The Nuremberg Wedding Cup

(As told by Michelle Penkava)

Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in a village on the edge of the Black Forest, the same forest where the sleeping beauty lived. One day as she was walking through the forest, she saw a wood chopper, the son of the village silversmith. It was love at first sight, but she was a princess and he, a lowly wood chopper, an apprentice silversmith, a commoner. The princess asked her father, the king, to allow her to marry the son of the silversmith. But he would not even listen to her. He banished her from his sight.

The princess was heartbroken, but persistent . She pleaded with her father daily. The banishment meant nothing, especially since her mother joined in her pleading.

The king was still adamant and said, "No!" But finally, in order to get his wife and daughter to leave him alone he said, "If the son of the silversmith can design and fashion a cup from which you both can drink at the same time, I will allow you to marry him."

The king was sure of himself. He had stopped the pleading and still saved his daughter from marrying a lowly commoner -- he knew no man could make such a cup, but he forgot that young love could overcome the impossible. The son of the village silversmith did make the cup. Before the royal court of Nuremberg they drank from the cup at the same time. The king could not go back on his word. He allowed his daughter to marry the commoner. And they lived happily ever after!

The story of the wedding cup was told by my grandfather, Brigadier General, retired Harold A. Dye, at our rehearsal dinner on October 16, 1998, and again just after the wedding the next day. We drank champagne from the cup at the same time, which allowed Bill to join the family.

Abundance of Water

MEMORIES OF A 90 YEAR OLD ABOUT
THE ABUNDANCE OF WATER
(written in April, 2008)

When I came home from WWII in 1945, Atlanta was a different city than it was four years before. There was a sense of vibrancy in the air. There was a clear vision of a great city that had risen from the ashes of the Civil War and the aftermath of stifling differential freight rates and economic servitude which had prevailed since Sherman had burned Atlanta to the ground. There was even the thought that Atlanta could overcome the divisiveness of racial segregation and became the beacon of tolerance for the South and the Nation.

In 1946, my brother Mercer and I formed a construction company which began to grow with Atlanta and its 200,000 people.

We and so many other Atlantans and Georgians could see Atlanta's potential and its importance to the state of the Georgia and the Southeast. We could see the demand for water becoming greater than the Chattahoochee could afford. Once, in the late fall of the year 1928 or 1929, I broad jumped across the clear, beautiful stream called the Chattahoochee River. In the spring of the following year the river flooded and badly damaged the Chatahoochee bridge near Vinings and did considerable damage down river at West Point and Columbus. Certainly, Chattahoochee water was a matter of "feast or famine".

In the forties, my father, Garnett Dye, an architect, was on a committee set up by the City of Atlanta to solve Atlanta's future water problems. (Atlanta's population was about 150,000. Remember, Atlanta had been burned to the ground only 75 years before.) That committee proposed the building of a dam on the Chattahoochee near Buford which would impound enough water to supply millions of people through any foreseeable drought and still meet the down river requirements of Georgia cities to the South of Atlanta and the requirements of Alabama on the West and Florida to the South where the Chattahoochee became the Apalachicola. It was agreed that a specified amount of water would be released every day to meet the requirements of Atlanta and all downstream users, including those in Alabama and Florida.

There was still much opposition to the building of the dam and the subsequent flooding of a large area of forest land. The loss of many miles of fishing streams was of prime importance to many Georgia anglers who did not realize the great potential of the impounded lake as a fishing and recreational area.

The U.S. Corps of Engineers probably clinched the deal when they pointed out to the Alabama and Florida delegation that no water would be transferred from one river basin to another. Especially mentioned was water already being transferred from the Chatahoochee basin to the Altamaha basin by Dekalb County and the City of Atlanta.

In 1950 I was recalled for service in the US Army immediately after North Korea invaded South Korea. I lost track of the water situation in Georgia until 1967 when I retired from the Army and returned to Atlanta to work in the Georgia Department of Industry and Trade under the new commissioner, General Louis Truman.

In 1968 the Department of Industry and Trade began a strong advertising program designed to show that Georgia was a great place to do business, and that Georgia had everything needed by a prospective business or manufacturing venture, including an abundant supply of water. The program was immediately successful.

In 1970 the Corps of Engineers for several days in a row released forty million gallons of water from the Lake Lanier reservoir in order to maintain the minimum flow requirements of the lower Chattahoochee basin. Suddenly the Corps of Engineers became the worst of villains.
But, the facts showed otherwise:

• Atlanta was withdrawing some 60 million gallons of water per day from the Chattahoochee below the Buford Dam
• After usage, the water was treated and supposedly returned to the Chattahoochee basin. But, in fact, approximately half the water was not being returned to the proper river basin. That portion used in the Eastern and South Eastern areas of Atlanta was being treated and drained to the East into the Altamaha River Basin and ultimately into the Atlantic ocean. • The portion used, largely in the Western half of Atlanta was used, treated and returned to the Chattahoochee basin near Bolton
• The transfer of roughly half of the water pumped from the Chattahoochee Basin and returned to the Altamaha Basin (where it was not needed for any purpose) was in clear violation of the 20 year old Corps Agreement with the City of Atlanta and the State of Georgia.

I represented the Department of Industry and Trade at an emergency meeting in the office of Governor Lester Maddox. At that meeting Governor Maddox and all concerned, including representatives of the City of Atlanta, recognized the problem of the illegal transfer of water and the dire consequences of a drought.

The solution to the immediate problem was evident. The City of Atlanta agreed to dig a tunnel at least 30 feet below the surface from a collecting point near what is now Centennial Park, West to a new treatment plant on the Chattahoochee a few miles South of I-20 where the treated water would be returned to the Chattahoochee River Basin; thereby eliminating the need to release the compensating water (40,000,000 gallons per day) from Lake Lanier. The Corps of Engineers had proposed that the tunnel be constructed in the fifties.

Also at that meeting the long range water problem was discussed. There was a consensus. The construction of the Sprewell Pump Storage dam on the Flint River South of Atlanta should begin as soon as possible. The Sprewell Bluff reservoir would make available the hundreds of millions of gallons of water that rained down on the greater Atlanta airport and on South Fulton, Dekalb, Clayton and Henry counties.

Many of the same arguments about the construction of the Sprewell Bluff Dam were brought up that had been used twenty or more years before when construction of the Buford dam was being considered.

Governor Maddox urged the Corps of Engineers to move as rapidly as possible on the construction of the Sprewell Bluff Dam. He also asked the Corps to consider sites on the Chattahoochee and Chestatee above Lake Lanier for the construction of dams to provide future reservoirs for Lake Lanier.

When Governor Maddox left office the plans for the Atlanta tunnels were well under way and federal funds for the construction of the Sprewell Bluff Reservoir were assured. But the "racial" problem came into "play" regarding the tunnel construction under a predominantly black portion of Atlanta. Consequently, the tunnel was not begun. Soon after, Governor Carter canceled all planning and funding for the Sprewell Bluff Dam.

If the tunnel had been dug, the subsequent withdrawal of water from Lake Lanier by the Corps of Engineers would not have been necessary. As a result Lake Lanier would be nearly full.

Further, if the Sprewell Bluff pump storage dam and reservoir had been constructed the reservoir would have mitigated the destruction caused by the flood of 1989, and in time of draught, limited amounts of water could be pumped back into the Atlanta system while still maintaining the minimum flow requirements of the Flint river.