SE US draught photo essay

[knottybuoyz]

Drought grips Southeast

Incredible. States fighting over dwindling water supplies.

Ga. farmers see water hogs in Atlanta - Weather - MSNBC.com

Waterlevels are low here as well, as low as I've ever seen them. Where's it all going?

[maxingout]

Too many people. Not enough water.

If we can figure a way to get rid of all the people, the earth will be just fine.

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by knottybuoyz

Waterlevels are low here as well, as low as I've ever seen them. Where's it all going?

Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperate_rain_forest

[Tspringer]

Its not as simple as just too many people.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has been letting water out of Lake Lanier at unreduced levels despite the drought, all through the spring, summer and fall. They say they have no choice as the there are mussels in Apalachicola that are endangered and thus by law according to the Endangered Species Act they must keep the water levels downriver high to protect them. Screw it if actual PEOPLE are going to be at risk.... saving the mussels comes first.

The drought is severe and its being made far worse by extreme mismanagement of the resources we do have.

The Corps is incompetent. Last year, they drained 3 feet of water out of Lake Lanier due to a "faulty guage". The punch line is that the individual responsible for monitoring the levels who blamed it on the faulty guage had a view of the lake out his window. But did he use the old fashioned Mk I eyeball to actually LOOK at the lake? Nope... just looked at some guage and drained away....


Terry

[Lancerbye]

I think is has somehow got rerouted to the Pacific North West. Drought is not a known word there.

[Yotboss]

Originally Posted by Lancerbye

I think is has somehow got rerouted to the Pacific North West. Drought is not a known word there.

Seems so logical.... If we can build railroads, power grids, gas and oil pipelines that all run coast-to-coast, tunnels through mountains and under rivers and send a man to the moon (had to say that!), it seems that pumping a little water back and forth would be no big deal. There always seems to be an excess somewhere and a shortage somewhere else.

It can be done and, as soon as the politicians figure out a way to stuff their pockets, it will get done. Am I cynical enough yet?

[never monday]

I think I have an educated opinion to speak on this issue.

Right now were about a foot higher than we were in 1981-82, and were about the same to a foot lower than we were in 1999.
The lake will come back. heck it only took 3 years to fill it originally.
I personally don't think the Corps of Engineers is to blame here.
We should be blaming the "greenies" and our legislators that put in the law requiring the muscles be kept alive. I think this screams, we as humans need to have a better understanding of our habitat. There are occasions when Mother Nature is done with a species and wants it extinct but we meddle and keep it alive. What's her next option to kill it off? will it be the SE become a new desert?
nature has cycles that are on a calender of their own and have zero regard for our human demarcation of time.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by maxingout

Too many people. Not enough water.

If we can figure a way to get rid of all the people, the earth will be just fine.

Since "we" and "the people" are one-and-the-same, it's doubtful that the problem will provide the solution.

Fortunately, Mother Nature doesn't require human assistance to remedy the situation. Mass extinction events are nature's way of pushing the reset button.

TaoJones

[jdoe71]

The levels on Lake Ontario are way down though from the US Army Corp of Engineer figures not at record low, they show the low as being 242 in 1934 and currently it is shown at 243.8. We had to plow through mud to get into our winter storage place, and at the marina we used to be at there are many new boats showing up for storage that can't get into their own marinas. It dropped very quickly over the summer, their figures show it was 245.8 on August 1 but we noticed it going down fast that month. I've heard they're releasing water for freighter navigation downstream in the St. Lawrence and also to keep power generation up, I have no idea whether either of those is correct or not.

There is a lot of hoohah flying about Lake Huron/Georgian Bay, cottagers associations in G. Bay are blaming dredging of the St. Clair river for lowering water levels to record lows. The US Army Corp shows the record low as being 576.3 in 1964 and it is currently at 576.6 so pretty close to the bottom. Superior is at 601 on a record low of 600.4 in 1925.

Levels seem to still be dropping even though we've been getting rain lately. Since 2001 were we live we have only had 2 years with anything near normal rainfall. This year we had 8 solid weeks without a drop of rain in the summer, ponds and groundwater levels are down at least 3 feet. Our snowfall is way off as well, they are predicting a more normal winter this year, hopefully that means lots of snow but usually it's as likely to be freezing rain instead of snow.

I'll refrain from speculating as to why and will go on the theory that it's just part of the cycle and will come back up. And hope like crap that's correct.

[senormechanico]

Imho, this guy's going to hear from a lot of people.

ABC News: One Man's Water Is Another's Outrage