Tenn. land grab - Impeach Sonny Perdue! (Atlanta, Savannah: tornadoes, houses)

[Northman]

The Georgia government is trying to move the Ga. border north so they can tap into the Tennessee river.

Had there not been a severe drought this would have never happened, of course. That section of Tenn. has had drought issues, too.

But the Ga. legislature's solution to its poor planning and incompetence is to basically invade a neighboring state through the courts.

They have no problem allowing unprecedented sprawl to consume and destroy a region (Atlanta) that was once one of the countrys most charming places. They have no problem with 100,000 people a year piling on an area that is already overpopulated and does not have the resources (water and mass transit being two of them) to support such an onslaught.

But why should they care? Another strip mall gets built, and their pockets are lined. Another subdivision of identical houses goes up where a beautiful, tree lined ridge used to sit, and they are all the richer.

Oh, look - we're running out of water! Nah, don't bother attempting to stem the population explosion or research in state solutions to our own issues......LETS JUST GO TAKE TENNESSEES LAND! AFTER ALL, WE'RE GEORGIA......CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE - UTOPIA TO ALL WHO WOULD FLEE THEIR NATIVE LANDS! WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE WANT!

Sonny Perdue and his holy rollin' cronies are an embarrassment to not only the state of Georgia, but to all Americans. Their poor planning and incompetence is only now being revealed to this extent because of such an insane proposal.

What's next, invading the neighbors to the south so they can tap into the Gulf of Mexico? Are we back in the 19th century?

Nah, we can't help with your recovery after the tornadoes last week, Tennessee.......but we are going to try and steal your resources since we can't properly manage our own.

Perdue should be impeached for even considering doing such a thing. I am so glad I got the HELLL out of that state!

[gt6974a]

Originally Posted by Northman

The Georgia government is trying to move the Ga. border north so they can tap into the Tennessee river.

Had there not been a severe drought this would have never happened, of course. That section of Tenn. has had drought issues, too.

But the Ga. legislature's solution to its poor planning and incompetence is to basically invade a neighboring state through the courts.

They have no problem allowing unprecedented sprawl to consume and destroy a region (Atlanta) that was once one of the countrys most charming places. They have no problem with 100,000 people a year piling on an area that is already overpopulated and does not have the resources (water and mass transit being two of them) to support such an onslaught.

But why should they care? Another strip mall gets built, and their pockets are lined. Another subdivision of identical houses goes up where a beautiful, tree lined ridge used to sit, and they are all the richer.

Oh, look - we're running out of water! Nah, don't bother attempting to stem the population explosion or research in state solutions to our own issues......LETS JUST GO TAKE TENNESSEES LAND! AFTER ALL, WE'RE GEORGIA......CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE - UTOPIA TO ALL WHO WOULD FLEE THEIR NATIVE LANDS! WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE WANT!

Sonny Perdue and his holy rollin' cronies are an embarrassment to not only the state of Georgia, but to all Americans. Their poor planning and incompetence is only now being revealed to this extent because of such an insane proposal.

What's next, invading the neighbors to the south so they can tap into the Gulf of Mexico? Are we back in the 19th century?

Nah, we can't help with your recovery after the tornadoes last week, Tennessee.......but we are going to try and steal your resources since we can't properly manage our own.

Perdue should be impeached for even considering doing such a thing. I am so glad I got the HELLL out of that state!

This has to do with the original border. I've read this in the past, before the drought, and it seems there was an error or miscommunication (call it what you want) when they set the border 'stone/rock' (they used these to mark borders). At one point it covered the Tennessee river at a certain point.

...That being said, it doesn't really matter. No other lakes in Georgia are below their average besides Lanier. They're either at pool or above. If we really needed the water we could tap into these other lakes as well as the Savannah River. It runs from N. GA to Savannah from the lakes at the border.

The issue is pumping the water either to Lanier or where it could be processed. So, regardless of trying to claim part of the Tennessee or not would not make a difference, as it is just as far away!

[Vampgrrl]

It doesn't make a difference now, TN would win this as it's not something Georgia has fought against all these years with any real vigor...

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Northman

The Georgia government is trying to move the Ga. border north so they can tap into the Tennessee river.

If that was the original border, perhaps justice will finally be served.

Had there not been a severe drought this would have never happened, of course. That section of Tenn. has had drought issues, too.

Yes, as is Raleigh, NC.

Face it. Atlanta isn't the only metro area (or the only group of people) in the southeastern US who have come close to outgrowing their present water supply. So let's stop playing the superior planning card, shall we? The drought is causing problems for many people, not just Atlanta residents.

But the Ga. legislature's solution to its poor planning and incompetence is to basically invade a neighboring state through the courts.

Seems to me that several attempts to create new reservoirs in Georgia have been made, but that those were shot down in the courts by out-of-state interests (mainly Alabama and/or Florida).

While Georgia certainly has some responsibility for the current situation in Atlanta, they are apparently not alone in being shortsighted.

Let's look at the facts, shall we?

Even if Atlanta didn't use any water at all from Lake Lanier, that particular reservoir would be having some fairly serious water level issues right now.

Why? Because most of its water is used downstream from Atlanta, not by Atlanta itself.

The estimates I've seen are that the entire Atlanta metro consumes less than 20% of the water being released from the lake, and that 80% to 90% of that "consumed" water is actually returned to the Chattahoochie after it is used.

Assuming that Atlanta uses 20% of the total flow and only returns 80% of the water it uses to the river, from a downstream perspective the Atlanta metro area is only consuming around 4% of the total water outflow from Lake Lanier ... as seen downstream.

That's a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the massive amount of water which is being sucked out of the Lake Lanier reservoir every single day and freely flowing past the Atlanta metro.

Fully 96% of the water coming out of Lake Lanier is being used for other purposes (mainly power plants, but also to maintain a certain salinity level in a bay in Florida). Atlanta could easily take twice as much water out of the lake as it's doing now without having much of an impact at all on the flow downstream. So why all the hand waving and complaining about Atlanta's impact on the region? Its impact on both the total river flow and on the rate of water withdrawl from Lanier is NEGLIGIBLE!

Now, obviously the current outflow cannot go on indefinitely regardless of who is actually using it. The water in Lake Lanier is a finite resource, and it's being taken out far faster than it's being renewed.

However, I firmly believe that Lake Lanier's low water level is at least as much Alabama's and Florida's fault as it is Atlanta's. They derive much more benefit from the water flowing from that Lake (because they consume far more water than Atlanta does), and yet they also appear to have done nothing at all to ensure that the water flow from that lake was made more drought-resistant.

All three states are being stupid about it, in my opinion. But is Georgia really the main culprit here? I'm not sure it is, and I'm speaking as a non-native who has only been here for three years and who doesn't much care who is "right" in this situation.

I just want to see it solved.

From what I've seen so far, the folks in Atlanta have been somewhatshort-sighted, but the present situation has been in the making for 20 years, and it would have been solved long ago if the three states which utilize this particular river basin would have cooperated with each other instead of behaving like two year olds.