Comments on: The 16% release reduction might not happen, but the Corps think we have 375 days left anyhow

By: Cali Guy.

Cali Guy. — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:10:36 +0000

Cali rules baby..!..lol.. all you guys should move over here,.
everything we have is better. We even have better looking females.lol
I’m just playing,.!..;]..
But seriously tell all your females to come live with us..lol

By: Randy

Randy — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:21:43 +0000

Folks it is really a simple problem with a simple fix. I would suggest you read, carefully, the linked article.

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/10/24/huntered_1025.html

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:43:29 +0000

Mark writes:

“a lot of liberals have moved to the Southeast and Atlanta from the Northeast, north Midwest, and California (all three areas run predominately by leftist politicians) to escape their insane taxation and unaffordable living situations”

Don’t worry; all of those liberals will flee your redneck state when it runs out of water. It won’t solve your water problems, but at least you’ll have to find someone else to blame.

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 02:27:16 +0000

People, please leave the politics out of this. None of you liberals have ever complained about your heroes Gore and Edwards living in obscene mansions in drought stricken TN and NC. Of course, I will leave out the fact that a lot of liberals have moved to the Southeast and Atlanta from the Northeast, north Midwest, and California (all three areas run predominately by leftist politicians) to escape their insane taxation and unaffordable living situations. What we need is to act now and cut off water to households and businesses at certain times of the day during the week. What we are dealing with needs action NOW. Leave politics out of it!

By: mickey

mickey — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:27:05 +0000

It seems to me that desalinization and a pipeline from Savannah would be the way to go. I wonder what that would cost and how long it would take to build? I’m guessing the answers are “billions” and “years”, both of which are significant problems.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 21:18:08 +0000

A Great Lakes pipeline is not the solution.

The Great Lakes have an amazingly small watershed. The Upper Lakes - Superior, Michigan, and Huron - are also at record low levels, and it’s having a significant impact on lake shipping. Granted, they look (and are) huge, but these magnificent lakes are very slow to recharge from low water levels. Another difficulty is that a big chunk of that water is Canadian, and they take a dim view on withdrawals from the upstream end of the St. Lawrence seaway, a critical Canadian shipping resource.

Maybe the Ohio or the Mississippi might be a viable solution?

By: Atlantan

Atlantan — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:48:11 +0000

“Water is not the issue, creativity is what’s lacking.” Amen to that. Early action is vital and it’s not happening; we’ve got a bunch of simpletons at the helm. California had a drought of similar proportions in the 90s and they survived it through. Check out this Google book:

http://books.google.com/books?id=VXVH6tW5nugC&dq=california+drought&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=Qi-NEaUZpH&sig=B5J93OHCnvO_qB_unCkz8wx9rv4#PPR20,M1

By: DoSomethingSonny!

DoSomethingSonny! — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:07:14 +0000

Rkolter, there may not be solutions to the Lanier problem but there are alternative solutions to the PROBLEM. The problem is not Lake Lanier, the problem is a reliable water source. Possible solutions: Wells; Pipeline from Great Lakes; Desalinization, etc. The Lake is gone and may never recover if releases continue. So, solutions are needed for the problem and not Lanier. And, prayer vigils are not going to re-fill the lake. We only have a couple months to get meaningful actions in place and those with the resources and power and budgets are praying and not planning!!!!!!!! People need to stop focusing on rain and Lake Lanier - the world is 80% water, it’s time to get creative. Water is not the issue, creativity is what’s lacking.

By: lexy

lexy — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 06:07:18 +0000

375 days my arse. One thing for sure is I don’t trust what the government says. They always put out a positive spin so people won’t panic, but maybe people need to start panicking. The governor’s working on a faith-based solution. Yeah, right. Maybe God is punishing the evangelicals for putting Bush in office and for this stupid Iraq nightmare. Seriously, best thing I can do is remove myself from the problem so I am getting out of Dodge and taking a job in Austin.

By: rkolter

rkolter — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 05:55:58 +0000

What solutions?

There are no solutions. That’s the difficulty.

See, Lake Lanier doesn’t get much water in, and yet holds water for a tremendous part of the state. It also is responsible for releases that run power and industry downstream, refill resevroirs that other places use, and so on. The actual water taken by Atlanta is (now probably under) 500 million gallons. Right now the Corps is aiming for 1.7 billion gallons of release a day.

The lake takes in a couple hundred million gallons a day if you’re lucky. Often, it takes in a net negative (loss to evaporation, groundwater, etcetera).

So, realistically if you cut the water release to just want Atlanta needs, you starve lots of other people of water and power and industry. It’s a bad situation that can’t be simply corrected.

The solution? The immediate one is to figure out how the heck you’re going to get an average 10,000 gallons a second over the dam once you hit the deadpool (at which time the Dam itself won’t be able to release water at an effective rate). Without that, the deadpool might as well not exist. That’s thousands of firehoses of water operating every second.

The long term solution? Find another water source. Probably the ocean, imho.