Fresh Loaf

In Chattanooga, they’re talking water again: The fact that they have it and we don’t.

And, of course, the speculation that Georgia wants to run a pipeline from the Tennessee River down to Atlanta to give us a boost in water supply. The Chattanooga Times Free Press says no one from Georgia has broached the idea, although Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said he and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin have talked “more or less about the fact Atlanta is very thirsty.”

But don’t expect much sympathy from our neighbors up north. The paper also includes this quote:

Fred Exum, chief executive of Krystal Co. in Chattanooga, said that piping water to Atlanta would continue “to foster the irresponsible growth that is Atlanta.”

“Drive around down there. You can tell there’s no master plan,” he said. “They just grow and grow and grow.”

Yeah, but, you know, Atlanta’s growth has nothing to do with our drought. Really and truly.

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The Kremlinologists over at Insider Advantage posted a news report that should bring some holiday cheer to critics of the statewide water plan. The Georgia Water Policy Council, under pressure from environmental groups and local governments, decided on Friday to hold off giving the plan its final blessing until after the new year. Critics disagreed with a last-minute change made by the state Environmental Protection Division that draws district boundaries according to county lines rather than watersheds. The agency has also come under fire for how members of the regional water-planning bodies would be selected. According to the current draft, candidates would be nominated by local power brokers from a variety of industries and sectors, and then hand-picked by the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker.

The report says the vote is set for Jan. 8, which, according to my research two weeks ago, was the date all along. Oh well. Viva agua!

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A steady stream of water has been bubbling up from near the water meter in front of my house in southwest Atlanta’s Capitol View neighborhood since last month.

Immediately after the tenant informed me of the leak Nov. 28, I called the city of Atlanta’s water department to tell them (404-658-7220).

The operator said it’d be fixed in five to seven business days. Crews are very busy, she said.

One week later, the tenant called back. He says the water department said it would take another 10-15 days.

The flow continues, so I called back today.

The city water employee I spoke to said that someone from the department inspected the meter and that there’s nothing wrong with it.

“That’s a street leak,” she said, meaning the leak is coming from a pipe under the street, adjacent to the water meter.

“When are you going to fix it?” I asked.

“After the first of the year,” she said. “We don’t want to tear up your street during the holidays.”

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It comes from an official in Dalton, but finally there’s a thoughtful reaction to Georgia’s water crisis.

Says Dalton Utilities President Don Cope:

 “You’ve heard the governor (Sonny Perdue) last week make the statement that Georgia has enough water if it conserves,” Cope told the utility’s governing board during its monthly meeting on Monday. “That scares me not for our lives, but for the lives of our grandchildren. It scares me because that approach may not allow us to put in place the long-range planning and development that we need for the water supply.”

State officials have taken an ostrich approach to our water crisis. Development hasn’t caused it. The huge spike in population isn’t responsible. Nor are the millions of ways we waste water. Nope, according to our governor, it’s all in the hands of the big fella upstairs. And it’s definitely not global warming.

Here’s Cope’s reality check:

“I duck hunted in a T-shirt this year. Usually when you duck hunt you’ve got icicles coming off your nose.”

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The water news isn’t getting any better.

Florida’s director of the Department of Environmental Protection has sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers complaining about the reduced flow from Lake Lanier.

The Corps reduced the flow of water out of the lake Nov. 16. Now, Florida is complaining that reduction has caused an increase in salt levels in Apalachicola Bay — where the Chattahoochee River flows into the Gulf of Mexico — and is already killing oysters.

Meanwhile, the Corps of Engineers predicts Lake Lanier will drop another foot by the end of the month.

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The Chattanooga Times Free-Press explores the possibilities that Atlanta and Chattanooga might do a little horse-trading: A rapid-rail system between the two cities in exchange for a water pipe running from the Tennessee River to Atlanta to quench our thirsts.

On a typical day, the paper reports, 9 billion gallons of water flow through Chattanooga, and considering how Lake Lanier is on a slow and steady descent, Atlanta casts its thirsty eyes north.

However, there’s already one significant kink in the plan. The Tennessee Valley Authority would have to sign off on any decision to send its water to Atlanta, and the head of the TVA doesn’t have much sympathy for our situation. Reports the Times Free-Press:

TVA President Tom Kilgore, a former resident of Atlanta, said last week that he would be reluctant to give any water from the Tennessee River to the Atlanta region.

“I lived there when they were supposed to build six reservoirs around the city, and they built zero, so they’re starting with the wrong person,” Mr. Kilgore said.

Kilgore is referring to a plan that was approved when Roy Barnes was governor, then scuttled when Republicans took control of Georgia. Gov. Sonny Perdue has sought to end our drought and water problems through divine intervention, which obviously hasn’t worked.

