It's Not Nice Weather for Ducks

LG reminded me of something I wanted to blog about….

Praying for rain? Ok, I give you some credit. Yesterday we had clouds, but no rain. I’m sure it rained SOMEWHERE…maybe you could be a wee bit more specific in your prayerful requests? It certainly was a slow news day yesterday if the coverage of our esteemed Governor on his knees beseeching God for a little for a little two parts hydrogen one part oxygen cumulus action. Well, ok, a lot of cumulus action…I’m thinking like the rain we had when Hurricane Opal blew through in…93? 94?

Let me paint a picture for you non believers about the real damage the lack of water (lack of proper civic planning) is going to do to our fine metropolitan area.

If the Army Corp of Engineers continues to release water at their present rate from Lake Lanier, it is predicted we will be out of water within a 30 – 45 days. This doesn’t mean that the lake will be bone dry – this means that water will be in the lake, in the deepest pockets, that cannot be pumped out of said deep pockets and gotten to Buford Dam. This water cannot be pumped anywhere without great expense, and that tiny little bit of water will be all that remains to support the ecosystem that has grown up around the lake.

By the way, the lake was named for famed Georgia Poet Sydney Lanier (most famous, arguably, for “The Marshes of Glynn”). For a nice little bit of history, go here: http://lanier.sam.usace.army.mil/history.htm. I really want to speculate and say that a very early Stuart Woods book was also “fictionally written” about Lanier – “Under the Lake”…that when I first read scared the poop out of me.

Ironically, Lanier and the Corp (which manages the lake) have won three awards for the “Best Managed Lake” (90, 97, ’02).

Anyway, point being: if the Corp continues to release the water at it’s regular rate, not only will us regular folk be out of water, but the mussels the Corp is working so valiantly to protect will also be out of water as well. People can always, at great expense, truck water in, but mussels cannot. Ergo, the mussels are going to die eventually anyway. Evolve, bitches!

So what happens to we humans?

The options aren’t pretty. We can truck water in (expensive), build a desalinization plant and a few hundred miles of pipe and plants (really expensive, and time consuming). We can do what other, smaller towns have done and go on rationing – water is only turned on in your neighborhood between six and ten each night, and then turned off. Or you can pray for rain. In fact, I’d be willing to sacrifice a chicken to get some rain. Remember when November was the rainy month?

Here’s a list of who can still water, and who shouldn’t be able to: golf courses (stupid sport), landscaping companies, people on well water (why? This still depletes the aquifer), car washes, complexes of any kind with “public areas” like apartment complexes, businesses (this depends on what part of town you live in), state parks, federal parks, and any municipal building/park/land.

The State has talked to this issue for years – talked to, and done nothing. Sat on their fat asses down in the Capital building and debated stupid shit like…hm…whether or not to rename a highway after another one of their big butted, moneyed cronies. Or what the airport should be called. Seriously? We pay you guys to talk about naming the frigging airport?

The real problem is going to be the economic impact. Not to our wallets as individuals, but to the State itself. Who wants to build a plant, open a business, relocate an office to a state that is on water restriction? Sounds like poor house management to me, and if I were a major firm (BMW, Kia, etc) I certainly wouldn’t open a plant in a state with such issues. If they can’t manage a natural resource, how on earth can they be expected to manage anything else? And for the businesses that are here, how will they absorb the cost of the modifications they will have to make to accommodate a water ration? Who is going to pay for those new low flow toilets in the ladies room on the second floor of the BOA Tower? BOA will pay, certainly, but you will in the end too. I’m sure that companies will find a way to offset that cost in physical infrastructure by reducing their workforce. Then you have higher unemployment, and people who can’t shower or flush their toilets until six pm.

Again, rampant growth, blatant disregard for the folks downstream, lax enforcement of laws and watering bans,

We don’t have a lot of rain. We only have man made lakes. We only have a few rivers that we share with our neighbors. We’re screwed! Thanks, Mr. Perdue, Mr. Barnes, Mr. Miller and Mr. Harris for your gracious and wise stewardship of our state!