Will fervor for water conservation dry up?

Two years ago, while metro Atlanta’s drought burned through the record book, Karin Guzy of east Cobb turned off her in-ground sprinkler system.

It hasn’t been on since.

Instead, she waters her garden from two 250-gallon water cisterns. The large buckets easily fill from light rain collected off her roof.

Guzy doesn’t plan to go back to using drinking-caliber water on her 2-acre garden. Not even with last week’s declaration by the state climatologist that metro Atlanta is finally out of the three-year drought.

Cost is a factor, since water rates have skyrocketed in Cobb County and elsewhere since the drought began. And Guzy, past president of the Sope Creek Garden Club, has also noticed how well her plants have done without all the water she used to force-feed them.

But what about everyone else who changed the way they used water during three long years of drought? Will they continue to take shorter showers, flush less often and turn off the water when they brush their teeth?

Experts predict people will maintain some of their new habits but drift away from others, especially the ones that are more inconvenient.

For now at least, tight outdoor watering restrictions remain in place, as the rain has yet to rescue Lake Lanier, the region’s primary water source. The lake registered 9 feet below full last week.

Since the drought began in March 2006, state officials and water providers in varying degrees demanded and cajoled metro Atlantans to alter their lifestyles.

The message reached a fever pitch in late 2007, when Lake Lanier sunk to its lowest level since the lake was built in the 1950s. For the first time in history, the governor mandated North Georgia reduce all water use by 10 percent. Gov. Sonny Perdue also called for a new “culture of conservation” and urged state residents to view their dirty cars as a badge of honor.

It worked.

In June 2006, just as the drought was heating up, but before the state restricted outdoor watering, metro Atlanta communities withdrew a record average of 526 million gallons of water from Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River below it. Last June, that number was down to 387 million gallons a day —- a 26.4 percent drop.

The question is, will we keep it up?

Yes and no, said Jim Kundell, professor emeritus at the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute and a state water policy expert.

Behavior that’s a hassle, such as filling a bucket with excess shower water to irrigate a garden, will probably end if it hasn’t already, Kundell said. Easier habits, such as filling up the dishwasher before turning it on, will probably stick.

Some water savings will naturally continue, Kundell said. Newly acquired low-flow toilets will conserve as much as 5 gallons of water with every flush. And many gardeners, such as Guzy, will continue to use rain barrels installed during the drought.

Then there’s the cost of water. Water utilities raised prices, first for conservation and then to make up for revenues lost when customers cut consumption. Water customers responded by becoming even more conservation-minded.

“We will use more water in a nondrought period, but we won’t use as much as we used before the drought,” Kundell said.

Phillip Stabell, owner of Norcross-based Atlanta Rainwater, which installs rainwater collection systems, said he believed people already assumed that the drought was over. His business began to fall off last spring, about the time restrictions began to ease.

Stabell believes people will return to old habits.

“There’s a small percentage that got it and won’t forget,” Stabell said, “but I think the mass population will forget.”

That was the pattern after the oil crises of the 1970s. Less than two decades after the long lines at the gas pumps disappeared and prices dropped, U.S. dependence on foreign oil had grown.

Georgians’ reaction to the previous drought, which crested from 1999 to 2001, was similar. The state did not have a drought response plan and summertime water use in Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties spiked to all-time highs as homeowners watered parched lawns.

During it, “we didn’t change our behavior as much” as this time, UGA’s Kundell said.

Those watering records were broken again in June 2006, at the beginning of the most recent —- and far more serious —- drought. But this time, state and local governments quickly clamped down on outdoor watering. That, along with the governor’s 10 percent reduction mandate and voluntary efforts, drove usage down.

Guzy, the east Cobb gardener, favors restrictions on outdoor water use whether there’s a drought or not. Otherwise, she said, people will backslide.

“I’m all for government interference in the way we waste water,” she said. At her garden club meeting on Thursday, she said the group discussed the easing of the drought and how it will affect water restrictions.

“We think it would be a mistake to lift the watering restrictions,” Guzy said. “It would just return us to our wasteful ways.”

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RESTRICTIONS REMAIN

> In Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties, you can water your landscape three days a week for a limited time. Odd-numbered addresses water Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; even-numbered addresses water Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

> Before 10 a.m., you can water your lawn or garden for up to 25 minutes (if you use a garden hose) and water your garden for up to one hour (if you use a drip irrigation or a soaker hose).

> You may fill your swimming pool, but it’s still illegal to wash your car.

For more information, call your water provider.

Source: Georgia Environmental Protection Division

 CHARLES W. JONES / Staff 
METRO ATLANTA WATER USE 
Monthly average water usage in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett counties and the city of Atlanta, shown in millions of gallons per day. 

Color-coded chart compares years 2006 through 2009.

Monthly average water withdrawals
 
Water taken from Lake Lanier and the upper Chattahoochee River by metro Atlanta communities, measured in gallons per day: 

June 2005 (pre-drought): 413.7 million
June 2006 (drought had begun, watering restrictions not yet in place): 525.9 million
June 2007 (near-total watering ban not yet in place): 485.8 million
June 2008 (restrictions had eased): 387 million 

Water use timeline 

Sept. 2007: State imposed near-total ban on outdoor water use 
Nov. 2007: Gov. Sonny Perdue mandated 10 percent reduction in water use for North Georgia 
Feb. 2008: Perdue eased state's outdoor watering restrictions 
March 2009: State watering restrictions eased further 

Source: Georgia Environmental Protection Division