TL metro added 68,585 residents from July 1st 2022 to July 1, 2023.

[MichiganderTexan]

Originally Posted by testa50

This is fake. Atlanta doesn't take in any water whatsoever from Alabama's rivers.

We do use a few percent of the net outflows of the Chattahoochee which would otherwise flow down to Alabama and Florida. But I'm not sure why they would be entitled to 100% of the river and Georgia gets 0%. Literally no upstream state/city is held to that standard.

Atlanta could in fact be supported many times over using only local surface water. Night and day difference from the western systems where major inter-basin transfers occur.

Yeah kind of ridiculous to compare Atlanta to the situation out west

[Phil P]

Originally Posted by architect77

I hope we don't ever see a 2007-2008 drought again. Multiple SE states were sucking water from the sediment bottoms of reservoirs just to keep taps running.

This ^^^ is why it's NOT much different. Two dry years and people started to get a little nervous. We just recently had over 20 years of generally below average precipitation in the SW, the driest since 800 CE. Things would be more dicey in the SE with a similar climate dice throw of the dice with 20+ years of drought because of how many people and how much ag there is.

There are places in the US where water is not an issue, like Memphis or Detroit. Atlanta, and really the whole Piedmont, is not one of them. There simply isn't a giant river basin or groundwater supply due to the geography.

Bottom line though is that water in general isn't a very big issue in any area of the US, cities are pretty good at being efficient with use and growing population without increasing much. If it gets bad, hay farmers get the boot and the taps stay on. But to the extent it is an issue, it's not just a desert thing, it's a local basin flow thing.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by testa50

This is fake. Atlanta doesn't take in any water whatsoever from Alabama's rivers.

We do use a few percent of the net outflows of the Chattahoochee which would otherwise flow down to Alabama and Florida. But I'm not sure why they would be entitled to 100% of the river and Georgia gets 0%. Literally no upstream state/city is held to that standard.

Atlanta could in fact be supported many times over using only local surface water. Night and day difference from the western systems where major inter-basin transfers occur.

It's that drought in the late 00s that keeps this myth alive. All of those headlines of "Atlanta only has 30 days of water" really stuck with people. So much so that many of those individuals have totally ignored all of the things that have come online in that time since then that have helped alleviate that previous problem. For example, the opening of the Westside Reservoir upgraded our water supply capacity from 3 days to 30. That's massive and way more than we need.

[testa50]

Originally Posted by Phil P

This ^^^ is why it's NOT much different. Two dry years and people started to get a little nervous. We just recently had over 20 years of generally below average precipitation in the SW, the driest since 800 CE. Things would be more dicey in the SE with a similar climate dice throw of the dice with 20+ years of drought because of how many people and how much ag there is.

There are places in the US where water is not an issue, like Memphis or Detroit. Atlanta, and really the whole Piedmont, is not one of them. There simply isn't a giant river basin or groundwater supply due to the geography.

Bottom line though is that water in general isn't a very big issue in any area of the US, cities are pretty good at being efficient with use and growing population without increasing much. If it gets bad, hay farmers get the boot and the taps stay on. But to the extent it is an issue, it's not just a desert thing, it's a local basin flow thing.

Funny how you spout something provably false ("taking water from the Alabama rivers to feed the metro") then when you get called on it you become Mr Nuance.

Not saying water isn't an issue at all for us, and if climate change causes permanently reduced precipitation here then all bets are off, obviously. But, we are a far cry from the southwest in the water department.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

It's that drought in the late 00s that keeps this myth alive. All of those headlines of "Atlanta only has 30 days of water" really stuck with people. So much so that many of those individuals have totally ignored all of the things that have come online in that time since then that have helped alleviate that previous problem. For example, the opening of the Westside Reservoir upgraded our water supply capacity from 3 days to 30. That's massive and way more than we need.

Also the last few years we've had the opposite of a drought. We've been getting above average rainfall and almost record breaking.

[JC251]

I know its tough with land costs, space, etc, but this area should really try and build a few more reservoirs. I recorded over 90 inches of rain in one year a few years ago in Cobb County. We consistently get over 50, but another one of those stretches where we get less then 40" a few years in a row will happen again.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

Also the last few years we've had the opposite of a drought. We've been getting above average rainfall and almost record breaking.

There is that too. The Southeast goes through wet and dry cycles, both of which can be extreme but never long lasting. The way some of those stories wrote about Georgia it was if we were in a desert and not a subtropical forest where we have rain for breakfast and don't even notice.

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by JC251

I know its tough with land costs, space, etc, but this area should really try and build a few more reservoirs. I recorded over 90 inches of rain in one year a few years ago in Cobb County. We consistently get over 50, but another one of those stretches where we get less then 40" a few years in a row will happen again.

We already have a model: Disused quarries are scattered all around Metro Atlanta. The Westside Reservoir shows just how effective they can be at solving a problem fast. That reservoir was tunneled and filled within 4 four years.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by JC251

I know its tough with land costs, space, etc, but this area should really try and build a few more reservoirs. I recorded over 90 inches of rain in one year a few years ago in Cobb County. We consistently get over 50, but another one of those stretches where we get less then 40" a few years in a row will happen again.

Multiple new reservoirs have been constructed in the greater Atlanta metropolitan region since about 1990, including:

> Randy Poynter Lake and Jack Turner Dam in Rockdale County

> Cornish Creek Reservoir/Lake Varner in Newton County

> Upper Towaliga/Cole Reservoir in Henry County

> Long Branch Reservoir in Henry County

> Hollis Q. Lathem Reservoir in Cherokee and Dawson counties

> Bear Creek Reservoir in Jackson County

> Hickory Log Creek Reservoir in Cherokee County

> Tussahaw Reservoir in Henry and Butts counties

> Westside Reservoir in the City of Atlanta proper

It’s just that after the construction of very large federally funded regional reservoirs like Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, new reservoir projects have been locally funded projects that have been limited in scope because of concerns about the supply of freshwater downstream and because of the ever-present threat of aggressive litigation from jurisdictions downstream (namely from the states of Alabama and Georgia), especially in the Chattahoochee River and Etowah River watersheds.

[JC251]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Multiple new reservoirs have been constructed in the greater Atlanta metropolitan region since about 1990, including:

> Randy Poynter Lake and Jack Turner Dam in Rockdale County

> Cornish Creek Reservoir/Lake Varner in Newton County

> Upper Towaliga/Cole Reservoir in Henry County

> Long Branch Reservoir in Henry County

> Hollis Q. Lathem Reservoir in Cherokee and Dawson counties

> Bear Creek Reservoir in Jackson County

> Hickory Log Creek Reservoir in Cherokee County

> Tussahaw Reservoir in Henry and Butts counties

> Westside Reservoir in the City of Atlanta proper

It’s just that after the construction of very large federally funded regional reservoirs like Lake Allatoona and Lake Lanier back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, new reservoir projects have been locally funded projects that have been limited in scope because of concerns about the supply of freshwater downstream and because of the ever-present threat of aggressive litigation from jurisdictions downstream (namely from the states of Alabama and Georgia), especially in the Chattahoochee River and Etowah River watersheds.

I knew of a couple of those, specifically Hickory Log Creek and Lathem, but none of the others. I'm really glad to see this.