Atlanta Water Shortage

My wife and I have this exact same water filter and dispenser and it has worked great for us for a long time. Very easy to fill up and it stores a ton of water - while it’s getting chilled nicely in the fridge - absoultely love this product.

Keep your water clear of chemicals and odors with this dispenser from PUR. Its advanced filtration system reduces more contaminants (lead, copper, zinc, etc.) than any other pour-through filter. Plus, the dispenser’s narrow, sleek build fits neatly in the refrigerator or sink, while handles make it easy to fill and carry. Each filter has a lifespan of about one to two months (or roughly 40 gallons of water). A handy gauge indicates when the filter needs to be replaced. Clean the dispenser with mild soap and a dry towel.

With Christmas only days away, here is a great product from Amazon for distilling water right in your own home. This distiller produces 4 gallons of pure water per day. This product has excellent customer reviews - over 61 people on Amazon have written detailed comments about this product.

If anyone else has any great ideas for water distillers, post your comments here, given that this is the holiday season we will post a few more water based products to get some good feedback and maybe find you that great gift for your loved one.

The locally heavy rains in Atlanta have raised Lake Lanier’s water level from 1050 feet and 11.88 inches on Dec. 9th to 1051 feet and 6.24 inches today at 5:15 EST - a gain of almost 6.5 inches!

The heavy rainfall in the area has caused many of the local rivers to rise and the runoff has helped build Lake Lanier’s level. There is still a flood watch in effect for North and South Fulton as of 11:08am EST, though it looks like the heaviest rains are in the past.

Straight from the USGS Georgia website here are some great tips to helping improve urban stormwater runoff:

• Keep litter, pet wastes, leaves, and debris out of street gutters and storm drains–these outlets drain directly to lake, streams, rivers, and wetlands.
• Apply lawn and garden chemicals sparingly and according to directions.
• Dispose of used oil, antifreeze, paints, and other household chemicals properly, not in storm sewers or drains. If your community does not already have a program for collecting household hazardous wastes, ask your local government to establish one.
• Clean up spilled brake fluid, oil, grease, and antifreeze. Do not hose them into the street where they can eventually reach local streams and lakes.
• Control soil erosion on your property by planting ground cover and stabilizing erosion-prone areas.
• Encourage local government officials to develop construction erosion/sediment control ordinances in your community.
• Have your septic system inspected and pumped, at a minimum, every 3-5 years so that it operates properly.
• Purchase household detergents and cleaners that are low in phosphorous to reduce the amount of nutrients discharged into our lakes, streams and coastal waters.

What are you doing to help water quality? Are there other things you can think of that aren’t included in this list? Personally I own a paint company and we’re very diligent about disposing and cleaning our latex and oil paints - we don’t just clean them out over storwater runoff drains, we take care of it in our shop. It’s a small thing, but it certainly helps.

Augusta Georgia got that nickname in the 19th century because of the canal they built in 1845, modeled after one built in Lowell Massachusetts.

Augusta’s canal was modeled after the canal system in Lowell, Mass., where engineers built canals to amplify water power on the Merrimack River near Boston in the early 1800s.

Read more about the Augusta Canal.

The canal and its dozens of industries helped move the South away from dependence on the industrialized North. And when the Civil War broke out, it attracted a major Confederate industry: the great Powderworks.

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?