Posted on 12/05/2007 10:30:19 AM PST by cogitator
ATLANTA (AP) — Townspeople stood in the sweltering heat at grocery stores and community centers, waiting to fill plastic jugs with water. Tanker trucks rumbled down the highways, bringing relief to a thirsty town suddenly gone dry.
That was the scene 13 years ago when the Georgia city of Macon ran out of water. But it could also be a glimpse of the very near future in Atlanta and some other cities in the drought-stricken Southeast.
They may be down to just a few months of easily accessible water, and the faucets could run dry if reservoirs aren't replenished soon.
The state of Georgia said it has lined up contracts with vendors to bring in bottled water and tanker trucks that could dispense water into jugs, jars and buckets.
"Are we going to get to that point? I don't know. But the most important thing is to be prepared," said Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.
But the state, the city of Atlanta and the Georgia National Guard, which could be called into action by the governor to deliver water in an emergency, have yet to work out the details of exactly where the water would be distributed and how, saying it is too soon to say where it might be needed.
In any case, those are just emergency measures for supplying people with the water they need for drinking, cooking, bathing and flushing the toilet. Atlanta and other communities have yet to settle on a long-term solution if the water runs out.
State and city officials have talked about building more reservoirs, pipelines and pumps, but they have not adopted a plan, and none of those ideas are quick fixes.
"We don't think that the worst-case scenario is likely, but we are thinking about what we might do if we don't get rain before next summer," said Atlanta city water spokeswoman Janet Ward. "We are pretty much looking at every option."
Bill Bozarth, director of the Georgia arm of the government watchdog group Common Cause, wondered why the state has not come up with a plan yet. "You would think the water crisis would start to become more of a priority," he said.
Time may be running out.
Before the area got a little rain over the past few weeks, authorities said that Lake Lanier, the Georgia reservoir that supplies most of metropolitan Atlanta's 5 million people, had less than four months of readily available water left. And an unusually dry winter is forecast.
Water vendors are preparing for the worst. Lipsey Mountain Spring Water, a vendor with the Federal Emergency Management Agency that is in contract talks with the state, said it has about 4 million liters of water in warehouses in Georgia and Florida.
Other towns in the Southeast are also in dire straits.
In Durham, N.C., population 210,000, officials fear there is less than two months of accessible water left. The city is trying to conserve to stave off the worst.
Athens, Ga., a college town of roughly 110,000 people about 60 miles from Atlanta, recently reached an agreement with water companies to pump more water into a dwindling reservoir. Now the city is "cautiously optimistic" its lake could refill over the winter, said city spokesman Jeff Montgomery.
As for what might happens if the tap runs dry, Georgians do not have to look any further than Macon, whose water plant was knocked out by Tropical Storm Alberto's floodwaters in 1994. Many of the city's 160,000 residents without water for three weeks.
State and federal authorities trucked in millions of gallons of water, set up 26 staging areas around the city and hauled in 2,200 portable bathrooms, said Johnny Wingers, director of Macon's emergency management agency.
"I get chill bumps thinking about it," he said. "It's 21 days I'll never forget. It burned an indelible impression in my brain."
So . . . . It’s NOT a rainy night in Georgia?
I'm sure it will (and has recently, but not much). I saw a news report about how many households are hooking up rain barrels to their downspouts.
The Rainbarrel crowd...are just like the German folks....who put up 100 gallon barrels and gather all the water they need for their yards or gardens...thus not pumping from the city water supply. I live in Germany, and I’d bet that 30 percent of all home owners operate with such a set-up. Cost: less than $400 and you can do all of this yourself. I have a guy I work with...who has two 100-gallon type containers...and that gives him more than enough to keep his yard green all year round...at zero cost.
How do you get it out of the barrel into a hose or sprinkler to water though?
The politicians are afraid to act. Water is an increasingly scarce resource, and is therefore underpriced - I’ve heard some incredible stories, anecdotal I know, about excessive water usage. Raise the rates on household water usage, and people will find a way to conserve. Use the extra revenue to develop new water sources.
It will rain again, but the Georgia Administration/Legislature needs to get off its asses and get working on short term and long term plans.
Long term, they need to consider building several desalination plants along the coast, and pipelines to distribute that water statewide. Short term, contracts with companies to deliver water to the area, distribution points, etc.
And as much as I hate Government intrusion, perhaps they need agreements with the local companies to monitor household water usage and mandate reductions based on historical averages, with penalties for overages.
Running out of water would most definitely constitute a State Emergency for which the Government has a role to act.
Not too much, or we’ll start smelling like France. ;-)
Atlanta will be the death of us all.
All of these guys operate some some electrical pump which takes the water out....and usually runs to some irrigation hose around the circle of their house...and then to the garden....with some small pressure sprinkler tossing the water out over the front/back yard (some switch from irrigation to sprinkler). This works for a small yard...and not the huge yards you see with most American homes.
With a small, European type yard, I wouldn't bother. Seems too much work for a postage stamp with a few shrubs on it. Oh well.
Don’t make me start tellin’ ‘Bama jokes.
Nor in NC, SC, or Tennessee either.
How about they stop draining the Res to produce power and save a mussel species....and then let the spring rains fill the reservoir?
Sounds like a plan to me....every drought year you stop the superfluous water drainage from the Res.
Maybe we should start building desalination plants? Then they could deal with all that global warming meltwater that’s gonna raise the seas by 20 feet by drinking it away.
Our Home Depot has garbage cans with spigots at the top and bottom, with a hookup for the downspout on top for $50. It’s a pretty neat setup.
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