Atlanta to run out of water?

[Q Classic]

If Atlanta does run out of water, and FEMA comes in, do you think we'll have someone like Little John saying: "WHAT?! OKAY! George Bush doesn't care about Black people. YEAH!"

[Imran Siddiqui]

It rained! It ****ing rained!! And from what I hear, it was most of the day (I'm in NC for the week)



Still not out of the woods yet, but we could use a few more... well, let's say weeks of this type of weather.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


So did I!! 904 Spruce Avenue, a few blocks down the hill from Heigths Elementary School.

Hmm, I think i lived near Yucca if I remember right - though I have a bad memory for names - up a bit east of AHS. 2300s Abbott, and before that 1500s Scenic. (I only lived in Alamo for two years, 1995-1997, last 2 years of HS...)

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
It rained! It ****ing rained!! And from what I hear, it was most of the day (I'm in NC for the week)



Still not out of the woods yet, but we could use a few more... well, let's say weeks of this type of weather.

Yeah, your first day or two will not give you anything useful, but a week of it will help

If it helps any, we have a bunch of rain here in the midwest that we could lend you (not this moment, but in theory later this week last I checked). Maybe we could get somebody in Brazil to let a few butterflies loose?

[Whoha]

Originally posted by BlackCat


are you drinking that much more water than we do ?

Well, considering that Denmark has a much much smaller population then the United States, yes.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Whoha


Well, considering that Denmark has a much much smaller population then the United States, yes.

Yeah, totally you probably beat us, but considering we are 115 / sqkm and you are 38, you should have more resources than we have. I admit that there are a desert, some mountains and some tundra that doesn't give that much.

[snoopy369]

You can't meaningfully report US population density as a whole while talking about local issues in areas with rather, hmm, larger densities than average any more than you can talk about European density as a whole while talking about denmark...

Wyoming density: 5/sqkm
NY density: 300/sqkm
(numbers made up out of whole cloth but are illustrative)

[BlackCat]

Ehrm, no offense, but the same goes for Denmark - most of the population is concentrated in high density areas leaving large areas sparsely populated. A wild (but probably sane) guess is that your numbers match Copehagen and Ringkøbing. There are of course a scale matter, and there probably also is a problem about state to state support.

I know that due to our underground structure we have a vast resouce of fresh water that is able to supply us most of the time, and I wondered if the underground of US is that different (reason for asking for Oerdins knowledge but he is excusably busy otherwise).

[snoopy369]

Sorry BC, but the numbers don't quite reflect what you're describing.

Take a look at this map:

http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/maps/4_m_Globalpopdens.pdf

and this map for a better breakdown of Denmark:

http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/ERD/DB/mapdb/map_9.htm

Denmark does have "higher density" and "lower density" areas, certainly, and they vary widely from ~10/sqkm to >200. However, if you haven't been to the western U.S. you really don't understand the true lack of population ... look at the huge area that is 1 or less people per square kilometer. There are LARGE portions of the US that you can drive for several hours - going 150kph to 180 kph - and not see almost any sign of inhabitance. Contrast that to the east coast, which has very heavy population density (though still not nearly at European levels). You're talking 100x as dense (100p/sqkm vs 1p/sqkm). Wyoming, our least populous state, has an area 6 times that of denmark (250,000 sq km) and a population density as of 2000 census of less than 2 people. That's for the whole state, including the 'urban' areas (50k people in their largest city).

Every country has urban and rural areas. Not every country has quite the spread of the US (and Australia, which is even more extreme)...

[Straybow]

NYC is 320 mi² = 27.5k/mi², that's about 10k/km².

Southern NM and west Texas has the Ogallala aquifer, a massive groundwater source that collects from about half the Rockies.

NV doesn't have anything like that.

[Whoha]

Originally posted by BlackCat


Yeah, totally you probably beat us, but considering we are 115 / sqkm and you are 38, you should have more resources than we have. I admit that there are a desert, some mountains and some tundra that doesn't give that much.

Scale though. We don't have a super giant underground reservoir 60x the size of yours, or a distribution system to move it around,and so forth.

Each locality has to get its own water from whatever source is available, and when an area has maxxed out its local water supply it will have to make massive capital investments in order to support additional people. Well, that or canabalism, which we should be hearing about in around 60 or so days in Atlanta.

[GePap]

Well, beyond population densities is the average water use per person. Americans use more water per person that Europeans, and people in American suburbs use more water than people in Cities (large appliances, lawns)

As for where NYC gets its water:

The New York City watershed covers an area of over 1,900 square miles in the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley. The watershed is divided into two reservoir systems: the Catskill/Delaware watershed located West of the Hudson River and the Croton watershed, located East of the Hudson River. Together, the reservoir systems deliver approximately 1.4 billion gallons of water each day to nearly 9 million people in New York City, much of Westchester County, and areas of Orange, Putnam, and Ulster Counties.

The Catskill Water Supply System, completed in 1927, and the Delaware Water Supply System, completed in 1967 combine to provide about 90 percent of New York's water supply. The combined Catskill/Delaware (Cat/Del) watersheds cover 1,600 square miles. Water from the Catskill and Delaware systems is mixed in the Kensico reservoir before it is discharged into the Hillview reservoir and on to the distribution system. Drinking water from the Cat/Del System is of high quality and is currently delivered to New York consumers unfiltered (in compliance with the Surface Water Treatment Rule).

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by GePap
Well, beyond population densities is the average water use per person. Americans use more water per person that Europeans, and people in American suburbs use more water than people in Cities (large appliances, lawns)

Just curious, but what are they using that extra water for ? I mean, well, we europeans too have WC's and use showers even on daily basis.

As for where NYC gets its water:

Thx, facts

[GePap]

Originally posted by BlackCat
Just curious, but what are they using that extra water for ? I mean, well, we europeans too have WC's and use showers even on daily basis.

Here is a quick link on comparative water consumption, thought the figures are from 5 years ago. Denmark used the least per capita.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/42/27/34416097.pdf

As for where the extra water goes well, I can only assume:

1. water is cheaper in the US, so water saving appliances are less common.
2. more and bigger lawns in the US (the lawn culture does not seem to be as huge in Europe)

Of course, per capita water consumption also includes water used for agriculture, so not only would I guess that American odmestic water consumption is bigger, but the US uses a lot more water for agriculture than European countries, specially small countries like Denmark.

[GodKing]

Well, I just hope that the lack of available water will cause some of the industries that moved out of northern states to consider moving back, where we have this little thing called "the great lakes". Michigan has the one of the worse economies of all the states, and I am hoping for some good out of them southerners misfortune.