Where Will We Draw the Line?

I recently heard State Rep. David Schafer here in Cherokee County talking about the Tennessee River and Georgia.
I remembered hearing something about it last year, but didn’t pay it a lot of attention.
Apparently, the issue may again be raised in this upcoming legislative session.

Here’s the gist- so far as I can see it:

In 1796, the US Congress set the boundary between the two states at the 35th parallel, but the surveyors hired by the two states to set the markers apparently had bad equipment and even worse tables. According to one record, one of the Surveyors hired by Georgia begged the Governor to upgrade his equipment. You might say that it is effectively Georgia’s own fault that the boundary line was set almost a mile south of the 35th parallel, this blocking Georgia’s access to the Tennessee River and its waters. 

For what it’s worth, Georgia never ratified this demarcation. They have tried to correct this boundary in the 1880’s, 1940’s and again in the 1970’s. Tennessee did ratify this border (wouldn’t you?) and has pretty much laughed at any Georgia effort to change- er- correct the boundary issue.

Even under the current boundary marks, the Tennessee River watershed extends deep into Georgia. In fact, Georgia has more land pushing water into the Tennessee River than it does into Lake Lanier, the main source for all of Atlanta’s drinking water.

“The resolution before you does not move our boundary,” said Shafer when he introduced the bill last year, “It does not need to be moved. If you open the Georgia code you will see that Georgia law to this day defines our northern border as the 35th Parallel.” 

If Georgia manages to lay claim to even a portion of this water, pipelines and a water treatment plant could be delivering water to Atlanta. But not without approval by the TVA.

It seems this may not be the immediate answer to Georgia’s water needs, but it sure is an interesting one… 

Deadly Water, Corporate Scandals, and Presidential Politics- OH MY!

From Water Tech Online: Water Industry News and Information Clearinghouse

http://www.watertechonline.com/news.asp?N_ID=71314

Vote for the top e-News story of 2008 -and with topics like these, you may just have a hard time choosing! A list of the 10 most popular 2008 WaterTech e-News Daily® stories, based on numbers of readers clicking on them throughout the year, has now been compiled by the staff of WaterTech Online® Web site and the WaterTech e-News Daily electronic newsletter. In a new online poll, readers can now vote for the story among the 10 that they think was “most significant.” I find it most notable that 3 of the top 10 news stories reported on Pentair, the largest supplier of components and subsystems for the handling, treatment and storage of water.  That, coupled with the news that water is now a $1 Trillion industry... big water is here, folks! Also of note: the Nestle Waters NA/ Public Works fight over a PSA which promoted tap water over bottled.  Marry that to the Colorado story of deadly salmonilla in tap water... Of course, stories about President Barack Obama’s attention to water issues also garnered a significant number of clicks. Log on, click around, connect the dots as you see fit!  Its all fun and games 'long as it keeps flowing!

The Downside to Conservation

Since summer 2007, Metro Atlanta has been highly conscious of our water consumption.  Conservation efforts such as outdoor watering restrictions, vouchers for low-flow toilets and shower heads, and a media public-awareness blitz have been effective.  We have cut our water consumption.  Some county systems have seen usage down by as much as 20% in 2008. 

So, why haven't user's bills dropped by that much?

Infrastructure has not shrunk by 20%.  The staff required to read meters and to maintain the water system certainly hasn't shrunk- in fact, it's growing as the city's 80+ year old infrastructure is approaching failure.  New construction has also all-but stopped, so these systems have also lost new connection revenues.  These already struggling water systems have had to increase water and sewerage rates, implement surcharges, and beef up their collection and shut-off protocols in order to offset these huge potential losses in revenue.

Since 2005, Gwinett residents have been paying 5% more for water every year, plus about 16% more for sewerage since 2007.

Cobb saw a 20% rate increase last year.  That water department saw an 18 percent decline in water consumption last year, which equals about $25 million in reduced revenue, said Kathy Nguyen, Cobb County’s water efficiency manager.

“You’re starting to see a move toward pricing the true cost of water, and its value,” Nguyen said. “You have to price it at infrastructure maintenance, repair, growth.”

