Feds Get Involved in Southern Drought
The Federeal Government will be getting together with the state leaders and officials from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama concerning the shrinking water supplies. As a Georgia resident, I am saddened that we couldn’t work this out on our own with our southern neighbors.
I understand everyone’s concerns and I am trying to keep my opinion as unbiased as possible. Our local news here in Georgia and government leaders are quick to compare the humans of Georgia and the mussels of Florida. That seems to be where our media is at in Georgia. I realize it’s not as simple as that and we shouldn’t be comparing human life/needs with the mussels or any other species that are in danger from the river running dry.
We are about southern hospitality in the South and we should be able to work these things without involving the government. It’s true the federal government does have laws in place on these matters and they do require Georgia to send so much water down stream each day/week/month/year for the residents of Alabama and Florida. We have upheld those laws for many years now, but it’s clear that we can’t continue down this road with our two biggest lakes drying out. Lake Lanier and Allatoona are the main sources of water for much of North Georgia and these lakes do help millions and millions of people downstream.
Now the folks in Georgia need to realize that most people live downstream from the Buford Dam that holds water in Lake Lanier. We have to continue to release water from that dam to serve our own people in the city of Atlanta and other parts of the metro area. So this problem isn’t as simple as keeping too much water stored up in Lanier. We do need to send millions of water downstream each day for our own residents of Georgia.
One thing that Alabama and Florida need to realize is if we don’t start choking off some of this water, there will be no water for anybody. I’m sure many of you don’t buy that and understand Georgia is just trying to keep the top part of the water in tact. It’s that part of the water that is the cleanest and needs the least amount of treatment from our water companies. The mussels in Florida are use to this fresh top water. We don’t want to drink the water on the bottom of the lake and I’m not sure if this water would be good for the mussels or not. This is cotaminated water and our mussels in Lake Lanier are use to this water, but that might not hold true for the mussels in Florida.
If the lakes run dry, we all lose out! That’s the bottomline in this whole matter. Georgia and Florida both have voices powerful in the White House and I’m not sure Alabama can compete with the political powers of Georgia and Florida. Alabama is probably going to get the least amount of help from the government and they might have to take more extreme measures than their southern neighbors of Georgia and Florida are going to be force to.
The best thing that can happen for all of us is simple. We need rain and lots of it! Two good things come from rain on this matter. If it rains, we release less water from the dam and we are saving millions of gallons of water. As long as the downstream areas are getting wet, we don’t have to send as much water downstream. The second part of that is the tributaries will be flowing faster during a good rain and more funnels into the lakes of Allatoona and Lanier. This will cause the lakes to fill up much faster. A big rain event right now can stop our leak and add tons of water to our lakes. Some experts have said we need a solid month of rain to fill the lakes back up. That’s not true! Rains that would fall on the states of Florida, Alabama, and Georiga at the same time, would fill-in the lakes at a rapid pace. If we were receiving 1/2 inch of rain every 2 hours, we could fill up both lakes in a 2 day period. That is all it will take to fill up our lakes. Now the lakes would drain down pretty quickly if sunny days set back in after the rains. I think November will be the month that cures everything and our rains in November will fill the lakes up by December 1st!
