Atlanta to run out of water?

[Dis]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071019/D8SCHTI00.html

It's time the south learn what we in the west have been doing for years. Reusing our water. Instead they just waste it.

It's still hard to imagine the south in a drought. What do they mean by drought? They show a picture of the U.S. and show the southwest in drought, but isn't the desert always technically in a drought? Although our rainfall is less than average this year, so perhaps we are in a drought. But what does a drought mean over there? Surely they are getting some rain right? When I lived in Florida it rained every day in the summer (around 4pm like clockwork).

They have all this rainfall, but no water? I don't get it. I'm sure all the trees in that state are alive an well, which means they are still getting decent rainfall, and they should be using this water.

Now if americans weren't so obsessed with having lawns. I actually did try to have some grass in my backyard, but I have no green thumb. It all died.

[DaShi]

It's healthier to mow your grass.

[DRoseDARs]

Vegas has pretty much BANNED lawns from being included with news homes, hasn't it Dis? Also, isn't Vegas still trying to siphon off groundwater from the counties north of you, much to their chagrin?

[Dis]

all new homes built come with rock/desert landscaping. My borther's did when he bought his home around 6 years ago. Few low water bushes here and there, the rest rock. The backyard was just dirt (very hard packed dirt actually- cost a fortune to dig deep enough for the pool because the hard soil).

Yeah I know my brother has a pool. I can go on and on about all these people in my city who have pools. Most probably only use it a couple days a week. I can't blame them though, public pools suck. People **** and piss in them all the time. I'm not much of a water or pool person anyways.

I'm sure nearly every home in Atlanta has a pools as well. If you look at ariel pictures of my city, you can see how many homes have pools. I shouldn't say most, but it's alot.

[Bkeela]

You're not alone. We down here in the Australian city of Brisbane are also running out of water. They are desperately building water infrastructure and a desalination plant before the dams hit 0%.

To think we once could wash our cars and water the lawn...

It'll be like Frank Herbert's Dune soon. We'll have to get about in Stillsuits.

[snoopy369]

Pools aren't that bad for water really. As long as you maintain them they don't use up as much water as a lawn does, anyway A good solar cover and proper maintenance and your pool doesn't need to be filled very often at all.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Surely they are getting some rain right?

Errr.. no. And that's the problem.

We actually just had rain on Thursday, and I can't remember the last time it rained down here. But the rain on Thursday was the 5 minutes downpour and then over sort of rain.

The lakes that supply the city are severely lower than they should be (I think Lake Lanier is like 15 feet lower than it should be at this point).

In Northern Georgia, all watering of lawns and private washing of cars and such is banned. Now its trying to get the Army Corps of Engineers from not releasing so much water from the lakes that supply Atlanta to feed the river that goes into Alabama and Florida.

[Victor Galis]

Yeah, some of us live in places where there's plenty of water still.

[Lancer]

Water is over rated, drink beer instead!

So what happens when one of our cities really does run out of water? Everyone will have to leave, yes? If you can't flush a toilet or take a shower, that's that.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Pools aren't that bad for water really.

Not as bad as building cities in deserts anyway...

[Straybow]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Pools aren't that bad for water really. As long as you maintain them they don't use up as much water as a lawn does, anyway A good solar cover and proper maintenance and your pool doesn't need to be filled very often at all.

I guess you haven't lived out west? The air is so dry that you constantly have to add water, cover or no.

[snoopy369]

Does New Mexico count as west?

[Straybow]

Surely they are getting some rain right? When I lived in Florida it rained every day in the summer (around 4pm like clockwork).

Florida != the South. The peninsula gets tropical rains. The South does not, although southern GA and SC are in what is called the Tropical Influence Zone.

We've had almost no rain to speak of since July.

[Straybow]

Yes, NM is where we were. Carlsbad. We didn't have a cover, the neighbor did. Lost the same amount of water each day, usually around 2 inches.

What the cover does is keep the sand out. That means less vacuuming, and less waste that way. But we channeled that to water the tomatos.

[snoopy369]

Las Cruces, here. A solar cover really makes a difference (not a regular one, but a cover that specfically reflects sunlight so it does not heat up as much). When we used the cover it lost around a half inch a day, when we didn't use the cover it lost something over an inch a day (don't think it was 2 inches but i'm not sure). This of course varied by the season

Fortunately in the worst of the heat you have the monsoon rains to refill it ... Not sure if you got those in carlsbad, but in LC we got a nice little shower every day from July 4th to Labor Day around 4pm... not a huge amount of water of course but every little bit helps