How bad is the georgia, atlanta drought?

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/new...y.asp?ID=118469

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/sto...eruse_1011.html



It is bad. We have had partial bans for several years. Last week they put out a total ban. No car washing, no lawn watering.

The local governments have escalated this problem by the out of control development and encouragement of huge growth, with no infrastructure in place. They have always been clueless in city and Regional Planning. Even with all of the growth issues, horrible traffic and no where to build roads to handle it, pollution (asthma capital of the US), water issues, they still want to double the population within a few years.

There is a housing glut on the market along with record foreclosures, yet they give building permits out willy, nilly. They are building on every square inch of green space.

Atlanta Metro, Fulton, Dekalb, and surrounding suburbs have crumbling sewer and water infrastructure. It is estimated that 38% of water used is wasted due to leakes and broken pipes. The county and city workers sleep in their trucks and take long lunches, and now it is catching up with them. Reported leaks take at least a month to get to the top of the list.

Citizens have been taxed to death over these issues. The state needs to bring in some infrastructure repair folks and get to the bottom of it.

There is a Tristate water war going on. Alabama and florida get diverted water, yet have not had the restrictions that Atlanta had had. Atlanta has twice the population of the entire state of Alabama.

The Army Corp of engineers is involved in diverting water to Florida to save some mollusks and sturgeon. The state of Georgia is about to take them to court.

You know what happens when the USAC of Engineers gets involved - New Orleans Levee System.

Overall the quality of life in Atlanta has gone downhill in the last 10 years. All growth is not good.

 

In contrast, where I live is the exact opposite. Over the years at least 80% of the land in my county has been dedicated to parkland. (making a small tax base, leading to outrageous housing prices), BUT with such planning and restrictive permit process, my county is able to collect and store our own water. Citizens have banded together to fight off willy nilly development (not ALL development) thereby preserving a great place to live. This other-end-of-the-spectrum development strategy is also not without it's problems (limited low income housing, roads in poor condition because they don't qualify for federal grants since we won't cut down our redwoods and other specimen trees to widen right-of-ways to federal standards), but if you are lucky enough to live here it is a great place to live, and the county's developmental potential is mostly built upon, so the battles are finally lessening. Two opposite tacts to developers' wishes, probably neither one is 'ideal'.

 

it sounds about that bad, burritos. October is the driest month down there and they didn't get any good 'canes to dump loads of water on them, which is what they were hoping for. Atlanta has depended on Lake Lanier far too much and their poor planning is biting them in the nice person now. I'm surprised that they're not restricting power generation (or are they?). That's gotta be eating up a lot of their water, unless their plants use ground water or river water for cooling.

 

It's as bad as they say. I agree with priusmaybe that Atlanta has created their own problem. There has been limited to no restriction on building permits. I have a running joke with friends..."there's a blade of grass, let's build a townhome on it". The cities' bad habits and no enforcement of the previous watering restrictions has led us to where we are today. I have neighbors that were watering whenever they wanted even when we were under a partial restriction. When reported, the county did nothing to stop the watering. And now they are saying we may only have 80 days of water left. Big surprise!

Fortunately, I will be moving to Savannah before 80 days is up. I'm not sure how fun this city will be when we can only shower every third day.

Chrick

 

The drought and therefore water restrictions here in Adelaide started soon after a pipeline was laid to get more water to the wine districts of the Barossa Valley. Lucky thing for the grape growers.

Or could it be that the water used in the Barossa Valley is one of the reasons we have water restrictions in Adelaide? Before the pipeline most grape vines did OK with just rain for water. In fact dry years often produce the best and most expensive wines.

Funny how these problems are not as local as we think. We are restricted to watering for up to 3 hours per week on a saturday or sunday, depending on house number and only with a hand held hose with a trigger nozzle or drippers, no sprays or sprinklers, bucket car washing and 4 minutes is the maximum time in the shower.

 

The simple way to fix all of this is to charge the market value instead of treating water as a massively subsidized commodity. When people have to pay $10 to take a typical shower they'll change their ways in a heart beat.

Savannah... my home town. I used to live out on the islands, but that was ages ago. It's changed so much since I left. I wonder when they'll start building desalination plants on the coast to feed Atlanta. This could end up being a good thing. It'll raise awareness and maybe pull a few heads out of the sand.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Oct 19 2007, 02:05 PM) [snapback]527851[/snapback]</div>

While I'd personally hate to pay more for water, I agree completely.

That seems to be the most logical long-term solution. I'm guessing it would take years to complete and billions of dollars, so it could take a long time to even get started...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Oct 19 2007, 03:05 PM) [snapback]527851[/snapback]</div>

I say the same thing about health care. I guess there are people that look at water in general and believe it to be a "right" granted them by living in the US of A. Hey, without water, there would be no need for health care.

For the post below:
http://www.water-technology.net/projects/israel/
an article about Israeli desalination technology - a world leader in this technology - perhaps Atlanta and others should give them a buzz. Not a bad idea to put into effect for those moments in need.

 

Fixing the leaks would be an obvious, simple thing to do, and push-button low-flow showers could help reduce the demand. Installing composting toilets could also save a significant amount of water.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Oct 22 2007, 09:57 AM) [snapback]528863[/snapback]</div>

Or simply dual flush mode toilets. These are the norm in Oz and NZ and you can find them here too. Home Depot even carries a model. It's ridiculous to flush "the whiz" with 1.6 gal. There's tremendous waste of water in this country and the only reason it happens is because there's no immediate consequence.

Personally, I think composting toilets are a waste in urban areas. You loose out on the opportunity to have a waste water treatment facility turn the waste to energy (and they can compost the rest) and the infrastructure's already there.

 

69 days of water left here according to this article, and this kind of crap is still going on:
http://www.newsobserver.com/weather/drough...ml?iref=topnews

last year we got pretty much zero precipitation from hurricanes, and so far this summer/fall it has misted- not rained- 4 times, briefly, that i can recall. including today.

so i wouldn't put much stock into the "rainy season" idea, unfortunately.