Atlanta Water Shortage

After reading through the comments on the previous post – I did a little digging and found this article from the USGS regarding watersheds. Here is the full article: What is a Watershed? I like how the USGS specifically calls out Georgia below and its famous clay soil (bolded below).

Infiltration: When rain falls on dry ground, some of the water soaks in, or infiltrates the soil. Some water that infiltrates will remain in the shallow soil layer, where it will gradually move downhill, through the soil, and eventually enters the stream by seepage into the stream bank. Some of the water may infiltrate much deeper, recharging ground-water aquifers. Water may travel long distances or remain in storage for long periods before returning to the surface. The amount of water that will soak in over time depends on several characteristics of the watershed:

• Soil characteristics: In Georgia, clayey and rockey soils of the northern areas absorb less water at a slower rate than sandy soils, such as in Georgia’s Coastal Plain. Soils absorbing less water results in more runoff overland into streams.
• Soil saturation: Like a wet sponge, soil already saturated from previous rainfall can’t absorb much more … thus more rainfall will become surface runoff.
• Land cover: Some land covers have a great impact on infiltration and rainfall runoff. Impervious surfaces, such as parking lots, roads, and developments, act as a “fast lane” for rainfall – right into storm drains that drain directly into streams. Flooding becomes more prevalent as the area of impervious surfaces increase.
• Slope of the land: Water falling on steeply-sloped land runs off more quickly than water falling on flat land.

As of today, November 25th at 2am EST, Lake Lanier is down to 1051.20 feet 4.68 inches from the record. I saw some guesses for Dec. 1st and Dec. 4th for the record low, it should be right around then barring any major rainfall.

On a personal note, I’ve taken over the blog and the posting from Mickey. His great work and excellent contribution to content left me a high bar to live up to. If anyone has any suggestions for the blog or is dying to write a guest post, send me an email at: Chad@AtlantaWaterShortage.com. Thanks in advance for all the regular contributors – I’ve read through many of the comments and there is some great feeback.

I’m not from Atlanta, but I definitely feel an attachment to the area as my wife grew up in Marietta – so I have some local ties. Looking forward to making many more posts!

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.

The record low is getting real close, but I’m still not hearing much about it on the news.  The level today is at 1051.35, only 0.54 feet from the record low of 1050.81.  We’re dropping about 0.05 feet/day, which means it could start setting new records the first week of December.

Some of the guesses from our thread a few weeks ago still look to be pretty close.  Anyone care to revise their guess?

Watercrunch has an interesting article about Lake Hartwell, a large lake near the Georgia-South Carolina border.  The lake is continuing to drop, now sitting at 639.58′, which is well below the previous record low of 642.4′ set way back in 1981.  Lake levels tend to be around 657′ in the winter.

There are even some countdowns underway, much like we had last year with Lanier.  By some reports, there are only 300 days worth of water left.  The lowest intake on the lake is at 620′, a level that could be reached by next fall.

They also included an interesting photo.  The original bridge crossing for the Seneca River, which has been underwater since the lake was filled in the 1950s, is now coming back out again.  See the picture below:

The record low for Lake Lanier is 1050.81, set on December 23 of last year.  On this day last year, the lake was at 1055.19 and falling fast.  Today we’re nearly three feet lower (1052.26), though it’s not falling as quickly.

Lately, on average, the lake is falling around 0.06 ft/day.  At that rate we’re about 25 days away from reaching the new record low.

So what do you think?  Will we drop that low?  If so, when?