Posted on 11/12/2007 7:13:25 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
If you think the water police in your neighborhood are tough, consider the nighttime patrols in Douglas County. They'll shut off your water on the spot if they catch you sprinkling your lawn.
It all started July 1 when Douglas authorities began enforcing an outdoor watering ban, three months before the statewide restrictions were announced.
Douglas utility officials noticed some lawn sprinklers were still running, so they turned off 164 irrigation meters across the county.
To put the kibosh on secretive late-night lawn watering, officials have boosted their nighttime patrols. So far, they have cut off the flow of water —- sometimes in the middle of the night —- to 36 homes and businesses, turning the water back on only after violators paid a fee. Three repeat offenders have received $1,000 fines, twice the highest fine in other communities.
The reasons for the intense crackdown are in plain view at the county's main source of drinking water: the Dog River Reservoir. The epic drought across the region has socked the reservoir so hard that you can walk across parts of it that are normally under as much as 10 feet of water. The reservoir is usually full this time of year, but it is now more than half empty, reaching its lowest level since it was built in 1991.
The dock for sightseeing and fishing at the reservoir lies twisted in a crazy angle on the muddy banks. Boaters have been banned from the area. And long, green grass is growing in stretches of the reservoir now exposed to the sun.
"I have to shake my head sometimes. People say we don't have to worry, and we have plenty of water. I'm looking out at a reservoir you can mow," said Peter Frost, executive director of the Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority, which serves about 120,000 people.
The problems at the reservoir have broader implications. The dwindling supply at the reservoir has forced Douglas to start buying most of its potable water —- about 6 million gallons a day —- from the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority. The Cobb authority gets its water from Lake Allatoona and the Chattahoochee River downstream from Lake Lanier.
The emergency water purchases for Douglas come as Cobb is working to comply with a new state requirement to cut withdrawals from rivers and lakes by 10 percent. The state is giving Cobb and other water authorities in similar situations a special exception so the extra water they are selling to help other Georgia communities will not count against their conservation numbers. But Douglas still has to meet the 10 percent reduction.
Meanwhile, people in Douglas are struggling under the water restrictions, especially those who work in landscaping.
Jeff Burdine, branch manager for John Deere Landscapes in Villa Rica, said the outdoor watering ban is hurting sales, though he declined to say how much. His store sells plants, outdoor lighting and irrigation supplies to landscapers.
"A lot of our customers are taking a wait-and-see attitude," Burdine said. "We have really had our struggles out here."
On Wednesday morning, William Jenkins III became the latest person in recent weeks to have his water shut off for allegedly violating the outdoor watering ban. Douglas officials say he was illegally watering his lawn before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, public records show.
In an interview, Jenkins said he had turned off his automatic lawn irrigation system months ago and suspects it malfunctioned Wednesday, causing the sprinklers to water part of his front yard. To prevent the problem from happening again, the Douglasville resident said he cut power to the system.
"My wife was in the bathroom getting ready for work. She had turned [the sink] on to wash up and brush her teeth and just before she finished up doing that, it just kind of went away," Jenkins said Wednesday evening before his water came back on at 8:30 p.m. "Everything is off."
"We have no ability to do the essential things, use the restroom, take a bath, take a shower —- even drinking water for that matter," said Jenkins, an information technology manager. "As a matter of fact, my wife is calling me now. She is probably going to stop by and pick up water to drink and enough water to kind of wash up as well."
Douglas officials are taking other steps in response to the drought. They have started blending water from the bottom of the Dog River Reservoir with water from the top, so customers won't notice a difference in taste and odor as the overall supply dwindles. They also have started tapping into the Bear Creek Reservoir, a much smaller supply source for Douglas that was shut down 13 years ago.
And to keep up with growth and get ready for the next drought, Douglas is preparing to expand the Dog River Reservoir to hold 2 billion gallons, up from 1.2 billion gallons. Construction is expected to be complete by spring 2010.
Alarmed Douglas County commissioners voted Tuesday to impose a 90-day moratorium on new rezonings, hoping to conserve water. And county school officials looking to conserve dishwater swapped out plastic cafeteria trays and metal forks for disposable ones.
"This drought is unprecedented in scope, and we must all work together to make it through the tough months ahead," said County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tom Worthan. "Douglas County is taking bold actions because bold actions are necessary."
GOING TO EXTREMES
In Douglas County . . .