As Mark Twain noted: Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

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Note: The city sent a corrected release. Officials say water use by Atlantans dropped 10 percent compared to last year, meeting Mayor Shirley Franklin’s goal. The city didn’t meet Gov. Sonny Perdue’s goal for all jurisdictions drawing water from the Chattahoochee River to cut their water use by 10 percent compared to Dec. 2006-March 2007. Compared to that baseline average, customers only reduced water by 7 percent. Waiting on word from the state Dept. of Natural Resources if there’s a fine or any type of restriction if that goal isn’t met. We’ll keep you updated.

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Mayor Shirley Franklin applauded the city today for its recent reductions in water use, but emphasized that the changes in behavior shouldn’t be viewed as just a temporary measure.

Compared to this time last year, water use by Atlantans and other city customers dropped 7 percent 10 percent. Customers used 94.18 million gallons per day in November. In Nov. 2006, daily usage was 105.58 million gallons. The city credits the drop-off to conservation, high-density development and water-efficient construction.

Speak it through a press release, Ms. Mayor:

“I congratulate Atlantans on their efforts so far and encourage them to keep looking for new ways to conserve water,” Mayor Franklin said. “We all need to begin to see conservation not as a temporary inconvenience but as a way of life.”

While I applaud the mayor’s recognition of high-density development as a smarter way for the city to grow, I can’t help but wonder if there was that much change in where people live to justify a shift in the numbers. Also, Fairburn, Union City, Hapeville, Sandy Springs and Coweta, Clayton, Fayette and unincorporated Fulton counties are included as city-water customers. Aren’t there a lot more lawns going without water in those areas than there are people filling up high-density developments?

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By Bill Crane

There’s nothing quite like a drought of the century to focus one’s attention on water use, conservation and consumption. As federal, state and local officials grapple with any possible solution to meet the water demands of Georgia, Alabama and Florida, now is the time to begin planning to prevent such a drought from impacting this region ever again. Water covers more than 70 percent of the globe, but 97 percent of that is salt water not fit for drinking, irrigation or most any commercial purpose.

Western states long ago harnessed the Colorado River to help handle the water needs of Las Vegas and Los Angeles — both without a natural water supply. Today, our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as sailors in the nuclear navy, daily consume desalinated water.

The world’s largest desalination plants are logically located near some of the world’s largest deserts, including the largest at Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. Water desalination plants in Saudi Arabia currently account for nearly 25 percent of the world’s total desalination capacity. Perth, Australia, now operates a wind-powered desalination plant capable of producing 40 million gallons of clean water per day.

Israel is producing desalinized water at 53 cents per cubic meter, and Singapore is down to 49 cents. Desalination in all forms requires significant energy, to separate and remove the sodium and other sediment from the fresh water. One of the processes most energy-efficient for desalination is called co-generation, combining the use of electricity production and producing heat. This heat is then recovered and re-used. In the Middle East and North Africa, there are co-generation plants that produce both electricity and water, with the combined facility consuming less fuel than would be needed by two separate facilities.

(more…)

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Several local civic groups and activists including members of Atlanta WAND, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Sierra Club’s Georgia Chapter, and singer Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls will rally outside the Atlanta office of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission at 2 this afternoon.

Those rallying are opposed to Southern Company’s plan to build two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, plans that must be approved by the NRC. They point out that nuclear power is not only unsafe, but it also consumes huge quantities of water. In his Aug. 22 cover story about Southern Company’s nuclear strategy, CL’s Scott Henry noted that an expanded Plant Vogtle would consume more water each day than the entire city of Atlanta.

Here’s the press release:

(more…)

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By Lewis Regenstein

It has been sad to see most of the Atlanta media obediently parroting Gov. Sonny Perdue and many of our other elected officials as they try to evade responsibility for the current water shortage crisis.

Until recently, the politicians had been exceeding their usual mendacity by irresponsibly, ignorantly and deceitfully calling for the Endangered Species Act to be amended to halt the massive water releases from Lake Lanier that they falsely blamed on endangered mussels and sturgeon in Florida.

At the height of the crisis, when state officials were warning that Atlanta might be less than three months away from running out of water, Gov. Perdue proclaimed for the TV cameras, “… When it comes to choosing between mussels and drinking water for children, I’m fed up.”

The press also thrived on this irresistible if bogus story of mollusks versus humans.

A good example of the sensationalism and irresponsibility is the huge headline for a front page story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of Sunday, Oct. 28, by Stacy Shelton, “Man vs. Mussel,” with a large color photo of “an endangered species found only in this part of the world,” a mussel known as the fat threeridge.

