Is Atlanta the New Epicenter?

Move over Southern California and Las Vegas, Atlanta may now be the new epicenter of water scarcity issues in the country. Most experts don't recall any major U.S. metro area being forced into such potential dire drought measures in about two decades.
I liked the quotes from Don Wilhite in yesterday's Atlanta Journal Article:

"Most large metropolitan areas have systems in place where they try to be better managers of the resource than that," said Don Wilhite, who founded the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has been involved in drought responses for at least three decades.

"The Eastern states are more vulnerable than the West," Wilhite said. The West learned long ago that they needed large backup supplies, such as giant reservoirs, he said. But in the East, long-term droughts are less common and "there's less emphasis on water conservation. They can get themselves into a situation more quickly.

"Coupled with population growth, a severe drought over a year or two or longer creates problems they've never had to deal with before," Wilhite said.

Georgia Environmental Protection Division is likely to send Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, options to tighten water restrictions in about two weeks. The governor is also warning that the state could take legal action if the Army Corps of Engineers continues to release water into Alabama from a water basin in northwest Georgia.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce President was also quoted today as saying "Water is the number one threat to Atlanta,' We've got to get ahead of it, stay in front of it and manage it.''

I hate that it takes an extended drought to focus everyone's attention on water issues.

Check out another good story today from the NYtimes: Drought-Stricken South Facing Tough Choices