Focus of the Legislature will be the drought
With the session starting today, the drought figures to be a key issue for Georgia’s lawmakers. This article at 11Alive makes it sound like they’ll be working hard to get something done, which I don’t doubt. Carol Couch, director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division said “At the end of this session, there will be a water plan.”
The article doesn’t get into too many specific ideas, but here are a few they bring up:
- Build more reservoirs.
- More requirements regarding use of low-flow showers, toilets, etc.
- Target leaks in local water systems.
None of that is new, but it’d be nice to see them actually do something rather than simply continue to talk about it.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
“Build more reservoirs.” How exactly does this work? I mean if there is no water to put in the reservoir, then what is the point? Except maybe to line the pockets of some construction company with our tax dollars.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I’m sure there are watersheds in northern Georgia which are not currently collected in any appreciable way. Reserviors similar to Allatoona and Lanier could be created in those watersheds.
January 14th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I think Aaron’s point is that a reservoir is nothing but a hole in the ground until we get enough rain to fill it — which doesn’t seem likely in the short-term.
This certainly is a major factor. I can’t find the numbers offhand, but I think the Lanier watershed captures about 5% of the rainfall in the state (based on size), but then is called upon to supply 60% of the state’s water needs. More reservoirs to capture more water would certainly help down the road, but won’t do us much good right now.
January 14th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Aaron - Reservoirs are a long term solution. We have to think about both short and long term. No. They will do nothing in the short term. But assuming this drought is typical of past droughts in the region, it will turn around. When we are not in a drought, there is plenty of water to satisfy everyone and store back a more for dry times.
Consider one month ago, we were releasing water out of Lanier to keep the mussels and oysters wet. Since then, rains south of us have filled the small reservoirs in south Georgia and flow is 2-3 times the mandated minimum. Those reservoirs are at capacity now. If they were bigger, they could have held back a bit of these recent rains and not drawn so much water from Lanier when they don’t have big rains down there.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Under present federal legislsation and ACE regulations concerning the ACF basin, it would seem, that building conversation storage downstream of Atlanta could have just as significant an impact upon water availability for Atlanta as building upstream of Atlanta. Under the present regulatory scheme, increasing downstream conservation sources of water could be used to keep the Appilachicola River at or above the mandated flow, which then allows the water resources in Lake Lanier to be held-back in conversation for metro Atlanta’s purposes.
I realize that it was an act of Congress under which Buford dam was constructed in the first place, and supplying Atlanta with water is not one of the legislated mandates for the Buford facility. Thus, I wonder whether a new Congressional mandate to build new conservations systems [which comes with it's own significant environmental costs and opposition] will be necessary to help provide a comprehensive framework within which to address the issues arising with the drought. Certainly State-only solutions will be met with the predictable opposition of downstream states continuing to clamor for their own share of scarce water resources.
RichS is certainly right about one thing: regardless of the origins of this drought and whether or not climate change plays any role here [IE: is the present drought statisitically within climatological perssistence, or are we turning a corner to more frequent and severe droughts in the future?]the rains will return to some degree in the future, and there will then be an opportunity for conservation systems to recharge. Therefore, solutions to future water shortages seem to require inclusion of wise use strategies, and a more pro-active policy of water preservation in conservation facilities such as Buford dam.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Well said SS.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I live in “Smyrna” (quotes because… man what a dumb name for a town
), where the town, per their latest water bill newsletter, has cut back over TWENTY PERCENT in water usage. It’s actually significantly higher, I’ve just misplaced the newsletter and can’t get the actual figure. If this had all been through cutbacks and smarter usage of water it would amazing. That’s the good side - saving water, no matter how, we’ll call that AWESOME. So the criticism to follow isn’t meant to belittle the fact that they found savings. OK, you’re ready - the bad side.
Over 500 000 gallons per month were saved by patching up three leaks they found in the system. Awesome that they found it. Amazing to me that we were bleeding 1/2 million gallons per month for who-know-how-long and no one noticed until there was a water shortage, when they brought in some people to electronically search for leaks. I’m glad that “finding leaks” made it onto their list… crazy.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
May I ask, with the water level so low at Lake Lanier, why aren’t the exposed portions of the lake bed being made deeper? It would serve the same purpose of increased storage (once the rains come again) at a much cheaper price than building new reservoirs.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:51 am
According to Wikipedia, the City of Smyrna was named after the Smyrna Camp Ground, which was a well-known religious encampment in the area in the 1830’s. According to the official Smyrna web site:
“Smyrna was first known as Ruffs Siding and later Varners Station. Eventually, the name Smyrna was given to the campground area. The name ‘Smyrna’ is found in the Bible’s book of Revelation as the name of one of Paul the Apostle’s seven churches in Asia.”
It seems to be a not uncommon place name in the southeastern US:
* Smyrna, Delaware
* New Smyrna, Florida
* New Smyrna Beach, Florida
o New Smyrna Speedway
* Smyrna, Georgia
* Smyrna, Kentucky
* Smyrna, Maine
* Smyrna, Michigan
* Smyrna (town), New York
* Smyrna (village), New York
* Smyrna, North Carolina
* Smyrna, South Carolina
* Smyrna, Tennessee
Again, thanks to Wikipedia.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
It’s a good question Michael which I only have a partial answer to. What you are talking about is basically dredging. The dredged dirt has to be taken somewhere. I have been told that dirt dredged from Lanier can’t just be treated as ordinary dirt and used for fill. For some reason it has to be treated as hazardous.
So I’m not saying that dredging isn’t an economically viable option. It probably is. It is also widely discussed to just raise full pool by a foot or two. It would take quite a bit of dredging to equal that.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Just thought I’d ask what do you think the best case and worst case scenario would be of people/legislature in your area, by that I mean is there a mandate from the general public that drought in your region is serious or are people distracted by other concerns, like the state of the local economy? FYI the wal mart where 10,000 people showed up to apply for 300 jobs made the news out here….
The reason I ask is because I’m on the other side of the country (california) where we too have drought conditions, but because of larger water storeage systems the immediate problem of running out of water is not as serious as it is in the southeast, but in both areas (and for that matter in many parts around the world) the general trend is demand is exceeding supply of many basic natural resources like water.
January 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Building more reservoir-lakes has to be done in Georgia, but remember Alabama and Florida always object claiming Georgia would steal more of their water by doing that, so they file lawsuits. All three states must build more reservoirs and stop claiming another state’s watershed belongs to them.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Half-inch of snow fell at my property near Stone Mountain tonight. Light rain is now slowing melting the snow, but so far no freezing rain which causes problems. This storm is not dropping high amounts of precipitation, therefore will not rise the level of Lake Lanier much, but I bet it looks cool to see the lake surrounded by snow.
January 19th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Kind of quiet around here….you can almost hear the snow falling……
..or are those reservoirs refilling?
January 19th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I think it’s just the snow — it is for us! Fun stuff.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:06 am
I wish C.Little. I don’t think you can hear the .03′ gain that we got. In fact, Lanier is still a solid foot below the previous low record in 1982. More rains in the forecast. Hopefully we can get some gain from them.
January 20th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Perhaps the legislature will outlaw droughts and mandate a minimum level of annual rainfall. A $10,000 fine for every inch rainfall short ought to bring the scoflaws into line.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:40 am
You doomsday guys give me a chuckle.
Meanwhile, Little is out here making lemonade………..all the new lakefronts lots are going to be worth a FORTUNE!
Go Global Warming!