"Aha," you're saying, "perhaps this post describes some ancient knowledge, arising from India, China, or New Jersey, that will enlighten those of us in the West, and we will solve all our water problems once and for all!"
Nahhhh!
But how about some 'eastern wisdom' from a U.S. District Court judge?
Robert over at Watercrunch had a great post about the recent ruling by Federal District Court Judge Paul A. Magnuson concerning Georgia, Florida, Alabama, the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) Basin, the USACE, and Lake Lanier:
A federal judge ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been illegally reallocating water from Lake Lanier to meet metro Atlanta’s needs. Georgia basically has three years to seek congressional approval or water withdrawals from the lake are cut and only Gainesville and Buford will be allowed to withdraw water.
And this tidbit from the judge's ruling was sure enlightening:
It is beyond comprehension that the current operating manual for the Buford Dam is more than 50 years old.
Robert noted the following paragraph from Judge Magnuson's ruling, which Peter Gleick later highlighted:
...Too often, state, local, and even national government actors do not consider the long-term consequences of their decisions.
Local governments allow unchecked growth because it increases tax revenue, but these same governments do not sufficiently plan for the resources such unchecked growth will require. Nor do individual citizens consider frequently enough their consumption of our scarce resources, absent a crisis situation such as that experienced in the ACF basin in the last few years.
The problems faced in the ACF basin will continue to be repeated throughout this country, as the population grows and more undeveloped land is developed. Only by cooperating, planning, and conserving can we avoid the situations that gave rise to this litigation. [emboldening mine]
Regarding the above passage, Gleick said, "The lawyers will ignore it." That may be true, but let's not forget that a bunch of other people will ignore it as well. Let's not lay our water mess solely at the feet of the legal profession.
Maybe I should be promoting Judge Paul A. Magnuson for the USA's Water Czar.
I'm anxious to see if Georgia can get Congressional approval and get Hot 'Lanta out of hot water (or rather, no water).
Methinks it's time for Gov. Sonny Perdue to start prayin' again.
"Oh father, we acknowledge our wastefulness. But we're doing better. And I thought it was time to acknowledge that to the creator, the provider of water and land, and to tell him that we will do better." -- Gov. George Ervin 'Sonny' Perdue III (R-GA)
Too often, state, local, and even national government actors do not consider the long-term consequences of their decisions.
Yes, I suppose "always" is too often.
An in-stream reservoir's capacity is at maximum the day construction stops (before siltation starts), so confict over dwindling storage is pretty much inevitable, isn't it?
Posted by: Tim | Wednesday, 22 July 2009 at 08:56 AM