The largest of these, Lake Lanier, has about two-thirds of the conservation storage capacity of the basin but impounds only 10 percent of the basin. Consequently, the watershed is capable of being highly regulated in its upper reaches but not in its lower reaches. The Flint River originates just below the City of Atlanta, flows over the fall line and then through the karst region of southwest Georgia until it meets up with the Chattahoochee. There are no storage reservoirs on the Flint and there is a significant ground water contribution to its base flow. The groundwater which flows into the Flint is used extensively for agricultural irrigation in southwest Georgia.
People use the waters of the basin for diverse purposes.
These range from reservoir-based recreation and fishing in the upper reaches to hydropower production at locations throughout the basin to water supply and wastewater dilution for the Atlanta metropolitan area. The basin is also used for water-based commerce in the lower segments of the river. In Florida the prominent uses are natural resource-based including a seafood and tourist industry associated with its estuary. Because of the abundant rainfall there has been a widespread perception in the region that there was ample water for all needs in the future. Several droughts in the 1980s began to change this perception.