Dried Up

The Southeast's desperate bid for a drought solution

John Bazemore / AP

The drought plaguing much of the Southeast has dried up these boat docks on Georgia's Lake Lanier.

By Catharine Skipp | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Dec 18, 2007 | Updated: 7:17 p.m. ET Dec 18, 2007

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The Chattahoochee River starts as a small but swift stream 3,500 feet above sea level in the mountains of northern Georgia. Flowing south, it cleaves the Georgia-Alabama border before joining the Flint River near the Florida state line. There, it becomes the Apalachicola-but not before watering Atlanta and its neighboring small cities and towns, irrigating farms, hydropowering Florida's panhandle and most of the state of Alabama-and nourishing the aquaculture of the Gulf of Mexico, some 400 miles from its headwaters, at journey's end.

Georgia, Alabama and Florida have fought over the water for almost two decades. But as the southeast struggles with the most severe droughts to hit the region in recorded history, the battle has grown intense. There were once 154 boat ramps on giant Lake Lanier; today, there are only two, bogged down in the mud flats. Cities and power companies have been extending their intake pipes deeper and deeper into the river in a desperate bid to maintain flow. Conservation efforts are underway upstream-but they'll have little impact on the federally-mandated water flow out of Lake Seminole at the intersection of the three states-where 4,750 cubic feet of water a second flows through hydropower turbines for the protection and health of mussels and sturgeon in the Apalachicola Bay. Last month President Bush dispatched his secretary of the Interior to wade into the fray to try to come up with a long-term agreement between the states on how to better manage the water supply. On Monday, Secretary Dirk Kempthorne sat down with Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Alabama Governor Bob Riley and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to sort through long-term solutions. The secretary spoke with Newsweek afterwards. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Reports suggest the water crisis in the region is nearing critical proportions. How long has there been a lack of rainfall?
Secretary Kempthorne: This drought has been going on for several months and everyone is starting to realize that what was once infinite is now finite. The severity of this drought has made people realize that the drought is here and the prospect of it ending soon is not in sight. The water levels have gotten low several times in past, but this is the lowest. Last weekend's storm front put more water in the basin. But everyone realizes if there is no water between now and March there is going to be a serious, serious problem.

What has averted crisis in the past?
Rain. Everyone then moves on and you get to the next crisis with no plan in place. The individual states would come close to an agreement, but ultimately when rain came, it took the pressure off. This present drought has reinforced that we need to have an emergency drought plan now and for the future. And all the governors agree. There are times when we will have good rainfall but what is missing is the long-term plan. The Army Corps of Engineers has an operational plan but it goes back two decades.

What did you and the governors agree to do to attack the problem?
They accepted an invitation to send delegations to Washington, D.C. in January and sit with federal representatives to work hard to come up with an agreement. The key action we need to deliver is an emergency drought-operating plan and that is what the governors agreed to do by February 15. The states will have the assistance of a federal team that will include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The Corps of Engineers will review the plan and make suggestions. Then it will go to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which will have 30 days to review and render a biological opinion to ensure the conservation of endangered species.

One of the things we discussed was getting to a point of quantifying the water and then we can discuss allocating the water equitably. These three states' problems are every bit as complex as the Colorado River Basin agreement [a recent pact between seven Western states to conserve and share Colorado river water brokered by Kempthorne]-and every bit as doable. But this process will need principals and governors with the will to do it. And they have that will. All three governors are doing what they are supposed to do: look out for the well-being of their respective states. But the fact that they are coming together to solve this issue shows that they are also good neighbors.

