Atlanta Could Run Out of Drinking Water

[Sequoia]

Those shrinking lakes look terrible!

http://www.weather.com/multimedia/videoplayer.html?clip=8262&collection=topstory&nav=topstory&from=wxcenter_video

[napi21]

1. They sure do! I live about 5 mins from Lake Lanier, and it's WAY

WAY DOWN! We're getting a little bit of rain right now, but it's so fine I waled to the mailbox without an umbrella and didn't get wet! I don't think it will help at all.

[Sequoia]

7. I've been to that lake before when I visted family.

My sister was telling me about the water restrictions, but to see that lake like that is scary.

[CottonBear]

2. I live in Athens and we're going to run out of H2O by Christmas if it doesn't rain a lot.

Thank goodness, we just had a 20 minute downpour just southeast of Athens but it won't help the Bear Creek reservoir or the Oconee River water levels very much.
:(

[Seedersandleechers]

3. OMG

It's easier to grasp the severity of the situation when you see the pictures

[CottonBear]

4. We have a total outdoor water ban and are online for water rationing. It's really bad.

:scared:

[JNelson6563]

5. After the oil wars will be water wars.

Michigan's fortunes will certainly turn around then!

Julie

[Sequoia]

9. You know, in that book "Dune"

to me the scariest part is how there was no water except that tiny portion in the cave that the giant worms were guarding. I'd get thirsty just reading the book and thinking about how our lives would be if we had to live like that.

[Blackhatjack]

6. Raleigh NC is ontrack to run out in January....

[gateley]

11. Yep and my friends who are on well water (I'm down in Clayton) have both

run out of water.

[Blackhatjack]

15. The Wake County/Raleigh area is classified at the highest level "Exceptional"...

... and we will be suffering terribly if we don't get some substantial rain soon.

[gateley]

17. I just looked at the Accuweather 15 day forecast - not good. nt

[dsc]

19. wilson is in drought

but we have a huge resevoir so we are in good shape for drinking water.

[NC_Nurse]

20. Last I heard, Greensboro had 140 days of water left.

I'm sure they'll be banning outdoor watering here soon. We're down to once a week here in Orange County.

[Red Zelda]

8. Dear South:

Touch the Great Lakes and you're toast! Just wring some juice out of those confed'rit flags.

[gateley]

12. Bwah! nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. all I can say is, the next wars we are going to fight will be

water wars... global warming has a nasty way of changing weather patterns world wide

[gateley]

13. K&R. nt

[DemoTex]

14. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued Lake Lanier dam releases ..

.. far into the drought to keep the Chattahoochee river navigable for one or two barges per week far downstream. There was an article in the AJC last week saying that the Lake Lanier dam releases were being suspended .. finally .. due to the severity of the drought. This calamity, like NOLA/Katrina, has been exacerbated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Not to worry, though. If Atlanta and North Georgia run out of drinking water, FEMA will move in to help. Sleep tight!


Map of the Apalachicola River system with the Chattahoochee in dark blue. The Chattahoochee River runs from the Chattahoochee Spring in the mountains of northeast Georgia, southwestward past Atlanta and through its suburbs, then turns southward to form the southern half of the Georgia/Alabama state line. Further south it merges with the Flint River at Lake Seminole near Bainbridge to form the Florida panhandle's short Apalachicola River, and is the largest part of the ACF River Basin watershed.

Several lakes, including Lake Sidney Lanier, Walter F. George Lake, West Point Lake, and others are controlled by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, providing hydroelectricity, flood control, drinking water, recreation, and navigation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattahoochee_River

[debbierlus]

16. Omg. That is awful. Doing a rain dance for yeah!

It is scary. We are a little bit behind on water up here in the Northeast, but NOTHNG like that...

[leftofthedial]

18. knock on wood!

[lovuian]

21. Water Woes

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3TcDor0rk98

America needs to get DeSalination Plants building now like Australia

Houston has one already
Dow has one on the coast

[conscious evolution]

22. I was at Lake Allatoona this

weekend.
Actually seeing that lake so empty was sobering.I could stand at the waterline and the normal water line was way over my head.It must have been 15-20 above the water.Many of the inlets were completely dry.
Scary.
Fortunately I have access to a deep water well here in town.I think I will start getting water from there.

[Sequoia]

23. Low water level worries homeowners around Lake Lanier

For Charlie Rittenhouse to go boating on Lake Lanier, he'd need a shovel. Or a backhoe. Something to dig his 20-foot-long pontoon boat out of the muddy bank where it's been since the water receded a few weeks ago.

"I've never seen the water so low," said Rittenhouse, who lives in Snellville. "And our lake house has been in the family since 1976."
Dropping water levels in Lake Lanier have left many docks high and dry and boats stranded. Homeowners like Jackie Joseph are hoping for rain and plan to keep letting their docks go farther out into the lake on a cable tether

All around Lake Lanier, homeowners are watching and waiting as the water level continues to drop. Boaters move cautiously in the water. Brush piles and rocks rake boat bottoms as sunken hilltops raise their heads.

The reason for the drop is twofold: predictions of a dry, warm winter that would extend a drought now in its second year, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' obligation to send enough water to Florida to protect two rare and endangered freshwater mussel species.

http://www.ajc.com/gwinnett/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2007/09/27/lanierreax_0927.html?cxntlid=inform

[lovuian]

24. So Atlanta thirsts and Florida drinks???

who makes the decisions

In the future Water is going to be fought over here in America
We need Desalination Plants badly but everybody is in lala land

[DemoTex]

25. Apalachicola Oysters drink .. that's OK.

Superfluous boats float .. that's not OK.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

26. this is not just the drought...

it is several things...

1) Drought (yep...really dry here)
2) Poor water management by the Army Corps of Engineers
3) Demand for water downstream for mussels in FL
4) Hydroelectric generation needs to move LARGE amounts of water out of Lanier
5) Tremendous and mostly unrestricted growth
6) Greed of people that MUST have green lawns despite arid conditions

I just drove over Lake Oconee in eastern GA...and it was full to the brim (well, ok, a couple of feet down MAX) and that region has seen as little rain as the Lanier area...this is not just a drought, folks...the prime reason for the lake to be the way it is...unrestricted growth...

sP