Atlanta Water Shortage

Here’s an odd story of a 750,000 gallon water tower in North Carolina that was shot a few times by a high-powered rifle.  The only way officials say it can be repaired is from inside the tank, so they’re going to let it drain and then try to fix it (at a price of nearly $20,000).

They’re in a pretty bad drought up there as well, so it seems like they could find a way to apply a temporary fix to the outside of the tank until it drained from normal use.  Otherwise, they’re going to waste quite a lot of water.

(note: the following is a guest post by AWS reader S. Corey Thomas)

A recent edition of Fresh Air on NPR featured an interview with Peter Gleick, a MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the non-partisan environmental think-tank, The Pacific Institute . Since 1998, Gleick has assessed the state of global water resources in a biennial report, The World’s Water. The fifth volume in this acclaimed series is now available, with a focus on the implications between water and terrorism and the increasing risks of flood and drought due to climate change and excessive development.

In this interview, Peter Gleick discusses the water crisis that looms over many areas of the United States, including Atlanta and the drought-stricken southeast. The difficulties of desalination are explored, as well as the environmental costs of bottled water versus tap water. Gleick notes that, in many places in the US, we have reached the limits of growth against the constraints of freshwater supplies. Atlanta would do well to pay attention to his message.

Below are some excerpts from the interview:

“The opportunity to build new dams and new reservoirs is pretty much gone. We’ve built on the good dam sites, and unfortunately some of the bad dam sites as well. We’re going to have to rethink the way we use the existing resources we have. There may be places to build new infrastructure, but I actually think the 21st century is going to be — in the United States especially — a century of water management, and smart use, and rethinking allocations of water from one user to another, and figuring out how to use the infrastructure we’ve built better.”

“In the past, the attitude has been ‘Build it, and we’ll figure out a way to get the water there.’ And that worked, to some degree, in the 20th century, but it’s not gonna work in the 21st century. There isn’t any more water. We’re at the limits of our resources here. And we’re not gonna go to Canada or Alaska, we’re not gonna desalinate seawater infinitely and move it to Las Vegas — it’s too far and too expensive. And so, the idea that we can grow without thinking about the resources that are available for that growth is an old idea, and it’s not going to work any longer.”

S. Corey Thomas

After fears of drought 20 years ago, Clayton county took action.  They built a series of 21 man-made wetlands and reservoirs that allow them to collection 10 million gallons of wastewater each day and convert it to drinking water.

While they still might have problems in about a year, they’ll last much longer than Atlanta will.

It’s a tale of thinking ahead; something the Atlanta leaders have failed miserably to do.

(via Fresh Loaf)  Wilson R. Smith interviewed James “GriftDrift” Williams today about a wide variety of topics.  When their discussion was on the water crisis, Williams had this to say:

The sad truth is that there probably is no solution that can be put into effect in time to solve the problem unless the rain returns and soon.

The problem with the water crisis is the worst is yet to come! The economic impact of water rationing could impact North and South Georgia. Water restrictions have already had an impact on those businesses whose economic viability depends on water and plenty of it. The question is how long can they hold on before they go under, file bankruptcy or otherwise significantly impact employment levels. The sad truth is that there probably is no solution that can be put into effect in time to solve the problem unless the rain returns and soon.

Well said.

The city of Roswell is set to vote on November 19 to spend about $125,000 to look for potential well locations.  They are wanting a “drought-proof” alternative in place and hope to be able to pull in between 3-6 million gallons/day from the wells.

Full story on AJC.com.

For reasons that aren’t really explained in the article, the drought is being credited with causing Georgia’s pecan production to be higher than it has in recent years.

Predictions have Georgia producing more than 125 million pounds of pecans by the end of this year — far more than the other closest states, with New Mexico around 80 million pounds and Texas at about 73 million pounds.

Part of the reason is that heavy rains (like Texas has seen) can promote disease among the pecan crops.  Still, though, I don’t really understand how they’re doing so well.  If any of you have more info about this, please post in the comments.

A popular story making the rounds today is about Orme, Tennessee, a town that has run out of water. They’re normally fed by a waterfall, but that waterfall has been “reduced to a trickle”. Now the mayor of the town spends three days each week driving a truck back and forth to an Alabama fire hydrant, bringing in about 20,000 gallons a day.

He then turns the water on for three hours each evening, and the town has a mad rush of clothes washing, cooking and showering.

It’s the first case of a true answer to “What happens if the water runs out?“. Of course, it really doesn’t say much about what would happen in Atlanta. As Orme mayor Tony Reames said “I feel for the folks in Atlanta. We can survive. We’re 145 people. You’ve got 4.5 million people down there. What are they going to do? It’s a scary thought.”

Trucking in water won’t be feasible for us, though the “3-hours-per-night” rationing could be something that might get implemented if things get dire enough. Only time will tell.

Update: View Orme in Google Earth at this site.

A man in Australia was killed yesterday by a neighbor who was upset with him for watering his lawn.

From the story:  Apparently, 66-year-old Ken Proctor was watering his lawn at about 5:30pm (which was allowed within their current water restrictions) when his 35-year-old neighbor Todd Munter approached him and started an argument.  Proctor sprayed Munter with his hose, at which point Munter started punching and kicking him.  Police arrived, arrested Munter and had Proctor taken to a hospital where he later died.

Based on their water restrictions, it sounds like they’re not in nearly as bad of shape as we are.  If things continue to get worse for us, I expect we’ll start to see some violence.  Hopefully it never reaches that level.

(via AJC)  The Army Corps of Engineers has said that users in Florida and Alabama could handle reduced flow from the river, but they’re not exactly sure how much.  Also, they’re not sure how little water the now-famous mussels and sturgeon could get by on.

The plan going forward is:

• The Corp will release a “biological assessment for species impacts” by this Friday.
• That assessment will go to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• They’ll give us their own opinion.
• The assessments will “figure prominently” in meetings *today in Washington about what should be done.

(*today — That’s what the AJC said, but it doesn’t make sense.  They can’t use the assessment today if it won’t be created for a few more days.  I have no idea what they meant to say.)

It sounds to me like it’ll be at least a few weeks of meetings and stuff before they could potentially reduce the flow.  Even then, it’s sure to face harsh criticism from Alabama and Florida, who are already concerned that any reduction in the flow could “shut down power plants, farms, fisheries and other businesses”.

A report is expected today from state conservation groups that largely blames the drought on excessive growth in the area.  They admit that the lack of rain is obviously the primary cause, but feel that growth in the area has been a major factor.

While Gov. Sonny Perdue denies that growth is the cause, the fact that Paulding County has temporarily banned rezoning seems to speak otherwise.