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DEL.ICIO.USFeds say Georgia misrepresenting drought
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Two federal agencies working on Georgia’s unprecedented drought let state officials know Thursday that they didn’t appreciate the way Georgia portrayed the regional water shortage as a fight between endangered mussels and the people of Atlanta.
There’s plenty of water for both man and mussel and Atlanta knows it, they said.
The first words out of the mouth of Earl Stockdale, the Army Corps of Engineers’ top lawyer, were blunt. Gov. Sonny Perdue’s public declaration that Atlanta had only 90 days of water left was just plain wrong, he said.
“Atlanta’s water,” he said, “is not in imminent - and I emphasize ‘imminent’ - danger of running out,” he said, though no one had asked him.
Meanwhile Sam Hamilton, the southeast regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, said that the amount of water flowing out of Lake Lanier to Alabama and Florida, Georgia’s top concern, has nothing to do with preserving the mussels - as Georgia officials insist.
“That (flow level) was established before anything was listed” as endangered, Hamilton said.
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Grantville Republican who set up the “roundtable discussion” for lawmakers from Georgia, Alabama and Florida, shot back that the lawsuit-wary Corps has done little to help resolve the 20-year-old, tri-state dispute over water sharing. It just doles out “pretty generic” information, he said.
In the briefest moment of cooperation between the states, Rep. Bud Cramer, an Alabama Democrat, indicated that he shared Westmoreland’s frustration.
“I believe the Corps is dedicated to driving us crazy,” Cramer said.
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Comments
By WTF
November 9, 2007 8:42 AM | Link to this
They’re all a bunch of LIARS!!!!!!!!
By RJ
November 9, 2007 8:46 AM | Link to this
Blaming the US Corps of Engineers is just another example of Perdue’s ineptness and strategy of diverting attention away from his failures in anticipatory planning by building more drinking water resvoirs, among other things.
While there is power in prayer, because Perdue is so calculating, I can’t help but believe his call for prayer is little more than a political ploy aimed at his religious base. Will they fall for it…probably.
By WTF
November 9, 2007 9:06 AM | Link to this
He can call for prayer all he wants……..the only thing I’ll be praying for (with regards to him) is that he NEVER gets elected to anything else in his lifetime!!!!!!!!
By Carismar
November 9, 2007 9:51 AM | Link to this
God answers prayer. Additionally, prayer gives most of us a way of confronting and hopefully resolving conflicts and problems. Sometimes the questions are more important than the answers.
By SonnyDoWatcher
November 9, 2007 10:00 AM | Link to this
One of the ways to conserve our drinking water is to save woodlands as they soak up and hold rainwater. What does the neighboring Tennessee gov.do vs our Ga gov? Well, he saves natural areas and SonnyDo gives them away to rich friends to cut,burn, and build as in Oaky Woods!!!
http://knoxnews.com/news/2007/nov/09/conservation-agreement-protects-more-than-127000/
By steve
November 9, 2007 10:19 AM | Link to this
I have buckets of water from our showers sitting around the house that I use to flush the toilets. I am carrying the dehumidifier water up and down the steps. I have cut my showers to 3 minutes. I wash my clothes less. My family’s overall water consumption this past month is down to around 30% of what it was this time last year. All I want from the State Government is for them to be honest with me. How much water is left? Give us the information. If we get no rain, how much longer do we have? If it rains X number of inches in X number of days, how much time would that buy us? Why should any of this be a secret? Shoot us straight Sonny.
By engineer2001
November 9, 2007 10:27 AM | Link to this
I know I will never vote for him for dog catcher even. He cost my mom and me our jobs by cutting funding for the university system. Mom lost her 12-year job, and I lost my new job and any chance of getting another within the university. Funding is still down, but he’s still spinning those land deals for himself and making sure his interests have funding. My wife (1st grade public school teacher) spends loads of our money on supplies for the kids because the school is underfunded and can’t afford the things she wants. He sure cranks out those $100 prepaid cards each year with his name all over them, though, to make sure he keeps the votes at next election - they don’t really fall for it. Who cares about education, right?
