The water supply situation in metro Atlanta is no joking matter. The water authorities serving the region need to find reliable sources of supply other than the 2 current reservoirs. Below is a map of the New York City water system. The system can supply 1.4 billion gallons a day of water so clean that 90% does not need to be filtered. In a drought emergency, they can pump water from the Hudson River north of the salt water line at Chelsea, New York.
It’s good to see Chelsea mentioned in a good way, and not for public intoxication, snubbing nine-year-old kids, or campaigning for crooked politicians.
But what would NYC do for water if they banned interbasin transfers like they are proposing for the Southeast? If you look at your map, you'll see that a lot of the NYC water comes from the Delaware basin. If you limited NYC to local supplies, things would be a lot tighter.
Then apply the same rule to California, and listen to the screams from LA.