Will building more reservoirs help?
An article in the AJC today tries to answer the question: “Can reservoirs ease Georgia’s drought?”
I don’t think more reservoirs will help us in the short-term, but certainly could be a big part of the long-term solution. There are a number of reservoirs underway in Georgia, but the article doesn’t talk about much in the way of specific data about them. What it does say:
- There are a dozen being built in Georgia, seven in metro Atlanta.
- Most of these proposed reservoirs are between 150-800 acres (compared to Lanier’s 38,000 acres).
- There are eight more that have been approved since 2000, and “most have been built”.
- The total capacity of those eight is around 200 million gallons/day.
The article says that the 200 million gallons coming from the eight completed reservoirs is more than enough for Atlanta and Fulton County, but it doesn’t mention if those reservoirs are full and active, or dry and waiting.
Anyone have a good list of active/pending reservoirs, their size/capacity and their current status? It would be interesting to see what the situation really looks like.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I agree, reservoirs are not a short term solution. And they may not be a long term solution, either. Check the WSB weather blog to see the past trends for rainfall.
Who among you out there knows where there is pleanty of fresh water, in this State, for all of us?
JH
March 11th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Interesting quote from Georgia’s Lt Governor. This goes back to the earlier discussion of the differences between our problems and those out west -
“Fifty trillion gallons of rainfall fall on Georgia each year. We use 1.2 trillion of that,” Cagle said. “If we manage the resource responsibly we can sustain our needs into the future.”
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012608/geo_240449428.shtml
March 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am
How about all Yankees and Midwesterners go home to the Rust Belt?That would save water.Y’all got plenty of H2o up there in the Rust Belt,stop using up ours.
March 11th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
Eliminating some aspects nf the pampered-luxury subdivision lifestyle could help.Rule one:No more grass lawns.New homes should have rocks instead.If the yuppies dont like it,then go back to the land ‘o lakes.Rule two:no more private pools.Either swim at a community pool or dont swim at all.Rule three:No more restaurants serving those goshdamn $5 bottles of Avian water.If a restavrant violates this,fine them.And if the uppityyups dont like it,pull your Ritalin-popping kids out of Woodward academy and move back to Minneapolis.
March 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I’m not sure what $5 bottles of water have to do with anything.
March 12th, 2008 at 5:19 am
beaz - $5 bottle of water mean nothing to South Side Steve…..HE just wants to be the #1 commentator for the month
I AM CHICKEN LITTLE - HEAR ME ROAR!
March 12th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Obviously some people in power wanted more people to move to Atlanta, or why am I looking at construction cranes outside my office window? There is such a thing as zoning you know. Instead of constantly complaining about all the transplants SouthSideNative, how about you start trying to get someone elected who wants to limit growth? I’ll give you a hint: debating whether or not to remove the confederate battle flag from the state flag has NOTHING to do with limits on growth. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that issue was intentionally used as a distraction to divide and anger southern natives (on one side of the issue or the other). If growth is a problem, maybe it’s time Georgians start focusing on that instead of largely symbolic emotional issues during their elections.
As for reservoirs: sure they may be small but considering that the metro counties have been struggling to get 10% reductions in their water use, every little bit helps. Also, the water in those reservoirs belongs to Georgia, not to congress, so they get the final say over how that water is used. I can’t see this as being bad.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Private Property Rights
The cornerstone of America
What Andrew is suggesting is that now that you have gone and built your house, the person with the vacant lot next door not be permitted to build his house until he demonstrates adequate water is available.
Nope, that’s communism, ain’t gonna happen.
And the construction cranes? That’s the free market in full effect baby.
(bgaawwwk! I’m back in the #1 spot!)
March 12th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
SouthSideNative: Like people would move to the Atlanta metro willingly from the Twin Cities.
(Speaking as a 40-year Minnetonka native now living in Mableton, so take that with a grain of salt )
I like your rules, actually. I’ve been exploring options for non-grass lawns myself (not that my half-wooded half-fescue lawn is hurting with just the native rain), and a nice rock garden would be easier and less expensive to maintain once installed.
March 18th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
… or move from St. Louis down there. Sheesh. I like my 140,000 gallons per second of water flow, thank you very much. *coverts the Mississippi and Missouri rivers*
Of course, if this keeps up you’ll be able to call it a dry heat.
I’ve also seriously considered rock gardens over grass yards. In fact, my prior home I turned the entire back yard into an extended patio with 4 tons of rock. It was great, and a fun experience.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Dudes, those $5 bottles of water aren’t the problem. The problem is the tap water. Make sure your restaurant isn’t putting out glasses of water for each person without you asking for it first.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Las Vegas is paying lawn owners $1 per sq. foot of lawn removed in an effort to conserve water. This has led to a growing artificial turf industry out there.
Food for thought: If you could squeeze all the water on Earth into a 1 gallon jug, 3 tablespoons of it would be fresh drinking water, only 1 of those tablespoons is accessible to humans. Currently.