Cherokee, Dekalb, and Fulton also saw huge drops in consumption and had to raise rates to compensate for those potential losses of revenue from water sales. 

What does all this mean for a resident or business owner in Metro Atlanta?

Atlanta is seeing furloughs, hiring freezes, and layoffs in even their police and fire departments as they try to deal with their hugely expensive infrastructure problems.

As conservation awareness increases and water use drops- prices will continue to go up.  As our economy worsens, and collection and shut offs tighten up, the poor will likely suffer first.  If this trend continues, though- as water approaches, as the Cobb manager put it, it's "true value and cost", more and more people will be forced to choose between paying their water bills and providing other essentials in their households, and more governments will be forced to choose, like Atlanta, between managing the water system and other essential services, and how much of that burden their already strapped populous can bear at once.  The problem has the potential to spiral out of control.

Only those who are able to control and manage their own access to water will not be affected.

Using Water to Take the Land

Since its enactment, the Clean Water Act of 1972 has led to significant and continued improvement in the quality of the nation’s waters. The law sounds good- everyone wants clean water, right? By in large, it has been a successful piece of legislation. Among other things, it has lead to stronger silt control legislation for construction sites and has made factories clean up their waste before it is put back into the water cycle.
The current law does rightly limit government authority over folks private property, and, as always, some government agencies have made attempts to overstep these boundaries. The US Supreme Court has made at least 2 decisions that Federal Agencies exceeded the authority granted them by this act. Rather than accept the High Court’s decisions in these cases, our Congress has decided to change the language of these laws.

House Resolution 2421 and Senate 1870 are pieces of legislation in The US Congress which will do just that. They were both introduced in 2007 and 2008, and in both cases, they were not voted on. They will likely be reintroduced in this new session, and many property rights groups and industry watchdogs believe this may be the year for a similar bill’s passage.

The House version is sponsored by Representative Oberstar and 171 Representatives, and the Senate version by Senator Feingold and 21 other Senators. The framers of these resolutions have very cleverly changed the wording in the current law from reading “Navigable Waters” to instead read “Waters of the United States”. The bill then defines that new term to include not only what was before considered navigable, but also even the water that will one day, through whatever means, wind up in those waters. 

Remember the water cycle from 4th grade science?

We are talking about every drop of water in the US!

Here's how:
To protect shipping and commerce, the Federal Government OWNS and controls US Navigable Waters. This little change in wording means they’ll own ALL the water! Every drop that falls on your land, every drop that is underground below your property, every drop that is in your pipes, and oh, by the way: humans are about 60% water by weight!
It may go even farther than that, though- the broad definition in this act has been construed to possibly include most land in the US, since it, too contains water. Minnesota State Representative Steve Drazkowski alluded to this in his letter to US Rep Tim Walz.
Freedom loving people should consider this abhorrent legislation! Please follow the links and look at the sponsors of these resolutions and see if any of them have sworn to represent you. Call your US Representatives and Congressmen and let them know that you expect them to uphold their oath and stand against this attempted power grab!
Of course, you can always contact us for more information on this or any other topic you find covered here. 

How Much Water do We Really Use?

80 years ago in America, it was considered a novelty to be able to turn on a faucet and have water on demand.  Now, it is expected, hardly ever thought about, taken for granted. 

 
According to water.org, the average American uses 100-176 gallons of water per day.  On the American Water Works Association website, they claim the number to be 69.3 gallons per day.

It appears that the larger number likely accounts for commercial and agricultural use, where the smaller number represents single-family dwellings.

One thing is certain- the United States is by far the largest consumer of water resources in the world*.  

How much water do you use?  If you are on municipal water, you receive a bill each month. Cherokee County, Ga (my hometown) charges its residents a rate per 1000 gallons.  Divide that number by the number of people in your house, then by the days in that billing cycle and you'll have your per individual daily water use.  Even if you're doing well against our National average, you may still find some easy room for improvement! 

