Industries that use water for their processes are not generally restricted, but I believe most are working to conserve water without having to cut back production and lay workers off.

Price increases might be an incentive for them to cut back more. That would be the free market solution. Water is in short supply - raise the price. Of course we would have to find a way to bill Florida and Alabama for all the Georgia rain we send to them. Maybe they would quit whining for more if it wasn’t free.

I found this web-site that shows some of the watering restrictions from last November. You’ll notice most commercial activites are exempt from the watering restrictions. Car washes in particular use about 1% of the total water consumed in Atlanta. This doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot considering that counties were struggling to reduce their water usage by 10%. I do know that the car washes were required to reclaim some of their water or face a hefty fine and Coca Cola had (is?) made some efficiency gains to reduce the amount of water they used in their bottling plants but I couldn’t tell you how much.

BGAAAAWWKKKKKKKK!K!KK!K!K!!!!!!

Maybe May will be flat or with little draw down.

I feel that rational analysis is the best policy, and while the “tail risks” - the low probability high impact disaster scenario is worthy of exploration, to use it as the driver of public policy is an unstable way to put across a message. I know that our media don’t like to do it any other way, but I still think that the base case - that water conservation and planning is necessary, is the more honest message to have as the main point of public communication.

And deadpool, while not such a huge concern after all for Buford Dam, IS a big concern to municipalities with water pipes going into the lake - many of which were close to uncovered by the low point last year, and which would have been left hanging in the air if we’d gone much lower.

Unlikely? Only because at the very last minute people woke up and did something. Still unlikely? well… let’s see how this year goes before we say that. Dropping 20 feet from this point would be a pretty significant hardship on the area, even if you still would have water coming out of your tap.