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Posted By: Markwri @ 12/30/2007 4:29:56 PM

Rain is allot like money.
Some places have to much, some have none.
There's plenty of it. But generally the distribution is screwed up.
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Posted By: BDaDDy @ 12/20/2007 5:18:23 PM

"Dude", I'm not arguing that cold fronts don't cause rain. I'm well aware of the atmospheric dynamics involved. I took issue with your assertion that high pressure was the SOLE cause. This drought has been going on for three years and no high pressure system has been set up across the southeast for three years. We've had PLENTY of fronts during that time. What I am saying is that rain events associated with frontal boundaries are not the sole source of rain in the SE. In fact, a nationwide study was done from 1950-1996 and it found that 2066 heavy rain events occurred in association with a frontal boundary whereas 1266 events were non-frontal. So yes, there are more rain events (in total) associated with frontal boundaries but this does not account for all rain fall. If you look at this past summer as an example, the majority of rain received in the SE WAS from frontal boundaries, so clearly high pressure was not to blame. The lack of rainfall came more from a lack of other, non-frontal rain events and tropical systems. We normally get at least one or two landalling systems that drop several inches of rain. Just one of those would have made a vast difference. High pressure does not just sit in one place for years at a time. It's way more complicated than that, atmospheric physics degrees notwithstanding. And okay, fine, take out the "runaway" part of it. A recent report by the Senate indicates "significant objections to major aspects of the so-called ???consensus' on man-made global warming." This same report states that over 400 scientists worldwide do not claim consensus on whether or not global warming is man-made. "Undisputed for the most part"...right! "Dude", again, I have to ask, before you say something like "undisputed" and "on average" and all this other drivel, do you do any research???? And please, I don't go to Wikipedia for ANYTHING because I don't trust the crap you can find on there. And the very definition of "bigot" is someone who passes judgment on others because of their race, class, or cultural affiliation without knowledge or information and that is EXACTLY what you are doing in passing judgment on a whole region of people based on your limited, anecdotal experience. And all I do is read, I don't even have cable tv. (Have you noticed that nearly every assumption you've made about me so far is wrong? Kudos...a lesser person would back down in the face of such constant and unremitting failure but you soldier on...you have my respect)
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Posted By: Amoderate @ 12/20/2007 3:30:48 PM

Baddy - dude, i lived in tucson for a summer. God, get a life would u. The humidity comes up out of the gulf of california, which is in mexico by the way. Then u get pop up thunderstorms, along with the most magnificent lightning displays imaginable, due to the convection currents created. Stand in a desert with 40% humidity, and tell me it isnt sweltering. God, buddy, u have no clue. The water in the SE usa comes from low pressure systems that suck in the gulf humidity, then the cold front behind causes condensation. And this isnt rare at all in the south. We arent talking a major drop in temp, just 8 degrees changes the dew point. We arent talking a blizzard. LOL These rains last an entire day. "Poop ups" dont bring in enough water. Sorry, I studied atmospheric physics in graduate school. Really, I am sorry, ur tv guy is misleading u, or probably u are misunderstanding. But thats ok, watch the weather map in the summer, and winter. It is the big low pressure systems coming in out of okla, ark, and north tex that bring the deep SOAKING ALL DAY rains to the SE usa. And a big persisting high pressure system off the coast has pushed the jet stream up. Sorry, it is true. U really dont know what u are talking about. But please, keep going, it is quite a hoot to read.

And we arent talking about "runaway greenhouse effect". It is astounding that almost 50% think there is a runaway. That is what is so scary, because runaway will be incredibly destructive. There is plenty of dispute over "runaway greenhouse", as there should be. Most scientists are just seeking the truth, and this 50-50 dispute is good for finding truth. But the majority of the scientific community agrees that man's carbon footprint is increasing the heat capacity of our atmosphere. This is undisputed for the most part. It isnt the "runaway" we need to look at for, it is this increase in rate that can cause a tilt in the balance. Anyway, that is the way it is. It is the crossing of the tilting point that is of concern.

And it is u who have bought into the facts without checking. 40% humidity in a desert is ENORMOUS buddy. Check the facts! High and low pressure systems BRING NEW RAIN TO AREAS buddy. Check the facts. Runaway greenhouse is NOT the global warming issue buddy. Crossing the tipping point is the issue. Hell, with almost 50% of the scientific community thinking it is RUNAWAY, we should all be driving small cars(by the way, my car gets 46 to the gallon, ON AVERAGE, LOL). Wikipedia vs atmospheric physics courses is NO MATCH BUDDY! LOL
AND, the south, on the average, is very bigotted in its white population. Sorry, that is a fact. I lived in it, and still do, and i am not black. My fellow whities are a disgrace! So stop watching fox news, and start reading for a change.