Q&A: Ga. water czar talks drought, consumption

Seems like the drought is over, right? Well, not quite.

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BEN GRAY / AJC

Carol Couch

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At least that’s the way Carol Couch sees it. Couch is the state’s Environmental Protection Division director, or water czar, as some call her. In light of our last few weeks of rain, we talked with her about water tables, hydration and human nature.

Q: Currently what’s our consumption?

A: We’re a little lower than we would normally use this time of year. With the exception of Lake Lanier, which is still lower than we need it to be, every other community’s water supply is in very good shape.

Q: The state climatologist says that once every 40 years we have a three-year-long drought. If we know that, then why have we allowed ourselves to get into this predicament? Why are we more grasshopper than ant?

A: It’s a little bit like looking in your rearview mirror. From looking at past information, we know that on some periodic basis a drought’s going to occur, but we don’t know precisely when.

Q: Yeah, but even if you can’t pinpoint it, you know it’s going to happen, so why don’t we have a better plan?

A: I have to say in response to this current drought, while certainly we await even more progress to be made from our regional planning efforts, no city in Georgia ran out of water. We had cities in neighboring states run out of water.

Except for large lakes like Lanier, which are responding to how the federal government operates a reservoir, every other community in North Georgia affected by the drought did very good preparation for the drought and allowed us to relax watering restrictions because people conserved.

Q: But when you say people conserved, basically it was because of an arm twist by the state.

A: Well, you’ve got to do a bit of an arm twist. But the governor established a 10 percent reduction goal and we far exceeded that amount. In some cases communities went well in excess of 20 percent reductions and almost all of them did greater than 15 percent reductions.

So yes, there was a little bit of an arm twist, but also it was people recognizing that, “Hey, I can do something different and it doesn’t diminish my quality of life and I’m making a difference.” And you know what? They did.

Q: How can you declare the drought over if our main water source is still 9 feet below where it ought to be?

A: I have not declared the drought over. The state climatologist has. We need three consecutive months of very good indicators as opposed to one large rainfall. We’re hopeful, but still cautious. To the extent that Lake Lanier will need a good full, normal winter cycle of rain to completely replenish it, our need to conserve and have water restrictions will remain.

Q: Do you think it would have been better not to have declared the drought over so soon, because most of us don’t make a distinction about who declared it over or not? We just hear “drought’s over” and probably will go back to our profligate water ways.

A: I don’t believe that Georgians are going to go back to profligate water use.

Q: Why not? Don’t you think that’s human nature?

A: To some degree, it may be human nature, but I think there are some lessons learned. At one point in time, seat belts were not something we chose to do, and yet we did change our behavior.

Q: True, but people did it to prevent injury as well as avoid getting a ticket. There’s stick and carrot there.

A: Yes, [but] the day is over in Georgia that we will take water for granted.

Q: Why aren’t people with wells hit with restrictions? The water they use has got to be coming from the same watershed everybody else draws from?

A: If you have a private well, you don’t fall within state regulation.

Q: But since well water comes from the same watershed we all use, that has to be having an impact overall.

A: It certainly is, but I don’t create law.

Q: What about our attempt to strong-arm Tennessee in a border battle so we can get more water from the Tennessee River?

A: This was a resolution of our General Assembly. I’m not going to suggest that is derived from any thoughtful approach to our future water-supply planning.

Q: How much water do you personally use per month?

A: Last summer my daily use was 32 gallons per day. That’s about half of what the normal person uses.

Q: Is your lawn irrigated or xeriscaped?

A: I do not irrigate my lawn … and I have what I think is a very nice yard. … I just think we need to be more sophisticated and careful about how we think about water and never take it for granted.