The extreme drought that plagued Atlanta and the surrounding area was deemed officially over by Dr. Carol Couch, Chief of the Georgia Environmental Protection Agency, on June 10, 2009. The effects sent shockwaves through the state. The area had less than three months of water left and a federal judge issued an ultimatum for the state: work out your water issues in three years or face harsh limits on how much water your city will be allowed to use. The area has responded, to an extent, instituting self-imposed water restrictions and other conservation efforts, such as a state-wide low-flow toilet rebate program.

In the past few weeks Atlanta and the surrounding area has experienced torrential downpours, causing flooding, wastewater overflows, and general misery for drivers everywhere. But there is a silver lining in all the rain: Lake Lanier, the epicenter of water conservation friction, has been nearly replenished to normal levels. At the time of this entry, Lanier is a mere foot and a half below normal levels. To put that number in perspective, Lanier was hovering around 20 feet below normal in 2008. Today, Lanier is clearing almost seven and half million gallons a day into the lake, a far cry from that same time in 2008 when the lake was losing over three million gallons a day. Clearly, the metro area was granted the proverbial “do-over” with the drought. Awareness, education, and conservation, mixed with the incredible rainfall, have produced tangible results for the lake and the surrounding area. But has the culture of the area changed enough to continue this way of living in order to avoid another potentially catastrophic drought?

From the years 2000-2006, the metro area gained 890,000 residents. State officials were not prepared from a water resources perspective to support that kind of growth. The drought, then, was a natural occurrence combined with a man-made crisis. It was a recipe of too many people mixed with not enough planning, infrastructure, or conservation mandates. Here are some statistics (courtesy of Conserve Water Georgia) that will help set stage for understanding how a conservation culture change in Atlanta must occur to survive another drought:

• Population projection for the metro Atlanta area by 2025: 7,308,508
• Current population for the metro Atlanta area: 5,278,904
• Gallons-per-day usage by average Georgia resident: 100 gallons
• Average number of years between 3-year-long droughts: 40 years

So, what can we draw from these numbers? With an influx of two million people in the next 16 years there will be approximately 200 million more gallons of water used per day. A population boom similar to that of earlier in the decade paired with another drought could spell disaster. The metro area must learn from the recent drought emergency and cultivate conservation.

Some techniques could include extending the daytime watering recommendations to a ban on all daytime watering. According to Sally Bethea, Executive Director for the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, cutting out all unnecessary daytime watering could help save up to 15 percent of lost water per day. Another strategy could include having the state match a portion of grants given to metro area communities investing in water efficiency projects, such as fixing outdated equipment or installing monitoring systems.

Investing in the area’s water future is an investment in the area as a whole. Like many preventable problems, Atlanta’s water issues will need to be confronted head on, and solutions need to be made as soon as possible. The growth of the area is not slowing down, and there aren’t any additional water sources. Conservation must become a way of life in Atlanta, not a reaction to an emergency.

Contributed by Brent Bridges and the Southeast Municipal Market Team

Posted by Blog Contributor at 11/02/2009 09:13:01 AM