MetaFilter posts tagged with water and drought

The South will Rise

meeshell — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:44:38 -0800

Tennesse and Georgia's war over water There are about five million residents in north Georgia affected by the drought. The phrase "if its brown flush it down, if its yellow let it mellow" has become part of the local jargon in an attempt to encourage water conservation. Two weeks ago two Republican lawmakers, Sen. David Shafer and Rep. Harry Geisinger,proposed that Georgians simply invade their northern neighbor and take their water. Citing a survey from the 1800s, they claim that the state border has crept southward in an incorrect manner and advocate restoring the pre-1818 state lines. The obvious reason for this is the millions of gallons of water in the Tennessee River, one mile north of the present border. "I would offer to settle this dispute over a friendly game of football, but that would be unfair to the State of Georgia,” said Tennessee State Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, rubbing salt in the wound inflicted by the Volunteers upon the Bulldogs last year.

Water, water everywh—Oh dear.

Weebot — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:18:26 -0800

So you've all heard about how global warming will lead to rising sea-levels, but what about falling freshwater levels? The New York Times ran an in-depth piece about the disappearing freshwater reserves for the Western United States last week, that being one of the more underreported effects of global warming. With the area's population projected to rise substantially over the next few decades—60 million in California alone by the mid-21st century!—the water demands are going to be a logistical nightmare without even considering a reduced capacity.

Green Grass

neat-o — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 11:04:30 -0800

Record heat. Extreme drought. But the grass must stay green!

California has been delta tough situation

salvia — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:19:30 -0800

"California has a decision to make. We either brace ourselves for long-term [water] cuts that threaten our economy and our very way of way of life, or we invest in a solution to fix the [San Francisco Bay] Delta and expand our water toolbox so we can meet future challenges head-on.” Long Beach, California has become the first California city to ration water after a court decision last month (SFChron, SacBee) which may require Delta water pumping to be cut by one-third starting in December -- "the single largest court-ordered redirection of water in state history" -- to protect a tiny threatened fish called the delta smelt [resizes window]. (The court decision is not online. An earlier related decision is here.) But the situation is more complex than "drinking water versus fish." Extensive previous efforts have not succeeded in addressing the problems of the Delta, where weak levies were already barely protecting the water supply for 23 million people, a key infrastructure pipeline [pdf], and more and more people's homes [pdf]. (More technical documents here.) Will current efforts be more successful? The many possible solutions each carry their own benefits and controversies. The decision to limit the pumps will certainly draw attention to the issues and give them new urgency. The situation is so complicated, interrelated, and ever-shifting that one artist's Delta primer portrays it as a giant game of chance [pdf].