Re: What's This?

Congratulations on the 3/4-inch of rain. Wish we'd had it, too. The whole southeast is in dire straits--Daryl's area is in the worst of it, but it's all pretty bad all throughout what NOAA calls "the southeast sector." I've been reporting daily rainfall to CoCoRAHS for a month or two and on most days it's 0.00. I think the highest was 0.10. If there's anything comforting about our local economy going down the tubes, it's that the absence of seasonal "cottonheads" translates to reduced draw on the groundwater. If we had our full compliment of cottonheads this year, we would be truly worrying about salt-water intrusion, I suspect. 




On Dec 3, 2007, at 12:39 PM, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT wrote:


There have been a couple articles in the Los Angeles Times about the
drought in GA and how bad off Atlanta is. Of course we in So Cal are
acutely aware of water and the lack of it. Every state that gets water
from the Colorado River is willing to fight to the death for their share of it, but as Betsy mentioned already the allocations were made based on historical data from very wet years, and even in "normal" times there is 
not enough for everyone to take what they were allocated way back when.
Our area has been told that we are getting only 25% of the normal water
allocation from the agency this year (different system than the Colorado 
River). However there is some provision for buying water from
agricultural districts. How much that is going to cost remains unknown.
I am assuming that I will cut back my vegetable garden by at least half, 
and more than that depending on water costs. The front yard will get
watered way less and we'll just have to see what survives; I've
mentioned my desire to do some xeriscaping work there but I won't do
anything major until we see what happens this summer.
On the plus side we got almost three-quarters of an inch of rain on
Friday. According to the local paper that was more rain than fell all of 
last year! The ground is damp almost a foot down in the sandy areas,
this is good.

Cyndi


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On
Behalf Of Donna
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 4:59 PM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] What's This?

I had no idea it was that bad at all.  Nothing in
months has been broad-casted here locally.  Last time
they mentioned it was generally speaking about the
'south' needing rain.

In October I was in Vegas.  Since I don't gamble, some
of us went sight seeing.  I was amazed at how low Lake
Meade was and was told they were loosing a foot a day.
... but it is not anywhere as low as you are
describing.  Seems some of the states are arguing
about water rights in that area as well, which I found
interesting after taking the Hoover dam tour and
learning how the government had made those decisions
years ago....

Sounds like we need Rich to turn while doing that rain
dance....

Donna
where it is 'icing' - not raining not snowing, just
ice coming down.. yuck!  Supposed to continue thru
midnight and we have between 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice on
everything already.



--- Daryl <pulis@mindspring.com> wrote:


Donna,

Surely you've heard of the great Atlanta drought!
It's the worst dry spell
since records have been kept. Lake Lanier, the
primary reservoir, is at its
lowest level since it began filling in the 50's. Our
city/county water
department's main intake channel is nearly dried up,
so they're spending
millions to dredge and extend the lines.  I was
across the channel a couple
of weeks ago, and the concrete block surround for
the pumps, which is
normally under water, was completely exposed. The
surround is about as tall
as a 1 storey house. Everything to the right of the
pump, up channel  was
dry ground, with grass growing around stranded
docks.

It doesn't help that the lake also has to support
navigation and endangered
mussels downstream, and that the Army Corps of
Engineers has really screwed
up its water releases. They've now reduced them
some, (after a lawsuit that
forced them to check with the Fish and Wildlife
folks who said, basically,
"no, of course the mussels don't need that much
water") but they're saying
it will take 4 years of "normal" rain to refill the
lake. Other, smaller
reservoirs are as bad off because they didn't have
the capacity. You can
walk across some of them.

We have a well that I'd been using for watering and
taking care of the
animals, but it only has about 20 minutes of water
in it at a time now.
We're lucky that the county ran waterlines through a
few years ago. I
remember in the Great Drought of the 80's that we
had to choose between
showering and clothes washing and Bill brought home
5 gallon carboys and
buckets of water. WE used wash water for flushing
and rinse water to wash
the next load. Still, we're required to reduce
county water use, and we were
already conserving through force of habit.

My business is non-existent. I haven't had a call
since stage 4 restrictions
hit.  Most landscapers, nurseries and such are going
belly-up or taking out
disaster loans. The lake businesses (marinas, bait
and tackle shops, fishing
guides, etc) are going out of business. The local
economy depends, in large
part on lake tourism, too. It's taken a huge hit.
Nobody wants to camp near
a mudhole, nor rent a boat that can't sail, nor walk
a dry beach. All their
restaurant and hotel and grocery and  Wal-mart
dollars go away, too.

d

----- Original Message -----
From: "Donna" <gossiper@sbcglobal.net>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 1:42 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] What's This?



Where do you live Daryl?

Is this your own well that is going dry?

Not much news coverage here about your drought.

In

the heat of the summer there were some comments

about

the south.... but this really sounds serious!

Donna




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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.1 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Sunset Zone 25
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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