Water Shortages: Atlanta's Cup Nearly Runneth Out

An almost inevitable water crisis in Atlanta next summer will have long-term consequences far beyond the city's borders.

By Richard Sammon, Senior Associate Editor, The Kiplinger Letter

December 26, 2007

Atlanta's water shortage is a threat to the whole Southeast. The large metro area, which only recently implemented water use restrictions, fines, penalties and policing, has just about four to five months of water in reserve as it faces still another dry winter. A "perfect nonstorm," some might say, in advance of what may well turn out to be a dire situation affecting the city, outlying counties and all of the businesses and residents who make the area their home.

The water shortages are already taking a steep economic toll -- halting business investment, costing jobs, such as in gardening and landscaping, further depressing home prices and sales, and killing tourism and convention business. With nearly 6 million people, Atlanta is still the region's economic engine.

Even torrential rainfall won't help enough. Water supplies have been drained by 100 years of drought plus urban sprawl, a leaky water infrastructure and rapid business development. Atlanta gets most of its water from nearby Lake Lanier, a manmade lake now at its lowest point since it was constructed in the 1950s. The Army Corps of Engineers may be forced to divert more of the lake's resources to Atlanta, but that would then mean less for other industrial users north of the city and for Florida and Alabama, which also struggle with water shortages and receive water from the lake.

Don't be surprised to see people lined up at water trucks next summer as supplies are strictly rationed for both businesses and residents. The city is already setting up emergency truck delivery vendor contracts, but that is hardly a long-term plan for what may be a sustained dry spell in a big, populous and vital region, the fastest growing metro area in the U.S., in fact. Moving water in large quantity over land is not only hard logistically, but also very expensive.

It will be an ugly picture that again will point to government incompetence at all levels. Despite many warning signs and the best experts on hand for advice, the city has done little to conserve. It currently has a metrowide goal of reducing water use by 10% in addition to restrictions on nonessential watering of lawns, car washes and the like. That's far less stringent than the 50% conservation level experts say is warranted at this point. Stricter controls could well be ordered in a month or two, affecting all manner of business operations and residential life. Washington is monitoring the trouble, but it won't step in until after a disaster occurs.

How Atlanta confronts the likely serious and lengthy shortage will be watched and cited by other cities and regions in only a few years. The federal government projects that more than 30 states will be dealing with critical water shortages, in some manner and degree, by 2010.

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