Atlanta Water Shortage

In this day and age of wanting to maintain our good health and sense of well-being, it’s no surprise that the average person diligently reads the labels of nearly every product he or she buys. Doing so helps us feel more confident about the things we put in our bodies.

We live in times where pesticides, preservatives and chemicals, while necessary, may not always be good for us. We have become a culture that is almost obsessed with ensuring not only our optimal health, but that of our loved ones as well.

Since much of what we and our families consume is derived from natural resources, we are inundated with reports that natural is best – pesticides, preservatives and additives aside. Unfortunately, one of nature’s most valuable resources doesn’t typically come packaged, allowing us to review the contents before consuming it. That precious resource is none other than our home drinking water.

Maybe it crosses your mind occasionally when you turn on your faucet, just thirsting for a big cold glass of H20. Perhaps you ask yourself how can I ensure that my home water is actually clean – let alone safe? You know that it’s essential to survival. Our bodies will cease to function within days of going without water.

Rest assured that unless you live in a Third World, impoverished, underdeveloped foreign country, the domestic municipal water that flows throughout our homes is safe for human consumption and everyday use. Here’s why:

• Domestic home water not only meets all federal regulations for safety and purity, it actually exceeds them. This means that the feds themselves stand by clean, safe water for consumers.

• Home drinking water is consistently tested for levels of iodine and other pharmaceutical agents.

• The water quality in source water rivers and streams undergo extensive testing round the clock to ensure that by the time the water reaches your home, it’s relatively free of contaminants, bacteria and other potentially harmful agents.

• Even when those potentially harmful agents ARE discovered within the source water, they are only trace amounts that are not sufficient for issues of contamination. They are, in most cases, filtered out by advanced water filtration and sophisticated technological processes.

• Water treatment plant staff monitors samples of all streams, rivers and waterways that are directly connected to your home’s water supply. This is NOT a job that is taken lightly! These staff are specially trained to be alert for signs of danger – for example, an oil spill – and immediately resolve the issue before it can detrimentally affect us.

• They employ special strategies to ensure that there is never any public health risk.

• By the time the water reaches your home, it is safe for you and your family to enjoy for drinking, bathing, washing hair, laundry, washing our cars, and any of the other domestic reasons that make our lives a little easier!

• Regulations and research are constantly being upgraded, as are contaminant removal techniques.

All of the above should be enough to make you breathe a sigh of relief! Doesn’t it help you sleep just a little easier to know that there’s someone always on the job to ensure your water quality safety? But believe it or not, there are some important things that WE as consumers can also do to make sure that our water remains safe – today and for years to come. It’s important that we not only employ these strategies but that we educate our children as well.

Here are some preventative measures that can easily be incorporated into our everyday lives:

• Never pour medications of any kind down your drains.

• Never flush medications or chemicals in your toilet.

• When walking your dog, never leave Fido’s waste products on the sidewalk. Scoop up when he finishes. After he does his business, dispose of it responsibly in a trash bin – never down an inlet. And NEVER, of course, just leave it ON THE SIDEWALK. The likelihood that it will get washed into a nearby inlet during a rainstorm is VERY high.

• Never deposit trash of ANY kind in an inlet.

Despite our best efforts AND depending on where you live, wastewater contamination occasionally poses a health hazard. To ensure safety and quality, be aware of signs of impure water, such as a disturbing change in smell, taste or appearance.

Have your home’s water tested by a certified water lab. Use fertilizer and pesticides sparingly and with care. Also educate yourself on proper maintenance of home septic systems, especially if you live near a shoreline or your home’s water supply is derived from a private natural water supply.

Education is key to ensuring a healthier water supply and a healthier life!

Author Bio

Andrew Johnson is a family oriented blogger helping new and experienced parents alike keep their families a protected with home security solutions from Safe, Sound Family!

Last week the Atlanta Journal Constitution ran an article on the creation of 10 new water councils all throughout the state. Each council will be made up of “farmers, government officials, businessmen and others” and will be tasked with determining how to divide rivers, lakes and underground aquifers.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, responsible for more than half the appointments, said in a statement that those chosen are “a diverse group of Georgians” who will “focus on water resource issues while also addressing the state’s economic needs.”

But leaders of the Georgia Water Coalition, a statewide group of environmental and civic organizations that advocates for clean water, immediately criticized the absence of environmentalists among the appointees.

Only one of the state’s eight Riverkeepers, Satilla Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers, was named to a council. Rogers will serve on the Suwanne-Satilla regional council in southeast Georgia.

To read the entire article click HERE.

I was reading the Wall Street Journal on my flight into Atlanta late Tuesday night to visit relatives and saw that Georgia had made the front page of the WSJ. The article talks about Sonny Perdue’s $19 million dollar plan to make the state one of the most popular fishing destinations in the country.

The administration recently began construction on a $14 million dollar “Go Fish Georgia Center,” featuring a fish hatchery, visitor’s center, and public fishing ponds about 12 miles from Mr. Perdue’s hometown of Bonaire. The 15,000 square-foot building will feature interactive exhibits, including fishing simulators where visitors in a fake boat can struggle against computer controlled fish.

This sounds like quite a controversial plan given the timing of this – seems to me that it would take quite a bit for Georgia to become the fishing capital of the US. Perdue is quoted as saying that, “even if lakes stay low that will make it easier to get the fish.” Sonny also told reporters, “Would you rather catch a big fish in your bathtub, or in your swimming pool?”