Where’s our popular vote on the stars and bars flag, Sonny, that you promised to get us and even made your #1 claim on signs all around here? Where are our jobs? Where is our water? Why do you always start pointing fingers when anything goes wrong (like your lying ads about the budget when you came in showing cob webs all over the desk and such)? The budget was great (and previous governors attest to that) before you “tweaked” it in your favor. Is Georgia not on your Sonny Do list any more, or was it ever?
By engineer2001
November 9, 2007 10:31 AM | Link to this
Prayer is wonderful. Calling for prayer in public to get attention is just wrong. Those who pray on street corners already have their reward (Matthew 6:1-8). God’s not listening to your false prayers, Sonny, as you already got the attention you really wanted.
By Just some guy
November 9, 2007 10:42 AM | Link to this
There’s a pretty good blog where the posters are watching the water news, the water releases from buford dam, and estimating the remaining water reserves.
[www.atlantawatershortage.com]http://www.atlantawatershortage.com/
By ComeonSonny
November 9, 2007 9:08 PM | Link to this
I have boated on Lake Lanier for the last 5 years and also boated through the last drought. I have never seen the lake drop so precipitously and continually.
Remember when the Corp had the dial set to wide open “by accident” - Is that occuring again?
Is this rapid draining being done on purpose? High chattahoochie flows support this.
Here is where this is headed - Depletion of water supplies in GA, AL, and FL. Panic ensues - quasi Martial Law imposed in the SEast. Possibly nationwide due to the water shortage developing in upstate NY.
Does someone want this crisis to happen? Because NO ONE is working on a pipeline plan, a desalinization plan, or any other plan. The only plan in place are Prayer vigils by the governor. I am not against prayer, but come on Sonny, its TIME TO ACT and ACT now.
We are headed to Martial Law in the next 3 months and I am concerned about abuses that can occur under such conditions - civil liberties especially.
I DONT GET THE RAPID DECLINE OF WATER RESOURCES AND THE LACK OF MEANINGFUL ACTION.
By chuck fu
November 10, 2007 6:10 PM | Link to this
We definitely have a problem. I beleive in prayer; however there needs to be action. Is there a plan if we deplete all the water? I hope so because we will have total chaos if this happens.
Has anyone ever seen the movie, “Mad Max”?
By chuck fu
November 10, 2007 6:10 PM | Link to this
We definitely have a problem. I beleive in prayer; however there needs to be action. Is there a plan if we deplete all the water? I hope so because we will have total chaos if this happens.
Has anyone ever seen the movie, “Mad Max”?
By frustrated voter
November 11, 2007 3:33 PM | Link to this
I can solve this really quickly. FORCE these politicians to put their monies where their mouths are.
If Sonny Perdue is wrong and there is PLENTY of water left, then Sonny and all of his people who have been sounding the alarm would publicly apologize and resign from office immediately.
If, on the other hand, the Corps officials and the governors of Florida and Alabama are wrong, not only do THEY get to apologize and resign, but they also have to PERSONALLY pay for the damage that they cause to the area for being wrong.
One way or another, this HAS TO END!
By Will Jones
November 11, 2007 7:09 PM | Link to this
“frustrated voter” is correct. Knowledge of condition for Metro Atlanta water must be acquired. Civil service charged with task must be brought to account publicly. Up or down Atlanta must know the scope and fact of the present problem…not wait ‘til taps run dry.
Civilization pivots on urban culture. Atlanta is the future of America. Protect America. Hang Bush and Cheney. Lift the Curse. Keep Atlanta alive. Amen.
By jesus
November 11, 2007 7:58 PM | Link to this
There is no god idiots.
By Wackolibhack
November 11, 2007 8:43 PM | Link to this
It is Bush’s fault that there is no god, and that we are idiots.
By ronny
November 13, 2007 11:13 AM | Link to this
when lake lanier is empty how will they maintain the water level Fla and Ala say they must have??
By Pat
November 14, 2007 7:05 PM | Link to this
Prayer is man’s way of trying to coerce God to do man’s will.