Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Water Use---them's fighten' words

So now the newest of water issues to affect us here in Georgia may also soon affect those in Tennessee.

Think you live in Tennessee and like it? Maybe not in the near future---you may be in Georgia with Toto to your deepest dismay.

The state of Georgia has now decided---since Tennessee won't let them put their darn big straw in the Tn River to suck on it for Atlanta----that they will just annex part of Tennessee. That would be the approximate mile that they say was originally their's anyway. Which by the way falls right into the middle of you guessed it: the Tennessee River.
How about them apples?
Let's not conserve. Let's not SHUT OFF lawn watering peoples water. Let's not reduce new home construction or try improved ways of conservation like water recirculation. Let's just fight for the river, wasting tax payer money, so we can suck it dry just like we know divine right allows us to do.

The absolute dumbest part of this is that all this money being spent could be used to offer rebates (or out right by outs) for people to replace toilets and water reducers. It could hire more people to enforce water restrictions and it could allow for more people to drive around and SHUT OFF the water of people that waste it. But no.......we have to be the absolute most inefficient government that we possibly can. Who the hell votes these people in I ask you? Because it's not me-----my people never get in office. If I vote for you it's practically tantamount to saying "you'll loose now sucker". :-D
Anyway---here's the link to the article from our own Georgia Newspaper the Atlanta Constitution so you can read it for yourself. Here's another from CNN.

Also before we get to much farther let's talk about a serious water issue: power and electricity production. Here's an even newer article about how we need water (the same water everyone wants to drink and water their lawn with) to produce power. Some good information I didn't know about it's use in this article like: did you know that running five minutes worth of hot water uses the same amount of energy as a 60 watt incandescent bulb run for 14 hours? I didn't either---something to chew on for sure.

And just a quickie thrown in for free here's one on Lake Michigan.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's the same here in the glourios north Texas metro-mess. When we had our drought two years ago Collin county was draining east Texas lakes dry in an attempt to keep water in Lake Lavon. The largest use of water, you guessed it, lawns. They waited until several cities ran out of water before they started enforcing the existing watering ban. What's the point of having a perfectly green, non-native, lawn in 100 degree summers? I can understand keeping your trees alive, after all that bradford pear does replace one of the hundreds of trees that were cleared out to build your suburbian oasis, but why on earth do you need a lawn that looks like you live in the tropics?

Leigh said...

(Not sure if you're getting this comment twice or not - I seem to have pushed the publish button without actually clicking on it! :o )

Living in the Upstate of South Carolina, we've been keeping an eye on the fuss Georgia has been putting up over the water issue. Since we share some of the same sources, I heard on the news that Georgia was trying to force SC into some sort of agreement, but since our water is drying up too, I reckon they didn't think we were worth the fight anymore.

All this goes to prove a point I've been making for awhile now. Government cannot save us.

Hayden said...

I'm in the midst of a pre-sale remodel & made the decision - it may not benefit me economically, but instant hot water is the right way to go. cheaper from an energy standpoint, and much less water waste.

And our lovely local power company, that gives rebate for more efficient tank hot water heaters, says we're on our own if we make the even more efficient choice to do tankless.

go figure.

Woody said...

Sounds like a solution formulated by lawyers....go figure

Dancingfarmer said...

Anonymous---we come from Texas and I know what your talking about. Also--yuk Bradford pears. Why not a long lived Oak or something :-D

Leigh--keep watching since I believe this also has to do with the North Carolina border in addition to TN.

Hayden---yeah way to go! Wish more people would be so responsible

Woody---don't you know. Somebody will make money and I think your pick will ---definitely not the tax payers.

Anonymous said...

Actually Anon,One of the best measures of long term drought is the height of the Edward’s aquifer level. It responds well to rainfall over many months time. Last September (2007) the level peaked just above 700 feet. Since then we have had only about 25% of our normal rainfall and the level has dropped into the 650 foot range. I chose an aquifer level of 650 feet as a decent measure of extended period drought. Looking at the last 50 years, beginning in 1958 here’s what we can glean from the Edward’s aquifer.

The aquifer level has dropped below 650 feet 28 times. Two of those times it recovered in less than 2 days. I’ll throw those two out so that’s 26 times the aquifer has dropped below 650 feet in the last 50 years or about once every 2 years. The duration the level remained below 650 feet ranged from 1 week to 10 months. The “average” drought here lasted here about 3 months. That means that if the aquifer level drops to less than 650 feet by early July and this is an average drought then we can expect relief by October. Ouch!

Then again, we have seen dramatic recoveries in a very short period of time. A vicious drought in the spring and summer of 1998 ended in a 500 year flood in October. In 2002 the aquifer dropped to less than 650 feet for one day in June and by July Canyon lake was flowing over its spillway for the first time in the lake’s history. The official outlook that June predicted a hot dry summer. Sound familiar?


Great post,
Cheers,
Danice