has been more awareness that Georgia has water issues, but the complexities are not well understood.

Now and into the future council members discussed potential opportunities in crop genetics for water use efficiency, which could expand to residential landscaping as well. In addition, data centers and industrial pollution are areas of concern and improving understanding of complex water issues for newly elected official.

During the second part of the priorities discussion council members discussed what they wanted to see more of or done differently in water planning. The following topics were raised during discussion: water storage, water return, water quality, money for infrastructure, public awareness and outreach for water planning, engagement with economic development offices (for council to be better informed about potential development like data centers), engagement with the state water council, model scenarios for more intense drought (e.g. 4 years).

Next Steps

Mark Masters (GWPPC) shared the conference and registration link for the ACF Waters Conference April 28-30, 2026. He also shared the links for the GA-FIT Drought SWAP page. Conditions have been very dry, and Mark provided the ACF Drought Dashboard as a resource. Mark let council members know that GWPPC and the councils are standing by for the appointment process pending a signature from the Governor.

Public Comment

No public comments were made.

Adjourn

Chairman Graft thanked the Council for their discussion and participation today and adjourned the meeting.

Council Members Attending April 9, 2026 Meeting

Barry Blount 

Gene Brunson 

Beth English 

Adam Graft 

Terrell Hudson 

Donald Chase

Raines Jordan 

Brad Ellis 

Gordon Rogers

Brandon Lewis (Nominee) 

Andy Payne (Nominee)

James (Dick) R. Dowdy (Nominee)

Other Attendees

Kristin Rowles (GWPPC)* 

Mark Masters (GWPPC) 

Caitlin Sweeney (GWPPC) 

Laura Rack (GWPPC)

Tim Fields (GAEPD) 

Parris Maguire (GAEPD) 

Veronica Craw (GAEPD) 

Russell Nix (GAEPD) 

Victoria Adams (GAEPD)

Helen Tran (GEFA)

Steve Ledbetter (Spalding County)

Allison Slocum (River Valley Regional Commission)

Blaine Hoskins (River Valley Regional Commission)

Laura Schneider (River Valley Regional Commission)

Robert Sullins

Braxton Crews (UGA Extension)

Grant Buckley (Cordele - Crisp Industrial Development Council)

*By videoconference

Related to: 

• Upper Flint