[Marxism] Peak water

[Joaquin Bustelo]

On the Atlanta water shortage, people need to understand the basics. The
Atlanta metro area uses right now something on the order of 500 million
gallons or less a day. Mostly drawn from the Chattahoochee river. The U.S.
army corps of engineers releases 3.2 billion gallons a day from Lake Lanier
to the river. 

It's been presented as a question of preserving endangered mussels and
fishing in the Florida panhandle and all sorts of other BS. That ain't so.
The reason is the Farley nuclear power plant in Alabama on the border with
Georgia. 

The Birmingham News reported a few weeks ago, "In a letter sent Wednesday to
the governors of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, the chairman and president of
the Atlanta-based Southern Company confirms that the current flow of water
in the Chattahoochee River is the minimum needed for the Farley Nuclear
Plant in Alabama to operate, and that any reduction in flow could impact
plant operations." 

A second power plant, this time a coal-fired one in Florida, would also have
to shut down if water flow were reduced. That's because the tubes it uses to
suck up water for cooling would be above the water level. 

The water restrictions being imposed in Georgia by the governor and various
county and city officials, to the extent they're in effect in areas supplied
by the Chattahoochee River, are completely, utterly and absolutely
ineffectual. Bogus.

Every drop "conserved" simply flows down the hootch to the Gulf of Mexico.
Not one additional drop is kept in the reservoir. 

But *EVEN IF* the flows from Lake Lanier were reduced by the amount of the
decreased consumption, this would mean AT MOST a few additional days of
water in Lake Lanier, because 80% or more of the water released simply flows
downstream.

This, BTW, is a BIG SECRET in Georgia and especially Atlanta. None of the
media are reporting the story with even minimal accuracy. People are being
demonized and gouged just so the politicians can do some grandstanding. What
the real fight is about, I suspect, is control of water resources, who
decides where it goes, but who the players are there and what interests are
behind them, I haven't been able to discover.

This is ALSO why no one downstream is implementing any emergency water
conservation measures, despite the heated denunciations of our Governor.
There's nothing to be done. You draw the water from the river, if you draw
less, more flows downstream. It doesn't make the slightest bit of
difference.

What would make a difference is to build reservoirs to better manage water
resources. That's been discarded because the government would have to do
that and our governor is a very religious man, and it would violate the free
market religion.

At any rate, that's what I've been able to figure out from digging around.
SOME communities --a few-- may have reservoirs and IF they conserve THEN the
water stays in the reservoir. That's not true of the bulk of the metro area,
where it's use it or lose it.

Joaquin