How many of you are adhering to the water restriction rules as set forth in bill 1281? I’ve highlighted the rules below as a refresher. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that many of you are following even tighter restrictions, it’s a great way to save a few bucks in this tough economy if you can limit your water bill.

- No sprinklers. Use a hand-held garden hose with an automatic shut-off only. Only one hose at a time.
- Water three days a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for houses with odd-numbered addresses and Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays for houses with even-numbered addresses.
- Water between midnight and 10 a.m.
- Water for 25 minutes only.
- More liberal rules for new landscaping allow sprinklers for ten weeks after planting new grass, shrubs, trees and flowers, on the three-day schedule and limited hours.
- To use the more lenient rules, homeowners must be certified through an on-line course given by the Georgia Urban Agriculture Council at www.urbanagcouncil.com. Certification is also available from each county’s extension agent.

The state of Georgia had been hoping to overturn a ruling that invalidated a 2003 agreement that let Georgia take extra water from Lake Lanier, but an overruling on that court decision now appears to be unlikely.

Specifically, as per 11Alive:

The Justice Department has recommended that the high court not take up the case, maintaining in a brief filed last week that Georgia’s arguments are flawed and that the issue is not significant enough to merit Supreme Court attention.

While I’m not sure which way it should go, I’m surprised they call it “not significant enough”.  With the lake quickly approaching new record low levels, it certainly seems like it’d be an important ruling.

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama released a statement today that supports Florida in the 30+ year old water war with Georgia.  The reason?  They have 27 electoral votes while Georgia only has 15.

Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson have already written a letter to Obama expressing their disappointment.

Full details can be found in this AJC article.

11Alive has a nice story today about some of the other issues facing Florida if the water continues to dwindle.  Among other things, they say:

Branch said recreational fishing businesses in his county rely on the Apalachicola River, but boats are running aground in the middle of it. He said the lower flows have affected groundwater levels to the point where area farmers are having a harder time irrigating crops.

I’m rather torn about all of this.  While human lives are obviously more important, things don’t appear to be getting critical — at least not yet.  Do we throw away jobs in Florida just in case things keep getting worse up here, or do we wait until things are in a more critical state?  What do you think?

According to an article on 11Alive, we might be looking at tighter water restrictions next month.  Rain has been quite sparce this month, and Lake Lanier has dropped nearly a foot.

The state EPD director, Carol Couch, will make a decision next month.

What do you think she should do?  Why?

(Note: This is a guest post by Rich S.)

On June 2nd, the U.S. fish and wildlife service gave their blessing to the Corps of Engineers Revised Interim Operating Plan (PDF).

So for the foreseeable future, this plan defines how decisions will be made concerning water retention in the ACF system including Lake Lanier.  This plan is a modification of the operating plan the corps has been using for the last several years.  The modifications are intended to favor retention or storage in the reservoirs of the ACF above the old plan which clearly released too much water during the recent drought.

I was surprised to see that the plan doesn’t really address Lanier or any of the other lakes individually, but mainly addresses the release from Jim Woodruff dam because of course everything that isn’t released from that Dam is held in the five reservoirs of the ACF.

Decisions about how much water is to be released vs. stored are based on three factors: Composite action zone, season, and inflow.

The composite action zone is similar to the one you are likely familiar with from this lake Lanier forecast chart – http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/lanfc.htm

The composite chart adds the storage from all five reservoirs and treats it as a sum of the entire system.  The action zones are similar with zone one being relatively good and zone four being very low water levels.  They also added a fifth zone that they call the “drought zone”.

Release levels vary by three seasons: spawning season (March-May); non-spawning season (June-November); and winter (December-February).  Regardless of the season, when the composite level reaches zone four, releases from Woodruff dam are reduced to 5000 cf/s.  Any inflow above that level can be retained as storage.  Likewise, when the composite level reaches the drought zone, releases are reduced to 4500 cf/s.

During the winter period, releases are reduced to 5000 cf/s regardless of the composite zone (except 4500 cf/s in the drought zone).  All additional inflow is stored.

Aside from the above situations, releases from Woodruff dam are based on season, zone, and inflow with some portion of any inflow above 8000 cf/s  retained for storage.

Compared to the old plan, this one lets us release a little less water when times are bad, and store a little more of the excess when times are good.  It’s not going to solve all of our problems, but it may actually be sustainable over time, which the old plan clearly proved not to be.

Rich

Well, sort of.  An interesting side effect of potentially moving the Georgia-Tennessee line is that a few towns in southern Tennessee would have to stop selling alcohol.  Copperhill, TN has some bars, but would suddenly find themselves located in Fannin County, GA if the state line were moved.  Fannin County is dry and doesn’t permit alcohol sales.

The state line is even a bit of a tourist attraction.  Just across the state line from Copperhill is McCaysville, GA.  The town has bright blue dashes all over the place to show the jagged state line — even running through buildings, streets and bars.

All of that being said, moving the state line is very unlikely.  As the article points out:

Any border change would likely require an act of Congress or a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, so it’s highly unlikely the state lines would actually move.

This also goes to show just how much thought would need to go into such a major decision — there are a lot of small things that would be affected as well.