Water Level Drops, Panic Rises In Georgia

Power Struggle Over Remaining Water From Lake Lanier As Some Residents Dig Wells

(CBS)  Across North Georgia, thousands of people are digging private wells, nervous that their regular water's about to run dry.

“The phone is just ringing off the hook,” said Bob Askew, the owner of a well-drilling company. “It’s like working at a telethon or something.”

Lake Lanier is the region's main source for drinking water. And it's being drained into crisis, CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.

“And here, these are tree stumps,” said Val Perry, a resident.

Perry is furious. The lake is so low that entire islands have surfaced.

“And you can see these guys are done,” Perry said while boating on the now-shallow lake. “Ooh, see, we just hit something.”

Lake Lanier is down 10 feet just this summer. And among five million Georgians, panic is rising.

Without rain, the lake's drinkable water could hit bottom by year's end.

Many of the boats and boaters left weeks ago. The shallow water is why. At the nearly dry spot Strassmann reported from on the lake, he should have been floating in 14 feet of water.

And the level is still dropping another foot every week.

Control of Lake Lanier is now a power struggle.

Georgia's suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake, and drains up to three billion gallons more every day.

Most of it flows south into Alabama and Florida, feeding people, utility plants, even two varieties of mussels protected under the Endangered Species Act.

“We are trying to balance that so that we meet the needs up and down the river,” said Col. Ben Butler of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Georgians like Val Perry accuse the Corps of mismanagement, saying it is “irresponsible, arrogant.”

Georgia Gov. Sonny Purdue agrees.

“It is nonsensical,” he said.

Georgia's suit demands the Corps stop sending so much water out-of-state.

“The public doesn’t understand that. And it gives the public little confidence in the ability of the federal government to manage our affairs,” Purdue said.

As the lake drains, the crisis deepens.

Rain's in this week's forecast. But this region really needs a downpour for days.

[docadams3]

"If Katrina showed this nation anything, it''''''''s that the Federal Goverment (under the Bush Administration) CANNOT EFFECTIVELY MANAGE DISASTERS"--Posted by dredre2k

Before Bushit came along, they did pretty well at disaster relief.

Bushit is like a guy you take duck hunting--he blows a hole in the bottom of your boat with his shotgun, then says "see, boats don''''t work!"
Posted by gkc99 at 09:02 PM : Oct 23, 2007


That''s right. The Reagan-Bush dream is to bankrupt the Republic so that corporations and evangelists can rule the people.

[edamos54]

Lake Meade, I believe in NV, is down over 160 feet.
This lake supplies the drinking water for Southern
California. Much of that water is now being used to
put out the out-of-control fires. Everyone worries
about the price of oil/gas and not enough folks seem too concerned about the lack of water. We need water to live, we can''t drink oil. The U.S. is in big trouble. As lakes dry up and the land becomes parched, any rain we do get will not be able to absorb into the parched soil - it''ll just cause more and more flooding. We need the "Latter Rain" in America.

[lloydbest1]

....IN ADDITION, THE CONTINUED STRENGTHENING OF LA NIA CONDITIONS IN THE EQUATORIAL PACIFIC DOESN`T BODE WELL FOR THE EXTREME DROUGHT IN THE SOUTHEAST AS WARMER AND DRIER WINTERS ACROSS THE SOUTHERN TIER STATES ARE TYPICALLY EXPECTED WITH THIS COOL WATER PHASE. AUTHOR...MARK SVOBODA, NATIONAL DROUGHT MITIGATION CENTER.

Lifted that from the drought page from the National Weather service. The Caps are not mine and "La Nia" refers to an abnormal cooling in the Eastern Pacific that typically (but not always) drives weather patterns in the southeast toward the warmer and drier end of the seasonal range.
The next 90 to 120 days could be very interesting (as the ancient Chinese defined it) for the Gulf States and the Atlanta Metro area. I have in-laws who live in Atlanta''s northern suburbs and they have always been very conserving of water. As fast as the region is growing water is problematic even during wet years.
Long term weather forcasts are not 100% reliable and it is still possible the climate pattern will shift and Lanier may fill to overflowing by February but if this La Nina follows the norm, Georgia will be seeing several more months of much below average rainfall. I hope not but my in-laws are prepping for the worst.

[twixcon]

Is this something new? Heck wells were going dry in New England back in the 70s. What has changed is that we are now a nation of ******* dependent on the government to solve our problems through wealth transfer. Hey stuff happens, it doesnt mean you should ring the cash register.

