It doesn’t look like either Atlanta or DeKalb can say they cut water consumption by 10% vs. last year, as randomly mandated by the governor during the height of drought coverage.

Meanwhile, it seems that both Cobb and Gwinnett can claim success. Cobb just had to publicly embarrass Chris George Carlos into not flooding his lawns, while Gwinnett cut back using fuzzy math that excludes water sold to cities.

Can you take a shower in math?  Only in MathMagic Land.

Hours after the feds and the state agreed that we only had 79 days ’til we were left high and dry, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a revised plan that would allow the Army Corps of Engineers to cut water released from Lake Lanier by 5%.

According to 11 Alive, that would extend the water supply to over a year.

Florida is displeased.

UPDATE: Fresh Loaf urges residents to put down their firearms regardless of the new plan. The agreed upon “79 days” reportedly doesn’t count the ominously-named “dead pool” below the dam gates. From other articles I’ve read, the dead pool has many additional months of water in it. But if it is below the dam gates, the “79 days” may instead be a deadline for the arch-nemesis mussels downstream.

If you’ve been paying attention to local or national news, you may have heard about one water user in Atlanta that’s consuming a lot more than everyone else. About 60 times more. That’s about 400,000 gallons a month.

Well, David over at Decatur-DeKalb reports that WSB 750 radio is saying that Carlos has said that he will cut back water usage. Channel 2 now has the full story.  It seems that the 400,000 gallons a month claim was slightly over stated.  It was ONLY 121,000!  Apparently, Carlos was having his landscapers continuous change out plantings so he was still within the law.

David has also done some impressive bloggeresque digging to nearly linking the water guzzler with Emory’s Michael C. Carlos benefactor.

I’m not sure this means much to Emory. The university only accepts cash, not tap water.

It seems that many Atlanta area bloggers echo my sentiments of last week and are severely annoyed by Sonny’s rain-o-thon today. It’s been national news all morning. CNN TV and .com reported on it this morning. In fact, CNN.com had a live feed up on its homepage earlier!

Radical Georgia Moderate is so irradiated by the photo op that he’s expectorating!

Pecanne Log wonders if her bumper-sticker touting conservative neighbor will join the fray at the Capitol.

Fresh Loaf cops my “Sonny’s Rain Dance” post title (unintentionally) and is skeptical about the timing of the event (with showers in tomorrow’s forecast)

DriftGrift is going to the chapel…I mean the Capitol…and promises a report later…[Later: DriftGrift's report of freaks at the Capitol]

I love it when Georgia makes the national news, don’t you?

It seems like “working on a plan” and “signed, sealed, delivered” are two completely different things.

After hearing from the fishing industry, Panhandle leaders and environmental groups back in his home state of Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist,  abruptly pulled out of a tentative deal to reduce water released from Lake Lanier.

Georgians will call this “reneging” while Florida will assert that no deal was ever written in stone.  This quote from the Orlando Sentential seems to be the sticking point,

“Although discussed during the governors’ meeting, the reduction level wasn’t formally proposed by the corps until later that night.”

An article in the AJC earlier this week, reported on the doubt most water experts had on the much-celebrated (at least in Georgia) deal.

“But people like Jerry Sherk who have witnessed the dispute for years have their doubts. Sherk, who specializes in water law and who over the years has advised both Georgia and the city of LaGrange in the dispute, is blunt about the likelihood of a deal in 3½ months.

“Not a chance,” he said. “If there’s political goodwill, we will reach a nice, superficial, unenforceable gentleman’s agreement that will be window dressing at best.”

Too many parties — from various federal agencies to hydropower customers — would need to be at the table in too short a time, Sherk warned. What’s more, he said, “The absence of trust here is more all-pervasive than I’ve ever seen it in a water conflict, and I’ve seen a lot of water conflicts.”

We should have known better that the White House deal was too vague and too rushed to mark the end of this dispute.

Keep Conserving!

Ethiopian Rain Dance Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia

From the AJC…Governor seeks divine intervention to get some rain

Apparently, when La Nina weather patterns don’t favor the Georgia Piedmont, our state government resorts to doing a 21st century rain dance. The Georgia gov will host a prayer service at the Capitol next week to pray for rain.

But don’t just show up on the Capitol lawn next Tuesday at 11:45a! Like any good photo op, this event is invitation only.

I just hope this counts as part of Sonny’s lunch hour and doesn’t take him away from finding real solutions to our water problems.

Update: The AP has picked up this story too. [hattip:Hit & Run - who's post title is "Where Church vs. State Goes to Die"]

Fresh Loaf quotes an article from The Economist about our drought crisis, which suggests that Al Gore’s global warming might be to blame for recent EXTREME weather. I did a little rummaging to see if experts support this theory.

NASA seems to agree.

“Continued global warming could have many damaging effects. It might harm plants and animals that live in the sea. It could also force animals and plants on land to move to new habitats. Weather patterns could change, causing flooding, drought, and an increase in damaging storms. Global warming could melt enough polar ice to raise the sea level. In certain parts of the world, human disease could spread, and crop yields could decline.”

So do environmental groups like the NDRC.

“Warmer temperatures could also increase the probability of drought. Greater evaporation, particularly during the summer and fall, could exacerbate drought conditions and increase the risk of wildfires.”

NOAA is a bit more reserved, but admits that extreme conditions are more prevalent in recent years.

“On a global scale there is little evidence of sustained trends in climate variability or extremes. This perhaps reflects inadequate data and a dearth of analyses. However, on regional scales, there is clear evidence of changes in variability or extremes.

In areas where a drought or excessive wetness usually accompanies an El Niño [does this also apply to La Nina?], these dry or wet spells have been more intense in recent years. Other than these areas, little evidence is available of changes in drought frequency or intensity.”

So, each one of these sources agrees that in an instance of global warming, drought would be one of many extreme weather symptoms attributed to it. Unfortunately, this acknowledgment does little to quell the never-ending debate over global warming’s existence.

Some will write off this drought as another isolated event that can’t be attributed to a broader pattern, while others will eagerly add it to the list of “recent evidence” that already includes the recent torrential rains in the Northeast and the 2005 Hurricane season. Though films like An Inconvenient Truth and comments from the G8 summit have recently had some impact on influencing public opinion on the subject, it is the “consequences” of these extreme conditions that are really beginning to change people’s minds.

Mud Pit Photo Courtesy of the New York Times

What happens when people begin to fear the imminent depletion of a natural resource? Fisticuffs! (of sorts)

While the Governor Sonny Perdue has framed his fight for water against endangered mussels and the Army Corps of Engineers, actual human beings that live downstream are starting to pointing out to Atlanta politicians that there are more than just clams that depend on the water that is released from Lake Lanier.

Alabama’s governor has written a letter in opposition to Perdue’s request to the President that would force the Army Corps of Engineers to stop releasing water from the lake. In it, Gov. Bob Riley points out that the water released from Lanier isn’t just used to cool off the endangered mussels downstream, but also more vital human creations, like nuclear power plants.

Valdosta is also enraged by Perdue’s Atlanta-centric request. A scathing editorial in the Sunday Valdosta Times blames poorly planned Atlanta development for the impending water crisis…

“Gov. Sonny Perdue’s temper tantrums against the Army Corps of Engineers, the state of Florida and anyone else associated with not giving into his demands continued through the weekend, with meetings at Lake Lanier and declaring northern Georgia a disaster area Saturday to further enforce what everyone else has long known — Atlanta is a greedy, poorly designed behomoth of a city incapable of hearing the word “no” and dealing with it. ”

Read the full editorial here.

Hat Tip: Fresh Loaf