Comments on: Decision on flow reductions due tomorrow, and we have 79 days left

By: Donna

Donna — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 05:07:23 +0000

Move to Minnesota we have lots of water!!

By: Atlanta Water Shortage » Georgia Drought » Blog Archive » AJC starts the countdown, but some rain is coming our way.

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:06:02 +0000

[...] is that they don’t explain where that number comes from — wasn’t it just “79 days left” about a week [...]

By: jhb

jhb — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:49:22 +0000

rich..lanier is a federal lake not georgia’s only. while part of the water may start in georgia…if undamed, it will flow s. to alabama and florida. let’s not get too into finger pointing was my only real point. it’s our problem and pointing fingers at other states for our lack of proper leadership for the last 30 + years is just lame and is making georgia appear to be a complainer state with no solutions only blame to be pointed. is that what we want to have other states think about us. that we are a bunch of whiners and can’t fix our own problems? this is not the georgia i know. atlanta yes, but not the state. finger pointing is what got us here in the first place 17 years ago and even further back than that.

even if the army corps shut the flow completely..then what? we wait until rain…if that doesn’t happen…atlanta runs out of drinking water. either way the city and northern part of the state is screwed..which leads me back to my original post which is…start implementing new infrastructure like desalinization plants and various other ideas for a long term sustainable plan to fix the problems long term. in the meantime, cut the flow back and conserve like hell. there really is no other options, is there?

By: gramps colorado

gramps colorado — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:57:13 +0000

Thanks for the read. This did not occur to me at all. Also did not realize how much coal GA is burning these days, i.e. 5th in the world. Very enlightening and disturbing.

By: ST

ST — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 06:44:14 +0000

For an “on-track” and painfully relevant look at the way climate change, electricity production, and water supply are bound together in Georgia, please read this PDF from the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy:

cleanenergy.org/resources/reports/GAClimateWaterPaper.pdf

One of its authors, Sara Barczak, is quoted in the AJC’s enlightening article from this Sunday (Nov 18th) about energy production and our water shortage. This is a must-read and should dramatically change the dialogue we’ve been having regarding water conservation. Find it here:

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/2007/11/17/power_1118.html

By: gramps colorado

gramps colorado — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:36:32 +0000

Right on track and very lucid thank you much. Contrary to your moniker, there is nothing that Sonny can do practically to address this problem in the short term. Put simply, the rains must come or else Georgia is fokked. Okay?

But let’s assume for stupidity’s sake that global warming is a farce. Build your reservoirs and your expensive desalination plants. In two decades Altanta will be wall-to-wall with 5.5M more neurotic people, and you will be faced with the same, insolvable crisis. You could put a cap on growth and send people away, but where would they go? There are vast areas of our country experiencing drought conditions as severe as GA.

And I wasn’t proposing that we line folks up against a wall and mow them down, nor was I alluding to any kind of government-sponsored measures. The greatest contribution that one can make to combat global warming is to have fewer children, but on a voluntary basis.

By: DoSomethingSonny!

DoSomethingSonny! — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:02:00 +0000

Getting a little off track here?…So Gramps, your answer is to stamp out people and not the mussels? Are you one of those new world order types? The earth is over 80% water, I think we can figure this out without genocide…E gads, we have gone from the Dead Pool to a Dead Planet. Don’t believe the global warming propaganda, its just a method to take more of our liberties away from us - period. Let’s just figure out the water problem - ok? The earth has been here for billions of years through mass extinction, metors, ice ages, I am betting on the planet and its no time to get loopy.

By: gramps colorado

gramps colorado — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:42:45 +0000

This problem is much larger in scope than mere urban sprawl. It points to an obvious truth that the world is overpopulated so much so that we are and have for several centuries now changed the course of the planet’s climate perhaps irreversibly. Climatologists have been saying for years that the inevitable consequences of warming are less predictable rainfall, drought, mega-wildfires, and more violent weather patterns. All of this has come to pass and is the shape of things to come.

We should be coming into the next iteration of an ice age which cycles every 100K years due to gravitational forces which causes Earth’s orbit to elongate; however, we are all participants in the strongest warming phase in the past million years. If human beings are at the root cause of this through GGE emissions, then by my estimation, the Earth may only be able to support up to 100M of us worldwide at our current median standard-of-living indefinitely.

A plan for the future is incomplete if it does not involve some mention of population control. While I have the utmost respect for our scientists, even they have grossly underestimated the pace of warming. With the world’s pop. at 6.6B and growing, so echoes the voice of Malthus.

By: RichS

RichS — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:34:55 +0000

JHB -

Georgia tried to build another reservoir twenty years ago. Alabama fought us and we dropped it. So yes they do deserve blame.

What are Alabama and Florida going to do when Lanier runs out of water? The answer……

It won’t be that big of a deal to them. Whether they have to take less water now or later - it will be an inconvenience. BooHoo.

It is already an inonvenience for Atlanta & north. Heading quickly to a crisis. I’m hearing about fishermen in Florida and a power plant in Alabama. I think those are pretty small concerns compared to drinking water for a few million people.

Atlanta can’t conserve it’s way out of this. The few million gallons that could be saved through conservation are a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of gallons that are being flushed into the ocean in order to keep some mussels wet and some fishermen in a job.

By: RichS

RichS — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:26:49 +0000

JohnC -

Atlanta is not exceeding it’s water source. Unfortunately Atlanta doesn’t control it’s water source and it’s water is being flushed downstream. Atlanta has a fairly small watershed area, however it would do just fine with the watershed from the north Georgia area. This north Georgia watershed however is being expected to supply everyone downstream also. Please look at a map of Lanier. It’s water supply comes from North GA not from out of state. Why should Florida have more right to rain that falls in Georgia than we do???