Atlanta:WATER

[dante2308]

Originally Posted by Trae

If I could, I would take buckets of water from Houston's recent floods, and bring it to Atlanta.

One of the best things you all can do is start buying bottles of water and drink off of that. If you really want some koolaid, or lemonade, you can buy little packs in the store that you can sprinkle into your water. Take short (but clean) baths. Also, don't try to cheat the rules, as it only hurts the water situation.

Another list of things that will not change the fact that we run out of water in 80 days.

[Trae]

It is weird how Atlanta is usually a city that gets a lot of rain, but it has been so different this year. When the drought first started, I thought it would go away soon, but it didn't. There is still time left for a little tropical storm to blow over Atlanta, but the odds of that happening are very slim.

[Sulley]

Has the water pressure been cut in the city?

When I stayed at the Westin Peachtree Plaza this weekend, the shower pressure was barely a trickle... and the water smelled of algae.

[ThrashATL]

Atlanta has heavy rain forcast for Thursday. I will be backing the car out of the garage and washing it via the rainfall. Been 4 months since it was washed and quite frankly, I never thought it'd ever get as dirty as it looks now. Also have a big plastic swimming pool for the dogs that I will be diverting rainwater into from the gutter downspouts. Something I can dredge a bucket in and water some bushes that were planted this year that still haven't quite taken hold since MARCH. My yard feels like corn flakes but at least I don't have to mow it but once a month.

[sunking1056]

regardless of what conservation efforts will or won't do to help our current situation, I think we should emphasize them so that when (if?) this problem gets resolved, it won't be able to sneak up on us quite so quickly again. If for nothing else, I'm glad this has gotten people to consider just how much water they waste every day and perhaps change their habits.

[Trae]

Maybe the construction of more area lakes will help. They can also provide good recreational purposes. DFW went through I drought last year, and their area lakes (about 12 I think) kept them through it.

[Rail Claimore]

Originally Posted by Trae

If I could, I would take buckets of water from Houston's recent floods, and bring it to Atlanta.

Likewise. Texas and the Great Lakes are the only parts of the country that have seen more rain than normal. Half of Wisconsin was under water when I moved back up here in August.

[Rail Claimore]

Originally Posted by Trae

Maybe the construction of more area lakes will help. They can also provide good recreational purposes. DFW went through I drought last year, and their area lakes (about 12 I think) kept them through it.

Atlanta has only two large equivalent lakes rather than 12. Houston is in a similar situation to Atlanta, except that your two lakes are much bigger than even Lake Lanier (the bigger of Atlanta's two). Houston also gets a crapton more rain and, I believe, even has desal contributing to the water supply.

Put simply, Atlanta is the only major metro area (5+ million) that relies on such a small source of water. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. The only true long-term steps Georgia has taken to solve this problem is to study the feasibility of desal on the Georgia coast.

[jfsatlbldr]

I've noticed the wealthy neighborhoods seem to have all the water they need. I counted 13 lawn sprinklers either running or recently used showing evidence on the pavement and even puddles along Ridgewood Road and another adjoining road in NW Atlanta on my way to work on Monday morning.

How many votes do i hear for turning the whole neighborhood in to the water patrols? Granted some may have wells but not that many and even wells run dry during a prolonged drought.

[dante2308]

Originally Posted by sunking1056

regardless of what conservation efforts will or won't do to help our current situation, I think we should emphasize them so that when (if?) this problem gets resolved, it won't be able to sneak up on us quite so quickly again. If for nothing else, I'm glad this has gotten people to consider just how much water they waste every day and perhaps change their habits.

See, we don't really waste that much water as it is. We just need a new water source. Water is not a rare commodity. It isn't something local environmentalists even need to think about. A few desal plants would immediately solve our problem. Save your gas, water is renewable.

[Trae]

Originally Posted by Rail Claimore

Atlanta has only two large equivalent lakes rather than 12. Houston is in a similar situation to Atlanta, except that your two lakes are much bigger than even Lake Lanier (the bigger of Atlanta's two). Houston also gets a crapton more rain and, I believe, even has desal contributing to the water supply.

Put simply, Atlanta is the only major metro area (5+ million) that relies on such a small source of water. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. The only true long-term steps Georgia has taken to solve this problem is to study the feasibility of desal on the Georgia coast.

These don't even show the three largest lakes in DFW, but you can get that complete list here:



And Lake Lanier is actually quite a bit larger than Lake Houston (I think). Lake Conroe is bigger I believe though. I really think more lakes would solve this problem if(when) it happens in the future.

[Rail Claimore]

Lake Lanier in Atlanta is 38,000 acres. DFW, from that list has 5 at least in its size category, plus two monster ones. So DFW, a metro area roughly 1.2 times the size of Atlanta, has 8 or 9 times as much water to draw off of.

Just to give you an idea of lake size, TVA's three lakes on the Tennessee River in northern Alabama are all over 60,000 acres, and two of them (Guntersville and Wheeler) are among the five largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi. The only lake in Georgia that is of that size is Lake Strom Thurmond, which is on the border with South Carolina.

