Toccoa’s Lake Yonah water agreement remained unsigned as year-end deadline loomed

Toccoa was still waiting on Georgia Power to provide documents needed to finalize its Lake Yonah water-withdrawal permit as a Dec. 31, 2023 deadline approached, WNEG Radio reported Dec. 20. The report said the city had decided earlier that month to retain its permit for up to 6 million gallons a day and pay a newly quoted $167,000 annual fee, but that no documents had arrived for city officials to sign as of Dec. 18. Georgia Power representatives told City Manager Freda Wheeler, according to the station, that an agreement completed late because of the utility’s delay would be backdated.

The unresolved paperwork mattered because the permit was tied to water Toccoa could draw from Lake Yonah for its municipal system and regional water business. WNEG Radio reported that the permit had historically cost roughly $6,000 to $7,000 a year before Georgia Power raised the quoted annual charge to $167,000. The station also reported that Wheeler said giving up the reservation could make it difficult to recover and could force costly removal of infrastructure carrying water toward Davidson Creek and Toccoa Lake. For customers, Wheeler said a water-rate increase was intended solely to cover the Georgia Power increase.

The public trail begins with the City Commission’s Dec. 11 agenda, which placed “consideration of an agreement with Georgia Power” under new business. That agenda also listed consideration of a water-rate increase, underscoring the financial pressure surrounding the issue, but it did not identify the agreement’s purpose or state whether commissioners acted. Nine days later, WNEG Radio connected the negotiations to the Lake Yonah permit and reported the city’s decision to retain the 6-million-gallons-per-day allocation. The timing explains the urgency, but the agenda alone cannot establish that its agreement item was the same permit arrangement described in the radio report.

City officials’ reported position was that retaining the permit protected a long-term water asset despite the sharp price increase. Wheeler told WNEG Radio that the city uses little of the permitted water in a typical year but viewed the reserved capacity as important to Toccoa’s role as a regional provider. She also said Georgia Power had offered only two options: pay the higher fee for the 6-million-gallons-per-day permit or reduce the reserved amount. Georgia Power’s position is represented only through Wheeler’s account in the report; no final contract terms or direct utility explanation for the increase appear in the agenda.

What is confirmed by the agenda is limited: commissioners were scheduled to consider an agreement with Georgia Power on Dec. 11. WNEG Radio reported that the city chose to retain the permit and pay the $167,000 fee, and that Georgia Power said a late agreement could be backdated if the utility caused the delay. Those are reported developments, not a City Commission vote record. Neither the agenda nor the report establishes an executed agreement, its duration or obligations, a recorded commission action, or whether the backdated arrangement ultimately took effect.

No later official action or scheduled public step is documented in this record. The next meaningful development would be a City Commission record, a signed agreement, or a public confirmation from the city or Georgia Power showing whether the Lake Yonah permit was finalized after the deadline and on what terms. Until then, residents cannot determine from the documented record whether the agreement reached the commission was completed, how the $167,000 charge was formally adopted, or what continuing obligations either side accepted.