Human Life Now No More Important Than Sturgeons

That is the message that the federal government and the Army Corps of Engineers offered in response to questions raised about why they continued to release water from Lake Lanier, the main source of water for the 4 million+ residents of metro Atlanta.

In the spring of 2006, the corps began releasing billions of gallons of additional water from Lanier and the other federal reservoirs on the Chattahoochee to assist fewer than 10 federally protected Gulf sturgeon fish in laying their eggs.

The northern part of Georgia has been experiencing drought conditions, according to this report for a couple of years, but which became painfully apparent at the end of last year and we are still struggling to recover. We are at Mother Natures mercy in this regard. While portions of the state are getting plenty of rainfall and their sources of water have recovered Lake Lanier still remains critical. For some reason while the rest of the state is getting soaked and the lakes and rivers are recovering Lake Lanier is not. Part of that reason is that we are under federal mandates to release a certain amount of water every day to go downstream for Florida. Yes Florida. The state that is surrounded by water on three sides and home to second largest source of fresh water in the United States, Lake Okeechobee.

Lake Okeechobee is at the center of South Florida's regional water management system, and is located in south-central Florida. The massive lake is a 730 square mile, relatively shallow lake with an average depth of 9 feet (2.7 meters), and is the second-largest freshwater lake located wholly within the continental United States, second only to Lake Michigan. Lake Okeechobee's drainage basin covers more than 4,600 square miles (11,913 km2).

But there is plenty more in the story of how the Atlanta area continues to suffer through water shortages while all of our neighbors continue accusing Georgia of being stingy in sharing our resources.

But when the corps' sent copious amounts of water down to Florida for the prehistoric fish and several types of threatened and endangered freshwater mussels, with very little scientific data to support the need for the additional water, Gov. Sonny Perdue and state Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch protested, to no avail.

In a letter to the corps in May 2006, Couch foreshadowed Lanier's precipitous drop to levels not seen since the lake was filling in the 1950s and warned "draining Lake Lanier to such a low level could cause serious harm throughout the [Chattahoochee] Basin in 2006 and for years to come."

Lake Lanier is a man made lake, so while we had the foresight to try and build a water basin for northern Georgia, we now have to share that with a far larger group then it was ever intended for, and I am pretty sure when the plans were drawn up lake Lanier they didn't include sending water downstream to protect fish and mussels for the folks in Florida.
Pictures of our drought here.

Georgia Solves its Drought

It is simply a matter of moving our northern border a little. I don't know what the folks in Tennessee are griping about.

ATLANTA - Thirsting for more water in the midst of a drought, Georgia lawmakers took a step Wednesday toward moving the state line and tapping into a powerful river in a neighboring state.

The Senate unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday asserting that a flawed 1818 survey mistakenly placed Georgia's northern line just short of the mighty Tennessee River. The measure also calls for the governor to establish a commission to sort out the dispute.

I hope this doesn't include the part of Chattanooga that has their aquarium. We already got one of our own.

Other critics also point out the proposed Georgia-Tennessee border change goes beyond a simple dip into the river. Not only would Georgia get a chunk of Chattanooga and thousands of residents could have new home states.

If some people in Atlanta have to die to protect the mussels so be it....

That seems to be the message residents of north Georgia are receiving from the states of Florida and Alabama as well as the Corps of Engineers all because of the Endangered Species Act. Our Senators are trying to get the federal goverment to move on this issue so we will have to wait and see which is more important, human lives or fish.

Georgia's congressional delegation proposed legislation Tuesday aimed at replenishing the state's shrinking water supply by suspending Endangered Species Act regulations during periods of extreme drought. Senator Saxby Chambliss said Georgia's drinking water is being restricted to "protect a handful of mussels and sturgeon."
Georgia, Florida and Alabama have been fighting for nearly two decades over water rights from two river basins. The other states say metro Atlanta's booming growth is draining so much water that it threatens not only endangered species but also industries in Alabama and the Appalachicola Bay oyster industry in Florida.

For those who are not aware current projections say that the metro Atlanta area will run out of water in about another 100+ days. There has been a severe lack of rain around here while other parts of the states are suffering they are not in peril. The states of AL and FL have received plenty of rain. This is what happens when we don't have big tropical storms or hurricanes. A high pressure front settled over the south this year and there was nothing to move it out. So the Midwest suffers unbelievable flooding because the storms couldn't move eastward and none of the rain or storm that came up from the Gulf of Mexico had enough punch to make it to the northern parts of Georgia.
So I guess until humans make it onto the Endangered Species List we are just out of luck. I am so glad those dire predictions from Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore about all of these horrible storms, came true. Maybe next year huh?

The Corps plans to continue releasing water from Lake Lanier at an average of 1.9 billion gallons of water a day. The lake level is expected to drop about a foot a week.

And it is not just northern GA which is suffering.

About 26 percent of the Southeast is covered by an "exceptional" drought -- the National Weather Service's worst drought category. The affected area extends like a dark cloud over most of Tennessee, Alabama and the northern half of Georgia, as well as parts of North and South Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.
The only spots in the region not suffering from abnormally dry conditions are parts of southern and eastern Florida and southeast Georgia.

You know the same parts of the country which host NASCAR events which some congressional critters recommend you get innoculated before visiting.