Drought continues in the South, reaching crisis proportions
(U.S. Drought Monitor, Oct. 30, 2007)
The long, record-breaking drought continues across the South, and is reaching a crisis point in many communities.
Where I live in Blount Co. Tennessee, we get our water from Little River, which starts out as a pristine mountain stream flowing out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It has dried up to a trickle, leaving local government officials scrambling for solutions.
We've had off-and-on mandatory water use restrictions for a couple of months now that prohibit washing cars and watering lawns and gardens. There are restrictions on commercial use such as car washes and nurseries watering their stock, and mandatory cutbacks and conservation measures at factories and hospitals. People are catching gray water from dishwashing and baths to water their plants and gardens. Even the trout fishing outfitters say stay away and go fish somewhere else -- what's left of the river and the fish are too stressed.
The City of Alcoa just completed an emergency project to run a 24-inch iron pipe several miles from where Little River flows into the Fort Loudon Dam impoundment back upstream to their water processing plant intake on the river. The City of Maryville has been buying water from a rural utility district that gets water from the Tellico Reservoir, and is now also buying water from Alcoa. The Maryville water treatment plant is upstream from Alcoa's, and they are trying to get regulatory relief that will let them take more water out leaving less for Alcoa, prompting talk of "water wars".
And that's just what's happening in my little community.
The small town of Orme, Tennessee has literally run out of water. What little they are able to get is being rationed, and residents are allowed only three hours of running water per day. The town mayor himself turns the valve on at pre-announced times. The volunteer fire chief takes the town's fire truck to a fire hydrant in a nearby Alabama town and brings back water 20,000 gallons at a time. They're working on a deal to hook up to the Alabama town's system and buy water from them.
Elsewhere in the state, this Tennessee Emergency Management Agency critical situation summary reports:
Monteagle UD ... lake sources may be exhausted in December if the area does not get a substantial amount of rain.The report lists more than twenty public utility systems under mandatory water use restrictions across the state.
TVA Normandy Reservoir Coffee County (Duck River) ... discharge on November 2 is 111 cfs and the lake elevation is 856.3. feet The lowest level recorded since impoundment is 853. Duck River UD would have to cease pumping water to 50,000 customers at 835 elevation.
Pikeville water system ... serious supply and distribution problems... Thirty to forty percent of the distribution system was without water including the schools [for two days due to a water main break at a nearby town providing them emergency water].
As bad as it is in Tennessee, it's worse on a much bigger scale in Georgia. You may have heard that Atlanta is on the verge of running out of water. It is estimated that they may have less than a 90 day supply left in Lake Lanier, which supplies water to more than three million Atlanta area residents.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has declared a state of emergency, and is asking the federal government to order the Corps of Engineers to curtail water releases from Georgia's reservoirs to keep the lake levels up. This has heated up ongoing disputes with Florida and Alabama, which rely on flow from the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint rivers for their water.
Last week, University of Georgia officials asked 93,000 football fans attending UGA's homecoming game not to flush. When it starts affecting SEC football, you know it's serious.
(There is, however, a tiny silver lining in the clouds that are not forming over Georgia. It seems that dry weather is good for Georgia's pecan crop, which is expected to be top in the nation at 125 million pounds.)
It's like we're talking about a third-world country here. Nothing like this has happened in 100 years, and state and local governments in the Southeast aren't prepared to deal with it on their own.
Incredibly, President Bush's response to the crisis was to veto the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, saying the bill "lacks fiscal discipline," and "makes promises to communities that Congress does not have a track record of keeping."
This prompted Tennessee's Republican Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker to issue a joint press release criticizing Bush's veto:
"I'm disappointed the President vetoed the Water Resources Development Act which is critical to Tennessee's water infrastructure -- from keeping Wolf Creek Dam safe to providing clean drinking water in small towns like Blaine, Tennessee. In fact, this bill would help repair our aging dams and levees allowing us to safely store more water and reduce the negative impacts of droughts like the record-setting drought our state faces today."The bill, which also included $7 billion for Gulf Coast reconstruction projects, passed in the House 381 to 40 and in the Senate by 81 to 12. Congress is expected to override Bush's veto.
UPDATE: The House voted to override Bush's veto 361-54. The Senate is expected to vote this week.
(Thanks to Andy Axel and Eleanor A at TennViews for the assist.)
Labels: climate, drought, infrastructure
