Lake LanierThe Govenor came out yesterday with the announcement that there will be some easing of watering restrictions this spring, and what good news that is! It will be up to individual counties and regional officials whether or not to implement the ease or not. Even though my water supply is regulated by a heavily legislated local county, I am hopeful that we will see some easement in our area. Because there is also the pressure of commerce, thankfully.
So....I am still doing the water barrell. We are still officially in a drought, even though the local rivers are swollen with rain and the resevoir is in good shape. The state is still just under the deficit level, and if things dry up, it could get real bad, real quick, again. Coming from the West, I know why water is political there. (Simply not enough of it much of the time) I did not realize until this week WHY it is so political here. Lake Lanier, which is the major urban water source for metro Atlanta (approximately 4 million people) is also a federal water basin, which means that some neighboring states are entitled to that water. The govenor of Georgia filed a lawsuit to keep the water within the state, and was denied. This means that in addition to supplying drinking water to other states, federally mandated programs having to do with conservation of endangered species (in one of these cases, freshwater mussels in a state to our south) have as much right to the water supply as the people of metro Atlanta, who use it as their main water source. Lake Lanier came periously close to drying up this winter, although the Army Corp of Engineers assured everyone that they could still get water by drilling thru the sludge of the dried up lake, ie, the water table. Nice, huh???? Fortunately Nature and God intervened, and we have seen some decent rain this winter, although it was predicted otherwise.
I'm not judging(in public). I'm just saying.
Personally, my water source does not come from Lake Lanier. I'm not on a well, but I know alot of people who are. I know alot of people have been worried and some re-drilled, but I personally do not know anyone who's well dried up. These people kept the landscaping industry on life support over the past 6 months.
Do I feel selfish about my garden? A little bit. But it is a source of joy for me, one that I cannot squelch. It's a living thing...not only in my yard, but inside of me. And it's not protected by the Feds, so it's up to me!
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