METRO ATLANTA'S NEED FOR WATER: THREE MONTHS FROM A MUDHOLE

[FourScore]

Atlanta has a 3 month water supply!
by deepsouthdoug
Fri Oct 12, 2007 at 09:09:13 PM PDT

Now this is what Global Warming is all about. Let’s GO to the Atlanta Journal and Constitution headline:

METRO ATLANTA'S NEED FOR WATER: THREE MONTHS FROM A MUDHOLE

Three million + people out of water in three months! I’m not a bit religious, but this is biblical shit:

From the AJC story:

"That's three months before there's not enough water for more than 3 million metro Atlantans to take showers, flush their toilets and cook. Three months before there's not enough water in parts of the Chattahoochee River for power plants to generate electricity. Three months before part of the river runs dry."

Wonder if you can run the busiest airport in the world without water? Where would those planes go? Economic disruption? Big Time!

Still Atlanta can thank their lucky stars they aren’t Athens, GA. Athens might run out of water in thirty days. Athens could be a good, err, dry run on what to do when a modern American City runs out of water. Where are those 500 mile wide CAT 5 hurricanes when you need them?

Earlier this week I heard on the national news that Athens might run out of water before the end of the year. My oldest kid lives there – I called him up and he said they were going to run out in 30 day. Athens is a town of 100,000 – the site of a major university – and it’s going to be out of water in 30 days.

This should become another transcendent political issue next year. And this could become the second global warming Diaspora! Scatter those Red State RepublicSCUMS to the globally warmed wind! Of course many of the Cobb County GodWACK nuts would think this another indication of End Times.

I always thought it would be Phoenix first.

Link to the AJC:

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2007/10/11/wateruse1011.html

And remember, "A hard rain's gonna fall!"

http://www.dailykos.com/hotlist/add/2007/10/13/0913/9804/displaystory//

[Not_Giving_Up]

1. I saw something on this on CNN recently

Remember now, boys and girls, we're not sure if global warming is real. The facts aren't all in yet! :sarcasm:

[FourScore]

2. My brother in Atlanta thinks the global warming science is bunk.

Doesn't believe any of it. Makes me sad.

[Not_Giving_Up]

3. I don't know how you can live somewhere that is being hit so hard

Yet not believe that it is real. A few of the many reasons why I don't live on the Gulf Coast anymore...Bigger hurricanes, hotter summers, potential of rising sea levels. I am sufficiently away from those things in South Dakota now. At least here, the farmer see the difference in the weather and want to do something about it.

[FourScore]

4. I completely agree. n/t

[WinkyDink]

19. Let them drink bunk, I say.

[BootinUp]

5. These planners and the Government

need to get their shit together. I live north of Atlanta, just north of the Allatoona. Not sure how severe the problem is here, I don't follow local news enough.

[eleny]

6. That red state needs to turn blue in the worst way

[usaftmo]

29. My thoughts exactly

My blood still boils over the fact how chambliss questioned the patriotism of Cleland in the Senate race.

:grr:

Upon further thought, I actually am upset with the people who voted for chambliss over Cleland.

[aquart]

7. My sister wants us to build huge aqueducts

to redistribute the nation's water supply. Now there's a public works project that could employ a few hundred thousand.

But let's wait till we lose a few more cities.

[HereSince1628]

15. Water from where exactly?

I hope you aren't thinking the Great Lakes, because that just isn't possible under current law and international treaty.

There are cities in Wisconsin within 5 miles of Lake Michigan that straddle the basin boundary and would like to dilute ground water that has too much radium in it with lake water to provide safe water to a handful of thousands of residents.. When they try to purchase water from municipalities inside the basin of Lake Michigan the governor of Michigan put the ky-bosh on it.

By law the governments of the Great Lakes states and adjoining Candadian provinces must agree to water diversions both into and out of the basin. Michigan, with virtually its entire landmass inshide the basin has been quite reluctant to allow water out. So Milwaukee suburbs, almost within sight of the lake can't get to the water.

I don't see the politics of drawing water from here to the southeast as even a remote possibility.

[WinkyDink]

21. Aqueducts?! And where, pray, would these behemoths be built?

[City Lights]

25. And what private contractor will be overpaid to build them?

:mad:

[usaftmo]

30. Halliburton of course!

Crash-cart will still be able to bilk several billion dollars; as if a lifetime of corruption/accepting bribes isn't enough money!

:grr: :mad:

[trashcanistanista]

8. My sister lives outside Atlanta and thinks

Global Warming is a hoax too. I think they spend so much time with church ativities, they don't read the newspapers. I have gotten her to become a democrat though, still working on the climate change thingy. There is hope for that area, some of them are waking up.

[usaftmo]

31. Maybe when she turns on the shower and there's no water

she'll change her mind. Please don't give up on her; she sounds like she can be brought to the truth.

[nealmhughes]

9. The SE has been in a major drought for 2 years now.

Last year our local town's water supply went out due to a pumping problem and the local people had to go to the fire station for their flushing water -- from where? The spring-fed creek that flows beside my house.

The supply got low again this year, but luckily there was some rain -- not much, but some. We had counted on a low grade hurricane or tropical storm or two to track towards Tennessee so that the downstream would hit us. Most of the ponds in the Tennessee Valley are empty. That is unheard of, especially given the fact that it is usually one of the wettest parts of the US.

