Outdoor watering restrictions WILL continue for the city at Atlanta
Two weeks ago, Gov. Perdue announced that watering restrictions would be eased for all of the north Georgia counties currently under the watering ban. However, it was made clear that local officials could choose whether or not to relax the ban in their areas.
Today, Mayor Shirley Franklin announced that the city of Atlanta would not be easing the restrictions — the current “no watering” rules will stay in effect for a while longer. However, both public and private swimming pools can be filled immediately and used this summer.
February 20th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I’m glad that the city and now Dekalb county are being cautious, here. Lanier has NOT replenished itself this winter. We should be very concerned about the availability of our water supply here by the end of the summer, if this weather pattern persists.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:38 am
The rains cometh….and Mickey’s Google ad revenues plummet….
Anyone care to fathom a guess as to how many “days” remain in Lake Lanier now?
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:04 am
Not very many C Little if we start having to release at last year’s rates to keep a minimum flow in Florida.
Sadly while we seem to be getting a reasonable amount of rain, Lanier is refilling very slowly. On these occasional day when we are getting an inch of rain, it is refilling about as much as it was dropping EVERY day last fall.
We are still just a couple of inches above the previous record low from 1981. We are not out of the woods yet by a long shot.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am
I’ll be continuing my predictions when the lake stops refilling C.Little. It makes no real sense to write predictions while the lake is filling up.
Although, I still think my 5.5 foot gain prediction is about on target.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 am
Anyone know why Lanier isn’t filling with the rain? Guesses?
RichS says that a day of 1″ rainfall fills the lake as much as it dropped in a day last year. Since we haven’t averaged 365″ rainfall per year in the past, something is amiss. I’m curious what that something is — erroneous assertion, extreme water use, or something keeping the lake from filling.
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Mickey,do you(or anyone else)have a link for more info on Sweetwater Creek/George Sparks resoivoir/city of College Park water supply?
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:06 am
Sorry, but I don’t. Maybe someone else will be able to help. Sorry.
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:10 pm
The main reason Lake Lanier is not refilling is that ACE keeps releasing more water each day, from Buford Dam, than enters the reservoir from its watershed. At some point the citizens of Georgia are going to have to file lawsuits to stop the excessive water releases. What is basically happening is Lanier is being used to recharge Lake Seminole, so 3+ billion gallons of water can be released daily from Woodruff Dam into Florida. Come summer we will see if Lanier is drained completely or not.
February 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Jay, that’s certainly why it dropped so fast last fall, but discharge rates are pretty reasonable right now. You can see here that our average discharge rate in January was 790 CF/S, and it has reduced to around 640 for February.
http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/gage/acf/prob2.txt
Somewhere around that 600 level is probably the number that needs to be released to supply Atlanta’s needs with enough overhead to keep Atlanta’s sewage diluted with plenty of clean water for downstream users.
One theory is that the smaller ponds etc., have to fill up first and then their overflow will fill Lanier.
February 24th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
?What kept Lanier from plummeting so far during the drought of 2000-02?Wasnt the ACE releasing the same amounts then?As I recall it didnt rain much in ‘00,’01,or ‘02,and then in ‘03,’04 & ‘05 there was heavy flooding during hurricane season.The period between ‘06-present is mimicking ‘00-’02,with no major hurricanes.Arent we about due for a wet hurricane season?
And Im curious,the wiki says that the city of College Park gets 0 water from Lanier though Fulton county gets some of its water from the Chattahoochee.Im in Cpk and Fulton,so does a portion of my water come from Chattahoochie/Lanier?(pardon my ignorance)
February 24th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
I’m just curious… What sense it has if the watering is band but you can fill your pool? I know, that the people bought them to swim in them and not to watch them, but anyway the water which is in the pool can be used more efficiently.
February 24th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
The truth is Susan that the impact of filling swimming pools is negligible while the combined impact of all the people who normally water their lawns throughout the summer is significant.
Whether one is a better use than the other - I would probably side with the families who have kids playing in a pool over the people who just want to have a nice looking lawn so their neigbors will envy them. Agree or disagree, lawn watering in the metro area accounts for much more water use than filling swimming pools. I’m going to guess 100 to 1. Does anyone have actual data??
February 24th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Someone mentioned that it didn’t take much water to maintain the swimming pools. It just gets toped off every now and recycles the same water when you are cleaning it or filtering.
There is no reason to lift the watering ban this spring… not a good time to replant whatever died off.
Watering a lawn takes about as much as an entire house.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:20 am
For once I agree with JohnC. I personally haven’t watered my lawn in years, but I remember when I did, my water bill was probably triple what it normally is. That’s a LOT of water use. And that’s not water that’s going back into the sewer system.
As Mickey has made the point in his latest post, if you are on sewer, water you use inside your house largely gets recycled and sent downstream which means we release less water from Lanier. Not so for lawn watering. That water is effectively gone & not recycled.
I feel sorry for the landscaping industry. I understand their loss may already be in the billions. Nevertheless, in a drought, the pretty lawn has to be the first casualty.
February 28th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Susan and RichS,
In the Governor’s press release February 6, he stated that pool water usage accounts for less than 1% of daily water usage in Atlanta while landscaping accounts for approximately 10%.
Plus Susan, as mentioned in other blogs on this website, there are numerous benefits to swimming pools over landscaping: namely healthy recreation for our citizens, swim team programs and learn to swim programs (a vital lifesaving skill that everyone should have), senior citizen programs, maintaining quality of life, maintaining property values and emergency use water (swimming pools are reservoirs). Plus keeping pools closed causes public health issues, whereas dead grass does not.
I feel sorry for the landscaping industry, too. They are suffering really hard, but they are the easiest thing to cut to have the biggest impact on water conservation. Pools have a minimal impact and the benefit they provide to the community far outweighs the little bit of water they use.