Fresh Loaf

State Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch announced today that Georgia’s drought — the headline-grabbing phenomenon that forced Georgians to take shorter showers and watch our lawns turn brown — was officially over.

That also means the watering restrictions, which irked lawn-doting residents and hamstrung metro Atlanta’s landscaping industry, have been eased. (Here’s Georgia’s new outdoor watering schedule.)

Couch said she hopes residents — who surpassed Gov. Sonny Perdue’s 10 percent conservation goal — will continue using less water. But Georgians have very short memories.

Keep in mind that a drought can — and will — happen again. And Georgia lawmakers, who were quick to jump on the crisis but hard pressed to create actual reforms, squandered several opportunities to make the state better prepared when the next one arrives.

(more…)

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Carol Couch, the director of the state Environmental Protection Division, opened the floodgates yesterday and said that Georgians in the 61 drought-afflicted counties may commence limited outdoor watering once their communities give the green light. Be sure to check if your area has decided to do so.

One person with one hose can water between midnight and 10 a.m. for 25 minutes, three days a week on an odd-and-even-based street address system. If you’ve got newly installed landscaping, you can water on that same system three days a week for 10 weeks after you’ve completed an online Outdoor Water Use Registration Program. It’s free and will be available here March 15.

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From the Only-In-Georgia Department:

The day after the state loses a major federal court ruling that means it cannot draw as much water from Lake Lanier as planned, how does Gov. Sonny Perdue react?

He relaxes the ban on outdoor watering.

OK. We’re going to have less water. So let’s use more of it.

Gotcha.

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