(more…)

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Gallons of water consumed by average Cobb County household in
October: 6,510

Gallons of water used by Cobb resident Chris G. Carlos in October:
440,000

Swimming pools that much water could fill: 58

Gallons of water power plants Atkinson and McDonough consume daily from the Chattahoochee River: 862 million

Number of power plants located along the Chattahoochee River: 10

New jobs that proposed coal-fired power plant Longleaf could
bring to Early County, Georgia’s sixth poorest county: 100

Gallons of water Longleaf is expected to draw from the Chattahoochee each day, according to the AJC: 20 million

“Drops” of water Longleaf will “normally” draw from the Chattahoochee daily, according to plant project manager: 0

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The New Republic, Southern
Environmental Law Center, Greenlaw

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Once again, the name of Christ is tarnished by pastoral malfeasance. This type of behavior screams for condemnation, but is predictably (as you’ll read in the article) met with rationalization and blame-shifting.

– Mile High Rev of Littleton, Colo., on the latest sex scandal to emanate from Bishop Earl Paulk at DeKalb’s Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church. Paulk got biblical with his brother’s wife and fathered his own nephew. Paulk’s sonphew, D.E. Paulk, is now the church’s head pastor.

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What are we really giving thanks for? Things are pretty shitty right now for the economy, we aren’t doing well with international relations, and we, as a nation, continue to marginalize ourselves; both from the rest of the world, as well as our “unwashed masses”. I guess we could give thanks for being able to eat, breathe, live, etc… but it really makes me think about how far away from the sense of “survival”, and the meaning of Thanksgiving in the first place. Are we really thankful for what we have anymore?

– Duane at DuaneMoody.com ponders the meaning of Thanksgiving.

Don’t worry, it’s not a depressing post. By the fourth paragraph, Duane reveals that his partner, James, has just given him a Nintendo DS. “Perhaps the fact that I am becoming a Nintendo fanboy is reason enough to be thankful this week, eh?”

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For Monday, November 19, my household used 12 cubic feet of water or 93.6 gallons.

– JMac at Safe As Houses is keeping track of his household water consumption.

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An Australian man is killed when he turns a hose on someone who heckles him for watering during a drought. Worst part: The guy who died was allowed to water that day. Sad story.

Stick to calling the authorities if you catch your neighbors violating the watering ban. Bold emphasis added.

Man killed in water-rage attack in Australia - Thu Nov 01 04:42:56 UTC 2007

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A man has been charged with murder in Australia after an elderly man who was watering his garden was bashed to death in an apparent case of suburban water-rage.

Australia is in its sixth year of severe drought and most towns and cities have imposed strict limits on household water use, prompting a rise in suburban arguments and neighbors informing authorities about those who waste water.

In the latest incident, police said 66-year-old Ken Proctor was using a hose to water the front lawn of his suburban Sydney home when a man walking past made a remark about water waste.

Proctor then turned the hose on the passer by, prompting a fight. He was knocked [to] the ground and was punched and kicked. He was treated by ambulance officers, but died later in hospital.

Authorities said Proctor was not in breach of water restrictions, as he was using a hand-held hose and was watering his lawn on his allocated day. A 36-year-old man charged with Proctor’s murder appeared briefly in a Sydney court on Thursday. He was denied bail and will remain in jail until his next court appearance on November 15.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said yesterday that Lake Lanier has enough depth to supply 280 days of drinking water. Oops, make that 279 days today. The state estimates there are 111 days worth of drinking water left.

Who to believe?

The state has hardly proven trustworthy in managing water issues. But let’s not forget, the Corps of Engineers is the same group that assured everyone the levees around New Orleans were safe before Katrina proved otherwise. So I’m not exactly ready to take their word to the bank, either.

In the meantime, our neighbors to the south don’t appear to be taking the drought very seriously.

In Columbus, the head of the water department is going to ask the state to exempt Columbus from water restrictions so people there can water their lawns and wash their cars.

And in Phenix City, Ala., across the river from Columbus, there are no water restrictions at all.

Ah, all for one and one for all. Right? Oops. Except when it comes to conserving water.

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“Atlanta is not going to be running on bottled water by Christmas like some people might think. They are not going to be going thirsty in 90 days.”
— Maj. Daren Payne, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Mobile, Ala., in the Oct. 18 Tallahassee Democrat

“We estimate about 100 days before we get to what we call bottom of conservation pool. When you reach bottom of conservation pool, there is still almost 40 percent of the water in the lake.”
— Col. Byron Jorns, commander for the Mobile District of the Corps of Engineers, in the Oct. 20 AJC

“Lake Lanier has enough water to supply the needs of Atlanta for over 260 more days. We believe that Georgia has overstated the severity of the crisis in the Atlanta region.”