Atlanta Water Shortage

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!

That’s the big question.  It’s a debate that started back in 1990, when Alabama wanted to prevent the Army Corps of Enginerrs from giving more water to Atlanta.

Alabama and Florida say that supplying Atlanta with water is just a secondary benefit of Lanier — not part of it’s primary purpose.  Georgia, of course, disagrees.

The AJC has the full story with more information.

The city of Atlanta wants to tighten their water restrictions, but now has to jump through some hoops.

On May 14, Gov. Perdue signed House Bill 1281, which made it illegal for any local government to override the state’s water restrictions without permission.  The Environmental Protection Division is reviewing the request, along with a request to reduce restrictions in Coweta County.

To clear things up, here are the current restrictions for most of north Georgia:

• 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.