Georgia, don't pin your water shortage on us

[flashl]

Georgia water shortage

It would be easier for Floridians to sympathize with Atlanta over its water shortage if Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue would stop blaming us for it. Perdue is threatening to sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop it from releasing water from Lake Lanier near Atlanta downstream to Florida's Apalachicola River and productive estuary. Perdue and other Georgia officials have tried to turn this into a fight between human beings in Atlanta and shellfish in Florida.

Georgia's congressional delegation is even trying to rewrite the Endangered Species Act so that water could be legally diverted from environmental needs. Not only is that short-sighted but also unlikely to give Georgia any enduring relief. In an interconnected ecosystem, you can't just send your problems downstream.

Here's the truth, Gov. Perdue: A record drought, unrestrained population growth and poor water-conservation habits are to blame for northern Georgia's water shortage.
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[glowing]

1. They got some rain today...not enough... but they got it.

[emilyg]

3. We got some - very little. The trees are still following the dogs.

[glowing]

13. Did you get anymore... We seem to be getting a good amount of

on and off rain now...

[aquart]

2. Yep. They didn't plan for the influx of population.

Did any city in the US plan for the water needs of its people?

[SoCalDem]

9. Probably not, but they sure SHOULD have.. City planners are supposed

to Plan, aren't they?

That's a big problem out here too.. they keep building boxes...and yet we have barely enough water now..

Damming only creates shortages down the line for "other" people, so that's not really a good solution..

Modern America has never really dealt with water shortages in a personal way. Most of us have always been able to just "turn it on", and never think about where it comes from and where it goes :(

[bunkerbuster1]

12. Planners? CITY planners?

What are they?

I don't know if you've ever been to this part of the world, but there are big chunks of this metro area that are unincorporated, meaning that the county has authority. And the fastest growing county, Gwinnett, has had a notoriously corrupt board of commissioners that never met a development, commercial or residential, they didn't like.

Our prior commission head, Wayne Hill, once said "Growth is the engine that drives Gwinnett County." It made me want to hurl when I heard it. You can't live on "growth," certainly not the kind that drove this county and surrounding counties.

There's little or no logical planning, just a lot of competition for businesses and a tax base. They scrape huge lots barren and throw up a 300- or 500-unit subdivision without blinking an eye.

We bought in what's considered an "older" neighborhood, meaning that it was about 10-15 years old at the time. In the past half dozen years there have been the odd multi-use projects that made sense, but mostly it's strip malls and crap houses.

Ok, rant over. But that's why we're running dry. Not because of the fucking mussels and sturgeon.

[librechik]

4. I can't believe they waited this long to impose water restrictions

heads should be rolling.

[Horse with no Name]

8. I was wondering that myself too

BUT, I believe that EVERY city in this country should be on water conservation measures ALL OF THE TIME.

[piedmont]

5. Well, I'm in GA and I pin it on too many people, especially those who waste water on lawns.

This is the driest year in a very long time, and yet I have a beautifully green lawn without having EVER watered it. It's a reasonably drought-tolerant species (centipede grass), and I only cut it every three weeks or so. The only additives I've put on it were dolomite limestone and a tiny amount of 8-8-8 fertilizer in the spring.

[flashl]

6. When I read about interstate spats about water the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is always near by.

[Buns_of_Fire]

15. InTRAstate problems, too!

When I lived in Florida (roughly 1960-1980), it was pretty much taken for granted that the Corps of Engineers hadn't done Florida any favors. By the time I left the state, the Everglades were already showing signs of severe distress, while the developers were getting richer and richer. The aquifer was already getting dangerously low (hence the all-too-familiar sinkholes in the central region), and there was concern about salt water intrusion if it dropped too far.

Most of south Florida below Lake Okeechobee would still be everglades, and would probably revert to that state within a generation or two if all the Corps' flood-control locks were simply removed.

The book's been out of print for several years, but if you can lay your hands on a copy of "Florida: Polluted Paradise", it's fascinating reading (if a little dated).

[flashl]

16. Is this the book?

The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise

[Buns_of_Fire]

17. No, but it sounds like it's very similar in tone.

The one I was talking about was (I think) written in the 60's. This one sounds like it'd probably be a better (and more current) account. ("Florida: Polluted Paradise" was written far enough back that it was pretty much gloom 'n' doom, without a lot of encouraging words about the situation...)

[DemBones DemBones]

7. Florida is not exactly known as a green state.

It was a beautiful place when my grandparents moved there in the Thirties and still beautiful when I was a kid in the Fifties and early Sixties. Not many people lived there year round.

Now it is grossly overpopulated, the rich have built condos all along the Gulf Coast so nobody else can see the Gulf, the Everglades and coral reefs are endangered, there are dead zones in the Gulf and probably still red tides. I don't keep up with Florida's environmental issues much because I've given up on the state. I think it's doomed.

I don't think Florida, living in a glass house as it does, ought to be throwing stones, or freshwater mussels, at Georgia.

Both Florida and Georgia have been inundated with people from other states moving South for jobs or for retirement. A lot of people get tired of shoveling snow up North. And governments are never very efficient.

When the oil runs out and people can't have air conditioning, there'll be a reverse migration. That may save Florida and Georgia, and Arizona and California, all the too popular states.

[SoCalDem]

10. Make all the "leavers" take chunks of asphalt with them when they leave

and maybe the aquifers will eventually replenish themselves..:)

[flashl]

11. You are right. Recent reports on safe drinking, fishing, or swimming water was scary. n/t

[donsu]

14. Jeb Bush and Georgia Gov. made a deal last yr. or the 1st part

of this year. (can't remember)

it was mostly secret talks, secret deal, etc.

people should ask Perdue about it and demand answers, paperwork.