Atlanta Water Shortage

I thought this was kind of funny:

The (Chattanooga) mayor has officially proclaimed Feb. 27, 2008, as “Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.” The proclamation comes as a result of the Georgia Legislature passing a joint resolution that seeks to pursue reestablishing the boundary between Georgia and Tennessee.

The truck load of bottled water along with the proclamation will be delivered to the Georgia Legislature Wednesday morning.

“Please know that we are willing to help our neighbors to the south with this complimentary truck load of water,” said Mayor Littlefield. “And along with this water, we want to send Georgia legislators a message that focusing on conservation efforts would be much more productive than an ill-conceived land and water grab.”

Ouch.  Gotta give them points for creativity, though!

Contrary to popular wisdom (even mentioned on our site a while back), collecting excess shower water in a bucket to use on your flowers will probably make the water shortage worse in the long run, not better.

Before I get into the reasons, there are a few points that must be made:

• If you have a septic system, this doesn’t apply.  This only counts if you are connected to the sewer system.
• If you feel the need to water your plants at the expense of the overall water storage, this doesn’t apply.

For the rest of us that use the city sewer systems and are willing to let some plants die to help the greater good, take the bucket out of your shower — the more water you can put into your drain, the better.

Obviously, the best thing you can do is to use less water.  However, of the water that you use you want to send as much as possible back down the drain.  That water gets treated and released back into the Chattahoochee River (or other water system, depending where you live).

“So what?”, you say — that water is gone, it’s heading south, and doesn’t help us.  Ahh, but it does.  The bulk of the water being released from Lake Lanier is not for Atlanta to use, but to meet a minimum flow requirement down at Jim Woodruff Dam in Florida (currently 4,750 CFS, I believe).  The water that goes down your drain eventually makes it to Woodruff Dam.  The more water they get down there, the less we need to release from Lake Lanier.  Voilà!

Here are a few more examples of how this could apply to you:

• We have a dehumidifier in our basement that collects a good bit of water during the summer.  We had been using it to water some flowers in our yard.  However, our best bet is probably to empty the basin into a drain in our house.  The more water we put in there, the more they can keep in Lanier.  We like our flowers, but I’d rather use that water to keep a few gallons more in the lake.
• A user e-mailed me to ask if anything can be done with the hundreds of gallons of water that have collected on pool covers.  I told him to put it into the sewer.  That water will reach Woodruff Dam, and Lanier will be able to keep a bit in reserve as a result.

Again, your best move is to use less water.  It wouldn’t make sense to pull extra water out of the tap only to have it go down the drain — it’d be a waste of time and money, and some of the water will still be lost (evaporation, leaks, etc).  However, the more water you can put back into the drain (as opposed to putting on flowers, grass, etc), the better off we’ll be.

Agree?  Disagree?  Post in the comments.

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.

The USGS site is having a hard time getting current numbers posted today, but the Lawrenceville Weather Blog has it covered.  According to their site, here are some rainfall totals in our area:

• Alpharetta: 1.18 inches
• Johns Creek: 1.18 inches
• Dunwoody: 1.21 inches
• Gainesville: 1.17 inches
• Lawrenceville:  0.77 inches
• Dahlonega: 0.98 inches
• Jonesboro: 0.36 inches
• Dallas: 1.01 inches

We’ve got a chance at some more rain later this week, so hopefully it will start to make a difference in the lake levels.

As reported by the Lawrenceville Weather Blog, the next six weeks will be critical in getting the lake levels up.  From their article:

February and March typically are some of the wettest months of the year, with an average of 4.7 and 5.4 inches of precipitation respectively.  So far, February is running slightly below normal, but with more than half an inch of rain predicted for Sunday and a storm the weekend of the 22nd that could bring over an inch, we could quickly get to normal.  The Climate Prediction Center is calling for a better than normal chance of rain for the period between the 21st and the 29th.

The bottom line is that if we are going to get significant filling of Lake Lanier, February and March will be the months that do it…

Let’s hope the predictions for the next few weeks come true and we can start to see some real progress in the lake levels.

Gov. Sonny Perdue announced today that the state is going to allow outdoor swimming pools to open this summer.  Had Perdue not taken this step, it’s unlikely that pools could have opened due to continuing Level 4 drought restrictions.  This decision affects all 61 north Georgia counties affected by the water-use ban, and it goes along with the announcement earlier today that watering restrictions would be eased a little bit.

It is estimated that swimming pools use about seven million gallons of water per day, which is less than one percent of the overall water usage in the area.

As the father of two young girls, I’m glad they’ll be able to use the neighborhood pool this summer.  However, I have to wonder if this isn’t a bit premature, as we’re still in far worse shape than we were at this time last year.   The next few months should tell us a lot.

Starting on April 1, three-day-a-week hand watering will be allowed between midnight and 10am, though you won’t be allowed to use sprinklers.  Professionally-installed landscaping can be watered three days a week as well, but you must take an online class at the Urban Agriculture Council’s Website before you’ll be allowed to do so.

Cities and counties could choose to continue the current water restrictions, but Gov. Perdue is advising them not to.

An announcement concerning swimming pool refilling is expected sometime this afternoon.

Georgia was looking to get an agreement to reallocate some of Lake Lanier’s water from hydropower downstream to water supply for the metro area.  Today, a federal appellate court shot it down.

The change would have given Georgia rights to 65% more water from Lake Lanier, bringing their total to around 25% of the total storage capacity of the lake.  Alabama and Florida fought hard against it, saying “the change would constitute a major operational change, which requires Congressional approval under the Water Supply Act.”

George Sherk, a water law expert, wasn’t kind to Atlanta either — “The logical response for metro Atlanta right now is no new building permits unless the applicant can demonstrate a long-term water supply. But pigs will fly before Atlanta does that.”

Congress could potentially intervene on behalf of Georgia, but Mr. Sherk thinks that is unlikely to happen.  There are a few other routes that the state could take now (appeals, hearings, etc), but it’s unclear what action will be taken next.

As reported by Water Crunch, it appears that Raleigh, North Carolina is down to about 108 days worth of water (with no future rainfall factored in).

While I’m quite concerned about this, I wonder how accurate the number is.  As we’ve seen before, those kinds of estimates can vary wildly from source to source.   If nothing else, it appears they have about 87 days worth of water left after the “regular supply” runs out, bringing their total to about 195 days.  Even with low rainfall totals, that should stretch out a few months beyond that.  Still, it’s not looking good.

Hopefully the next few months bring much needed rain to all of us.

According to state regulations (via an article in the AJC), we need to have four consecutive months of “continued improvement” before they can consider downgrading us from the Level 4 drought that we’re currently in.  Under the current restrictions, outdoor pools won’t be allowed to open this summer.

January seemed rather rainy (and snowy), but it was still about 1-1/2 inches below normal.  This means that our next opportunity would be if February, March, April and May all showed improvement, at which point the restrictions could be eased and pools could possibly open.  Interestingly, the AJC claims that good rain in February-May means that July would be the first possible month pools could open.  They also say that if we don’t get rain until March-June, then August would be the first possible month they could open.  They seem to be inserting a fifth month in there.  Am I missing something here, or are they just wrong again?

Despite all of this, Carol Couch of the Environmental Protection Division has the power to grant exemptions.  This means that she could choose to allow all pools to open this summer in spite of the drought.  She plans to have her list of recommendations to Gov. Perdue by today, after which he can decide whether or not to accept her ideas.  I would expect an announcement from him regarding this sometime next week.