Actually, I meant Lake Livingston, not Lake Houston. Lake Conroe is slightly smaller than Lake Lanier. Lake Lanier is pretty deep though, 140 ft.

[sunking1056]

Originally Posted by dante2308

See, we don't really waste that much water as it is. We just need a new water source. Water is not a rare commodity. It isn't something local environmentalists even need to think about. A few desal plants would immediately solve our problem. Save your gas, water is renewable.

I completely disagree. We pee in 6 liters of drinking water. WTF. That's just a sign that our society messed something up way back.

[dante2308]

Originally Posted by sunking1056

I completely disagree. We pee in 6 liters of drinking water. WTF. That's just a sign that our society messed something up way back.

Water is the only liquid that is abundant enough to be peed in.... As I said, it isn't supposed to be rare. It is basically covering our planet and when we use it, it goes back into the cycle and eventually comes back down as rain. Perfect, renewable, abundant. Great, lets use it for everything. Now if only we were capable of planning ahead.

Save the strict water conservation to the space station.

[sunking1056]

except the vast majority of water on this planet is not fit for consumption without inputting significant amounts of energy, which most definitely has to be considered. Not to mention global accessibility to water, but that's a completely different issue. And that by using it, we are polluting it which then requires energy to clean and, when not cleaned, is often returned to the environment and damages the ecosystem. Using less water would lessen our impact all down the line.

[LoveAtlanta]

we should pray for the rain

[Terminus]

Originally Posted by atlantaguy

That giant sucking sound you hear is another example of our complete lack of leadership at the State level, and of course, I'm blaming Sonny Bubba.

He has been totally MIA on our transportation crisis (yes, crisis), then not a word about saving Grady - and now this. These boobs that run our State were warned about the water situation several years ago, to no avail. They have been hell-bent on paving over and building out North Georgia, and it would seem it is finally coming back to bite us in the ass.

Thanks Idiot Governor, Jesus-Save-Us Legislature and Corrupt & Evil building/paving lobby. You got your wish - we are now maxed out. Where to next?

Oh, and I can't forget a well deserved F**k You to the assholes at the Army Corp of Engineers - are you guys trying to kill off the 10th largest metro in the country, or does it just seem that way?

Atlanta Regional Commission has been warning of the region's over-reliance on the lake for decades now, but the leadership, of all parties, has been unwilling to pro-actively plan (sound familiar?). They have been saying that there will be no more water capacity by 2030 under NORMAL climactic considerations - not to mention climate change models that suggest that the non-coastal southeast will become dryer and hotter.

This year is just a taste of things to come.

[dante2308]

Okay, so now I'm hearing the drought might last for decades? Isn't the ARC supposed to make predictions based in reality? They have been under predicting our growth for decades in order to keep our environmental rating up which includes underestimating our water use levels. 2030 is a completely different year from right now.


here is a friendly video:
• Video Link

The worst problem is really a lack of pumpkins. I know I wont survive the pumpkin shortage myself.

[Plasticman]

Originally Posted by (four 0 four)

Words that I never thought I would read on SSP!

LOL - What can I say? I live in a rural area but love visiting the city. Atlanta's less than an hour away and we go there often. But home is where we get away from the chaos.

[Chris Creech]

A couple of years ago I installed rain barrels on the two gutter spouts in the back corners of my yard. it's the kits you can get from several places on the internet with the recycled 55 gallon dark green plastic drums they use for shipping olives internationally. They just add the screw top lids with the screens, and a faucet on the bottom. Then I was able to run irrigation hoses from each one to cover most of my landscaping in my back yard. The irrigation system is set up to only drip by each individual shrub over a long period of time. I have a lot of hydrangeas that take a lot of water in the summer.

These are pretty amazing, pretty much any thundershower that lasts more than 20 mins will completely fill them up. Then I wait a few days and can let half the water out into the yard, then the rest a few days later. If I were to just leave the faucets open, with the drip system, it would take a full day for all the water to drain. So it's a very efficient watering system, I'm not watering the whole yard, just what needs it.

Even in this drought my landscaping has hardly wilted at all. Again, I was blown away by how much water can come off the average roof in even a small storm. If there's a full day of rain the barrels will overflow and another overflow hose diverts the water out into the yard.

When I reseached this I was surprised that Atlanta DOESN"T have a program in place to get rainbarrels in place. Most cities, especially out west and in CA, have extensive rain barrel programs where you can get them at a discount through city programs, and they tell you how to install and make the best use of them.

Atlanta should have a rain barrel program. (Especially since one major source of the recycled rain barrels are the black 55 plastic drums that Coca-Cola ships syrup to bottlers in.)

Also, for my front step/porch plants my AC drip is right by my steps. On hot days I can easily get a full bucket of water for those plants, where it otherwise would have just dripped away and been lost.