THERE IS REASON to wonder if the state is making up all the water consumption numbers being “revealed” monthly in the campaign to deal with the drought by forcing an overall
10 percent reduction in usage.
Even overlooking the fact that Rome and Floyd County shouldn’t even be included in the governor’s latest effort to keep the Atlanta metro afloat — not a drop that falls upon, or passes through, this region flows in that direction — there’s the stench of a bureaucratic algae bloom in the data.
In December, the state reports that the City of Rome met its mandated water reduction goal but that the Floyd County water system missed it by 4 percent. A month earlier, in November, Rome missed the same mark by a mile but the county made it.
The directors of both systems made a point of noting that not a darn thing had been done differently by either of them from one month to the other.
These numbers are only of concern because the state and its Environmental Protection Division have threatened to “punish” those who don’t meet the 10 percent cuts. What the penalties might be has not yet been revealed nor has the state imposed any, saying it is still working on validating the numbers received.
They better — one suspects that quite a few community leaders stand willing and able to haul the state into court if it tries to pull water withdrawal permits, force industries to close and make citizens unemployed or ... what? order a community to stop flushing its toilets?
THIS JAWBONING, threatening, blustering approach to dealing with the drought at the state level is getting wearisome. Given that long-range weather forecasts foresee the rain shortage continuing — and it is pretty much rain alone that provides Atlanta with water — it has been apparent for some time that action capable of producing additional water is urgently needed. The state’s underground resources, for example, are not only immense but largely untapped.
The irritation that parched citizens with unwashed cars and shriveling landscaping should feel can only be heightened by the current numbers game and its suspicious aspects. One county (Forsyth) went ballistic when the state’s numbers showed its usage increasing — increasing — by 70 percent. Is somebody just making these things up?
Back in November, when the first crackdown report came out, Gov. Sonny Perdue and the EPD were exchanging high-fives when it was found that the 61 restricted counties, with a reduction goal of 230 million gallons a day, had actually racked up a “saving” of 348 million gallons a day.
Sure they did. It turns out that two shuttered hydroelectric plants included on the cutback list were responsible for 218 million gallons a day of this reduction. One had to shut down because it was waiting for parts to repair broken machinery; the other ceased operation because there wasn’t enough water to generate power.
NOT ONLY THAT but the operators of both plants, Fall Line Hydro Co. and Porterdale Hydroelectric in Clarke and Newton counties, could not even understand why they were on the restricted list in the first place.
As Fall Line Hydro manager Bob Davis observed, “I know the state has us on the list, but we don’t consume water like a city or county does. We kind of divert the water and put it right back.” As do all hydroelectric plants (water cooled coal-fired facilities, like Plant Hammond in Floyd County, do lose some water to evaporation).
Frankly, the impression that Georgians should be left with is that they’re being sold a bill of goods instead of something that might actually be an effort toward a realistic, long-term solution.
It may well be that some in high places believe that most of the electorate fell off the back of a turnip truck.
As the late American humorist Will Rogers once observed, “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”
Or, if he were a modern-day Georgian, he might modify it thusly for the drought: “I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government, report the facts, and water the lawn with my tears.”
|
No Related links found
|
