Hey Georgia -- "got water"?

[ebreezy]

is atlanta going to get enough rain to end the drought. but i remember how los angeles was in bad drought but i think it was in 2000,01 were it was like raining almost every day at one point were los angeles almost broke a record and made up. so i think people in atlanta should not worry. at least atlanta don't have 17,000,000 million people in the city.

[JLA]

What you were witnessing is the flow of water that Georgia Power released. Goat Rock, North Columbus and Bartlets Ferry Dams are owned by Georgia power and water is released when there is a need for electricity generation. The dam that is Downtown is also controlled by Georgia Power. Fortunately, we have entered more moderate temperatures, otherwise Georgia Power would need the extra generation from the hydro generators. West Point Lake on the other hand is controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers and it is a major supply of water for Columbus, La Grange, Valley, West Point and many other smaller communities below Atlanta on both sides of the Chattahoochee. People must remember that not only is the water used for drinking, but farmers need the water also and their lively hoods depends on the flow of the Chattahoochee. It would be nice if the weighted average approach applied, but this is not your typical industrial environment and I am more inclined to believe that a none linear approach is more applicable. Such things as evaporation, waste, input and output should all be considered. By the way Columbus has an outstanding water treatment plant and all sludge and other pollutants are removed and the water is returned back to the Chattahoochee, therefore a large percentage of the water that Columbus uses is recycled back for usage by communities down stream. I don't believe Atlanta have anything similar it would be nice if it did, it could then reuse some of the water.

[Frankie117]

While the problems due to lack of water are certainly traceable to being below average on rainfall, there is another hidden reason. Before say...1990, Georgia would of had no problem with this kind of drought, but with so many people moving to suburban Atlanta, and with only one source of water, things can get rather strained. The population of Georgia has pretty much gone up by the day, and the water supply is hurt by it. I think that watering of grass should be illegal....its just grass, which is more important? Keeping your lawn green just before the winter, or being able to shower, eat, drink, etc?

Unfortunately, like most cities throughout the Southeast, the explosion of transplants from the North has caused a mess of cities due to poor planning and bad resource usage. Greenville, SC suffers from infrastructure problems for this very reason. (Internet is one example-so many new people using it that it goes out daily). And, of course my opinion doesn't really matter since no one listens to poor people.