The AJC has a detailed write up of the water wars with Alabama and Florida.
It’s time to get on with it already and maybe Georgia needs to build up its own reservoirs for water collection and distribution. Oh, and Charlie Crist can suck eggs.
Fresh Political Pickins From The Peach State
The AJC has a detailed write up of the water wars with Alabama and Florida.
It’s time to get on with it already and maybe Georgia needs to build up its own reservoirs for water collection and distribution. Oh, and Charlie Crist can suck eggs.
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But not Bob Riley? Oh I forgot. Alabama isn’t a hill to die on.
Riley has already survived his intraparty intifada. See 2003, Amendment One, defeat of.
“maybe Georgia needs to build up its own reservoirs for water collection and distribution.”
Maybe?
This has gone on for years. Developers have built and built, without the slightest concern where the water is going to come from. We have a metropolitan area of five million people getting water from an overgrown trout stream.
Maybe?
We have substituted whining about Florida and Alabama for leadership. We have substituted praying for rain for pipes and pump stations. We have substituted grandstanding about gay marriage and the state flag for controls on runaway development.
Maybe?
The time to plan for this was thirty years ago. Where are these reservoirs going to be built? Where are the pipes and pump houses going to go? WHERE IS THE MONEY TO PAY FOR THIS GOING TO COME FROM?
Maybe?
I talked about this till I couldn’t talk anymore, but, hey, just keep packin’ ‘em in, the more the merrier. Don’t be looking up this way for water. We’re having problems too.
“Georgia needs to build up its own reservoirs for water collection and distribution” If we have 10-15 years, this is viable. Otherwise it is useless in meeting Maguson’s order.
Metro Atlanta deserves some credit for how it uses water. Georgia EPD estimates Metro Atl uses 150 gallons per day per person. Here are usage for other cities:Las Vegas 254, Columbia SC 252, Phoenix 218, Dallas 213, Macon 206, Miami 157, LaGrange 155, NYC 134, Seattle 105.
People in Seattle use less water because it’s raining on them?
You’re probably close… they don’t have much reason to water their lawns. Also in PNW tends to be more concerned about environmental issues so it is likely residents there also are more into low flow shower head, toilets, etc.
I don’t think we necessarily need to have the reservoirs built and operating within the three years, just a binding agreement to get them built, and hopefully under way.
This is the nature of American politics. Nothing really happens until it is too late.
Let the b*tching and moaning commence, because it is going to require tax dollars to build reservoirs.
Given the size of the population this impacts, as well as the geographic distribution, the State of Georgia can probably make a case to the Federal Government to foot atleast half the bill, perhaps even provide the other half in an interest free loan.
The thing is, and right-wingers…just bite your lip, the State will need to brag about its efficient use of water as well as having very clean water (ranked 24th of the 50 largest cities in America). The only problem is that there is zero political incentive for the administration to do anything about the water situation in GA.
At the moment, there’s also little incentive for Congress to allocate the money to help pay for the reservoirs, especially when they know this is really just a sideshow to the real battle to control the mostly ample water in Lake Lanier.
Reservoirs in the Chattahoochee basin would also impact flows to Alabama and Florida so while we can solve the problem of “authorized uses” we would still be facing the equitable apportionment question. And please, this isn’t about runaway growth. Metro Atlanta depletes flow in the Chattahoochee by 200-300 cubic feet per second (the flow just above Roswell is 6330 cubic feet per second at this moment) so contrary to conventional wisdom and popular belief Metro Atlanta’s water consumption has little impact on either Florida or Alabama.
Aside from the water wars They still need basic infrastructure impovements wrt flooding. Retention ponds, detention ponds, wetlands, spillways, better drainage around areas of 285, ect…
It’s too bad the “pay as you go” crowd can’t charge the water itself when it passes through a man made structure. A possible reason for the delay in funding.
From the phoenix.gov website:
“Central Arizona is in a better position to provide sustainable water supplies under conditions of drought and global climate change than most regions in the United States, including Texas, Georgia, Florida, the Northeast, and Midwest. ”
“…it requires communities in central Arizona to demonstrate that they have water supplies that can be sustained under normal conditions for 100 years before plats for new development can be approved. ”
“Phoenix recycles in some form 90 percent of its wastewater, delivering it for use in agriculture, energy production, urban irrigation, aquifer recharge and riparian wetland maintenance.”
“Phoenix has adopted a substantial water resources impact fee that is charged to new development and is used to develop future water supplies needed to meet the demand of development during normal and drought conditions.”
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