[mbievtea]

Under the present situation and the continuing draining of water by the Corps of Engineers -- who claim they are just following the law -- that is just taking it too far. I mean c''mon ... why isn''t this story getting attention?! It is something I had never imagined in my lifetime.

[michellem99-2009]

LOOK UP 3 DAYS 3 WAYS AS YER HAVE ACCESS TO THE NET.
The nanny gov''t aint there if yer learnt any thing from katrina..

[jerr11]

They''ve been pretending global warming doesn''t exist.

They can pretend the drought doesn''t exist and maybe it''ll go away!

This redneck logic is hard to beat!!

LOL

[dredre2k]

Is anyone in the federal govt or georgian gov''t making any emergency plans if the state runs out of water?
If Katrina showed this nation anything, it''s that the Federal Goverment (under the Bush Administration) CANNOT EFFECTIVELY MANAGE DISASTERS!

[rushlimpdrug]

If water keeps dropping, will people there die of thirst?
Posted by incog-nito

They can ALWAYS buy bottled water. It''s clean, good, and after drinking you can easily throw the bottle away.
Best of all it never runs out since hey restock the shelves daily.

[glossypan]

"(Why is there a "gh" in drou(gh)t? What kind of moron came up with that spelling?)"

George Bush?

[incog-nito]

If water keeps dropping, will people there die of thirst?

[boston1954]

How many illegals are in GA using up natural resources? The ''true'' figures are between 20-35 million illegals live here -
__
The whole population of the State of Georgia is under 9 1/2 million. You surely must be refering to the entire US.

[tngreen]

This crisis is being used as an excuse to undermine the Endangered Species Act, when the fact is that most of the water being diverted for other uses is for industry, not to protect two endangered species, as is being widely reported. It''s the free-press-as-industry-lapdog syndrome all over again. Don''t believe everything you read!

[riggie3]

GA better pray they don''t have fires.....

[riggie3]

SURCHFORTRUTH:

No you idiot - the millions of illegals are using our resources in each state. If you cant figure that out, you need to continue to search for the facts. GA is only one state. The entire US is losing resources.

[badmofojim]

Bah Colorado River feeds 5 States including Nevada, And we have maintained the water nicely. Mind you nevada IS a desert. Poor planning and management.
Sucks for Georgia. Now we must wait for the people who belive the world is ending to come and tell us to open our bibles up. What happens if we start to live on the moon and mars? Would god still control those PLANETS, dont think he grew tree and plants on those. But What ever, everyone is corrupted by greed, money is meaningless. needs to be like Star Trek where money no longer exists.

If you have the minds, the ideas, the physics, the designs to do something, why should it be limited by money something that is already being phased out into a digital sense.

Ramble ramble ramble.

[gkc99]

"So tell me why if the world is in global warming why in gods name havent we developed more Desalinzation plants? HMM??? Why didnt the almighty creator of the internet donate or even suggest that? "--Posted by Badmofojim


If you''re referring to Al Gore, his opponent was appointed as President by the Supreme court, remember? Guess it would have been up to Bushit to put in those desalination plants, don''t ya think? But he was too busy paying off the neocons with his tax cuts and war. Now another billion dollars has gone missing in Iraq, how many desalination plants could that have funded.

Nope, the Georgia Repugs can just suck their dry wells.

[badmofojim]

How many illegals are in GA using up natural resources? The ''''true'''' figures are between 20-35 million illegals live here - that''''s a lot of water, gas, food, resources that are being used by people that shouldn''''t be using them. We are all going to suffer.
I say lets go rape mexico of all their resources and services, we will fare better than to just blindly support that many people with what we have.
No other country is sooooooooo STUPID!


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Posted by riggie3 at 12:38 PM : Oct 23, 2007
+ report abuse


Now THAT woudld be a waste of resources. Easier just to kill off the illegals. Lake Mead in NV, is the same way, Then agian we LIVE in a desert.

So tell me why if the world is in global warming why in gods name havent we developed more Desalinzation plants? HMM??? Why didnt the almighty creator of the internet donate or even suggest that?

Lets just sit down and pray, maybe GOD would do something. Or this could be a sped up cycle of earth, wait we will call that global warming.

[gkc99]

No, there''s no reason to worry about climate change, is there? Every time *** News mentions Al Gore, they''re all laughing and sneering. And those Georgia White men just LOVE *** News, don''t ya?

Of course it might not be climate change, it might be God punishing Georgia.

[nexgen99]

Does anyone want to sell their Lake Lanier water front home cheap?. After all this is what! the second time in ten years this has happened. I would be interested homes on the main body of the lake. I''ll give you .50 cents on the dollar.