Three years ago our local farmers made 5 crops of hay and sold it West. This year they are selling their cattle and they made one pitiful crop of hay. The cotton does not look worth picking.

I waded across Second Creek last week before it turned cool and normally I could never say that -- I would be swimming. The stones on the retaining walls of the channel are completely out of the water; so where I could have swam normally is ankle deep.

It is really dusty here, also, I am so lucky we have a well and the creek flows all year and gives over 200 gpm regardless of the time of year.

[renie408]

18. You ARE lucky. We have had NO rain. I own and board horses.

I am scared shitless about the hay situation. Not for now, I am paying out the nose for it and cannot afford it, but I have hay NOW. I am worried about next year. The horses have destroyed the pastures here, even with feeding round bales in the fields. Fescue is some TOUGH grass, but I am not sure how it can come back from this year. We had a combination of NO rain and EVERY day in August and half of September over 90 degrees. We also had the most days over 100 degrees in August in the history of our area. If we don't start getting some rain SOON, I mean really SOON, the grass isn't going to be able to bounce back for NEXT year and then we are really going to be fucked.

[Budgies Revenge]

10. ah yes, the wondrous days of water rationing are here.....

Local officials are saying that the Bear Creek Reservoir (supplies Athens and a few surrounding counties with water) will run dry in approximately 10 weeks if we don't get some major rainfall. They're getting ready to implement water rationing, possibly by the end of the month.:(

[piesRsquare]

14. Welcome to DU, GA_metalsmith!

:hi:

[Blackhatjack]

11. NC Gov Mike Easley Issues Major Announcement on Drought/Water Restrictions Monday...

WE have approximately 105 days of water supply left before running out of drinking water in the Raleigh area, and much of the State of North Carolina.

Atlanta is not alone in this. It stretches across the entire Southeast, and soon things are going to be critical if there is not some rain soon.

[theHandpuppet]

20. Also worries about forest fires in the mountainous areas?

I haven't heard much about that possibility but certinaly there must be a real risk now for fire in the Southern mountains? Western Carolina is absolutely gorgeous but that entire ecosystem must be really suffering from the drought.

[Divine Discontent]

12. yes, it's biblical 'shit' as you call it, indeed!!!!

all I will say, is our leaders better get on the ball and do what's right by the citizens of this country, end that evil invasion, and get those 150,000 back here to start work on public works water redistribution projects and moving water machinery/pumps, supplies, into place in about 45 days or so if this keeps up... can you IMAGINE the HYSTERIA that will ensue if this truly starts to come to fruition as feared?

I will pray and hope... as many here will.

thanks for the thread.

[Luminous Animal]

13. I am shocked that civic leaders let it go this far....

Maybe it's because I live in San Francisco and we are used to living with cyclical droughts but here, the citizenry would have been put on mandatory water use restrictions way before it reached this crisis.

[renie408]

22. They have been. We have all been on mandatory water restrictions, at least here.

And my sister lives north of Atlanta and she is on mandatory water restrictions. But it hasn't RAINED in the southeast in months and even the months it did rain, it wasn't much. There is a strip south of Columbia, SC and across south Georgia that got some rain last week, but that isn't going to help Atlanta. The southeast is currently going through the driest period it has seen in decades. I know that in our area and east of us, there have been mandatory water restrictions in place since the beginning of summer and the county next to ours has less than 100 days of water left. Maybe some of this is poor planning, but a lot of it is the fact that there just isn't any water falling out of the sky to help us out, on top of not much snow over the winter and a dry year last year.

[Blackhatjack]

26. We have been on mandatory water restrictions for most of summer in Raleigh as well...

The problem is twofold:

*We have not had any rain to speak of. One report shows we have received 1/12 the amount of rain we received last year, and last year was way below other years.

*We continue to allow the largest users of water, which are almost all businesses, to continue using the same amount of water as usual with a 'request that they engage in voluntary cutback of water usage.'

There is a large section of North Carolina under 'exceptional drought', the highest level and above 'extreme drought.'

If things remain the same for the next 30-45 days, somebody better be planning to truck water in from out of state --just like we did after hurricane flooding in Eastern North Carolina a few years back.

[Budgies Revenge]

28. we have been under some sort of water restriction for the last few years

Even with the restrictions, it has gotten so desperate that local officials are getting ready to implement rationing of water. The details haven't been worked out yet, but they are saying that drinking water and sanitation will take precedence, then the remaining water amounts will be for industry and business usage. That ought to make living and working in Athens interesting to say the least....

[trof]

16. And the Alabama-Georgia water war.

90% of the Coosa River lies in Alabama, but it originates near Rome, GA.

We have 7 hydroelectric dams on the Coosa, but none can now operate at 100% of capacity due to low water flow.

It's getting scary.

[Bennyboy]

17. Are they still bottling Aquafina to sell in other countries?

Isn't it made from Atlanta Tap water?

[soothsayer]

23. Let them drink coke.

[opihimoimoi]

24. Global Warming is BUNK???...Oh well, whats the spread for the Dallas Game?

[Omphaloskepsis]

32. Well, we have had a unusual amount of rain in Oregon for this time of the year.

Much more rain than usual. So, yeah global warming is bunk because it is really cold here. See, setting a year over year metric to gauge global warming is bullshit.

[opihimoimoi]

27. Bush will soon apoint a WATER CZAR....MIKE BROWN comes to mind