Georgia - Only 3 months of water left?

[VetteLT193]

http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2007/10/10/wateruse_1011.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

[Donziweasel]

strange, growing up in Atlanta, i remember years of low water in lanier, but never water shortages in Atlanta. Atl was only 1.5 million then. the problem as i see it is political. what will happen is that everyone will acknowledge the problem, scream and yell something has to be done, the druoght will end, people will forget and nothing will happen till it is too late an atl runs out of water.

[jl1962]

Lake Norman in NC is also very low - down at least 7'. Was going to sail a regatta there in November in 26' keelboats however the event had to be moved to Annapolis.

Droughts happen....

[Forrest]

Just south of Lake Lanier on Lake Walter F. George, aka Lake Eufaula, I've had a boat stuck on a boat lift for three months now due to low water. My problem is small compared to the big picture. Lake levels on the Chattahoochee River basin are at record lows from Lake Seminole at the Florida/Georgia/Alabama border all the way north past Lake Laniar.

For years, there has been a huge fight Florida Alabama and Georgia over the water in the Chattahoochee River. Georgia wants the water for Atlanta's water supply, Alabama wants the water for its recreation and tourist industry which is primarily boating and fishing on Lake Walter F. George, and Florida wants the water flow for wild-life conservation on the Apalachicola River and the Apalachicola Oyster industry.

Granted, the drought the is problem but I really think that the Army Corps of Engineers is guilty of letting too much water flow down to Gulf in order to keep the small-output powerhouses on the dams producing electricity. Until I read the article, I never even knew about the coal-fired plant below Lake Seminole that required a certain water level in order to operate. All of these dams, and this coal-fired plant owned by Gulf Power, provide power to primarily small rural communities that could probably be served by Georgia Power's and Gulf Power's, or Progress Energy's (Florida Power) grid.

Contrary to what the article says, I really don't think the City of Tallahassee receives power this Gulf Power owned coal plant. The City of Tallahassee has its own utility and owns its own multi-fuel plant located at St Marks, Florida, which, by the way, is located within Progress Energy's grid.

The following charts of lake levels on the Chattahoochee are in order from North to South and are updated every Wednesday:

Forcast levels at Lake Lanier which is now in "action zone 4" meaning navigation on the lake is not supported:
http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/lanfc.htm

Forcast Levels at West Point:
http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/westfc.htm

Forcast Levels at Lake Eufaula:
http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/georfc.htm

Forcast Levels at Lake Seminole:
http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/woodfc.htm

ACF action zones defined:
http://water.sam.usace.army.mil/zones.htm

[VetteLT193]

Forrest:

The article is worded very well as far as Tallahassee is concerned. The Gulf Power plant in question doesn't directly serve our area. It does add power to the grid though, and Tallahassee is one of the areas that would be affected if it goes down because our power would potentially go elsewhere and strain our systems.

The good news about all of this is the weather is finally starting to break, so the power issue shouldn't be much of a problem for many months.

[vonkamp]

I was listening to Boortz the other day talking about how the people at Stone Mountain were unaware of the dire water situation and were running the snowmakers 18 hours a day. Apparently, word got out and it was shut down. Unreal. :confused:

http://boortz.com/nuze/200710/10032007.html

[VetteLT193]

I can tell you that Atlanta is a whopping 4 hours from me, and we haven't heard anything... we can't be that much better off down in Tallahassee can we?