> Outdoor water ban started July 1, three months earlier than rest of region > Meters just for irrigation summarily shut off > Authorities turn off a house's water service in the middle of the night if sprinklers are on > Lake-bottom water being mixed with cleaner water from top for drinking supply > Old reservoir, shut down 13 years ago, being tapped again > 90-day moratorium on rezonings now in place > School cafeterias switching to disposable items to save dishwater
In Athens . . .
> Outdoor water ban started Sept. 17, two weeks earlier than region > Water use expected to drop 35 percent, compared with earlier this year > Toilets being flushed, but not very often, with saved shower water in some households > Baby wipes taking the place of soap and water > At least one business offers portable toilets to employees > Restaurants using disposable plates and cups > Rain barrels spotted around town
Pray for rain! (What else can you do?) A hurricane would be welcome at this point.
That is exactly what the governor is urging Georgians to do.
You should have enough experience to give good advice to folks who are in the situation that you are in ,,,,got any..?
Is this drought Bush’s fault?
I’ve seen a lot on TV about this and read news stories, but haven’t yet seen anybody blame this on global warming and Bush’s alleged indifference to saving the planet.
Has anyone else noticed how the global warming crowd always talks about the “planet”? They never talk about the earth or the world, it’s always the “planet” that they want to save. They have gone beyond being global citizens and are now citizens of the universe.
I was relieved to hear that Dennis Kucinich saw a flying saucer. he knows there is something out there.
Build lines and pump water in from other states.
Re: wastebaskets in shower.
We had a long dry spell here in west MI the last couple of summers and while we have our own well, there was a lot of watering needed doing in our rather large yard. read too many flower beds)
So, I had my handyman husband hook up a shunt line in the drain so my wash and bath water runs out into a 50-gal. barrel which then hooked a spigot to and used this water for my plants and garden.
I usually propped the hose end on a large rock so it would make a little waterfall and got a real kick out of watching all the birds that enjoyed a good splash.
You may not be able to “recycle water in this fashion in some areas but when you can get away with it-go for it.
Pump water in from other states..
I understand that the governor of one of the southwestern states, new Mexico maybe, told our dear “Aunt Jenny” Granholm that if he was to be president, he thought that we should share our Great Lakes water with those not so unfortunate.
The only time I can recall agreeing with the woman! She replied “”Hell NO.”
A big reason for the drought in the SE is no hurricanes this year hitting the US, as one hurricane can drop upwards of 10” in a day or two.
I’ve seen several articles blaming the lack of hurricanes on global warming.
See, lots of hurricanes is because of global warming and no hurricanes is due to global warming. Got it? Good.
i agree. catch basins or grey water only.
I saw that..lol...and I don’t blame her....problem is, the drought is in the southeast not just Atlanta and we need our water here in Tn and we don’t have a square to spare...
If it was’nt Bush,it’d be ,,, who knows,,
You’re right,,these folks left their town,county,country and now they’re floating around in the universe without a foot on the ground,,even if some realized it they’d have no where to land..
So then, can every weather event be blamed on global warming? Is Al Gore aware of this???????
There is a new nanotechnology that may chance the fresh water picture. It is a screen covered with nanotubes just large enough to pass water *molecules*. No contaminants can pass through at all. Best of all, it only uses 1/4th the energy of traditional reverse osmosis.
The filters are also low maintenance. So what this means in a practical sense is one word: pipe. If you have a body of water such as the ocean, effluent, or brackish, if you can lay enough pipe to connect it to a city water system, then all you need is a pump.
Fortunately, small and clean, portable nuclear reactors have also come down the pike. This means lots of energy to run the pump, even if there is no grid electricity.
In the case of Georgia such a system might be able to alleviate the worst of the drought.
"Build a 300-mile aqueduct to carry water from the Mississippi River."
Prof. Dale Threadgill, at the University of Georgia, said it would be technically feasible, "but unless you have enormous power to push water through the pipes it would come out as a drip at the end. Aqueducts usually function using gravity from high elevations to low elevations and don't require any energy source" which wouldn't be the case here. The costs of doing something like this would be astronomical."
The other commonly heard suggestion:
"Gov. Perdue should call out the National Guard to take control of Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier."
Jim Driscoll, a spokesman for the Georgia National Guard, said, "That would be like declaring war on the rest of the country since those lakes were built and are managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. [The Guard could be used] to stop people from stealing water from the reservoirs. But I think anything more than that would be impractical and have some bad legal implications."
Bull. Ever heard of state’s rights?
Did the soap residue in your grey water not have any impact on your garden?
A few Michigan reps. have actually promised armed insurrection if any such attempt to “borrow” from the Great Lakes is made.
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