Well, they are showing more rain coming in again late this afternoon, this time thunderstorms included. Ending tomorrow morning. We had no thunderstorms out of the rain the other day, just very windy and heavy rain. From the cold front. It would be nice to get about another two inches of rain out of this even though our ground is still saturated from the rain Monday. Will have to unplug the basement drains again.
Wished we could send some your way NoHall.
Me, too. We actually have a chance of rain tonight and tomorrow, but I can't even get excited about it anymore. We need about 3 tropical storms to stall out over us to make it up. It's like being excited about a field goal when your team is losing 63 to nothing.
Here's where this becomes a political thread: The city of Gainesville and now the state of Georgia has pleaded with the Corps of Engineers to decrease the amount of water released from Buford Dam. This has been an ongoing struggle because of the Tri-State Water Wars for years, but the situation has been exacerbated because the Corps admitted that they were releasing too much this spring. Apparently one of the gauges was faulty, but nothing was done to make up the loss.
Not only has the Corps denied the request, they have now said that they are
increasing the releases.
We have 3 months' worth of clean water before the city's intake pipes start sucking mud for us to drink, and they are increasing the outflow.
Why? Two reasons that some of you will think are darned good ones I'm sure: We are cooling a power plant somewhere in Alabama and maintaining an endangered species of mussel in Florida. I agree that both of these things have to be done, but have those areas looked into alternatives? I'm using gray water in ways that would astound you; what are they doing? Where are the strict water restrictions in those places? I can't find any watering bans in Apalachicola; how 'bout turning the sprinklers on those mussels and forget about your stupid grass? As a landscaper, I'm about to lose my livelihood over this. (Some of my colleagues already have.) We have almost no lake left.
Within the week, if the Corps doesn't change their policy, the state is going to take some sort of action. I don't know how effective the threat of litigation will be to the Corps, but I'm afraid that the people of Hall, Forsyth, and Gwinnett Counties are about to form a militia and overthrow the powers that be at Buford Dam.
I have to go plant some trees now, and pray that God himself is going to water them.