First- check for and repair all your leaks.  It is estimated that up to 25% of all household water use is simply leaks.  Do you have a dripping faucet?  A leaking toilet?  How about a leak outside? Here's how to answer that question:

Just make sure all your water is turned off; then go look at your meter.  There should be a small hand or maybe a triangle on the dial.  That is your low-flow indicator and if it's moving- you have a problem!

Faucets can usually be repaired by replacing worn bushings in the handles.  A leak outside may not be immediately evident, but upon close inspection, you can usually find a greener spot in your lawn or an unusually boggy area in a landscape bed.  Start digging there.

If you have any uncertainty about tackling these issues alone- better to hire a pro.

Second- Check out your appliances and fixtures and see how efficiently they use water.  Old toilets and shower heads are our biggest water-wasters, and most governments offer rebates on more efficient replacements which will almost, if not entirely, cover the purchase price of these items.

Lastly- Consider changing your habits.  Do you pre wash dishes before you put them in your dishwasher?  Do you run the water while you brush your teeth and wash your face?  Do you wash your car at home instead of taking it to a low-use automatic facility?  Simple adjustments in the way you do things can really make a difference in your daily water use.

*Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security proposed that international organizations and water providers adopt a minimum standard to meet four basic needs—for drinking, sanitation, bathing, and cooking. In 1990, Gleick estimated that 55 countries with a total population of nearly 1 billion people did not meet this standard as a national average.  More recent studies show this trend has not changed: charitywater.org reports that number has grown by at least 100,000 people worldwide who struggle to find just 5 gallons of fresh water per day.

AJC Recommends Regulation of Private User's Property Rights!

"In fact, no issue, including transportation, threatens Georgia's economy more in the long term than the continued availability of water..."

Read on- link to the full article below, as well as my response.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Miller
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 9:53 AM
To: Ken Foskett
Subject: Well Drilling in Atlanta

In response to your Sunday, January 25 editorial:
To: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/printedition/2009/01/25/watered0125.html 
in which you state:

"Make well-water users subject to watering restrictions just like people who take public water from their city or county. Many homes and businesses have dodged drought restrictions by digging wells, even though groundwater withdrawals also deplete water from the watershed."


Ken,

The basis of your argument for regulating water drawn from wells is accurate- certain wells in certain locations have been shown to affect the water table. In India, for example, a Coca Cola plant began withdrawing from the sandy strata in the town of Kala Dera and, in 5 years, the water table has dropped over 100 feet, leaving families who had always depended on their ancestor's wells now scrambling just to have enough water to survive.

In Georgia's Piedmont and Mountain region (all of metro Atlanta) we have a different geology than that Indian village. When we drill a well, we are extracting water from cracks and crevices deep in the bedrock. We are required to install casing to separate this water from the water table above the bedrock. These cracks are not dependent on the water table, or on anything else around them for that matter. 

To illustrate just how segregated these cracks are, I give you one client, who owns a commercial chicken farm just outside Metro Atlanta. He has 11 different wells in a 1000' radius of a creek bottom. The deepest well is over 800', the shallowest at just under 300'. His highest yield is 90 gallons per minute, and his lowest is 8 gpm.
Clearly, none of these wells or the cracks they have tapped, though in close proximity to one and other, are at all related, connected, or dependent.

Back to wells and irrigation: before water restrictions, our typical client in Buckhead was using 50,000 or more gallons per week to irrigate their estates- clearly more than good horticultural practices would recommend. Our typical well cannot sustain that kind of volume, so these clients have been forced to learn best practices for watering their landscapes. Often, these users drop their volume down to a fraction of their original use. Besides that, we are drawing water out of the bedrock, where it is locked in time against our use, and introducing it to the soil, thereby bringing previously unavailable water into the water cycle. Based on that last point alone, you should maybe instead consider calling for more private wells as a solution to the drought!

The Georgia Regional Water Council is designed to look at water and its use on a region-by-region basis. For the sake of our industry, and for the rights of private individuals to use their property as they see fit, we hope they will not paint this issue with such a broad brush. 

Smart Planning for the Future!
Rob Miller
www.millerwelldrilling.com
(800) 927-2997

Installation, Service, Purification.
Independence, Purity, Peace of Mind.