Sunday, July 20, 2008
News

The drought’s still on

But 45 Georgia communities get looser watering restrictions

By Mark Woolsey

With the metro area’s recent rains, it’s hard to believe Georgia’s still suffering through a drought. But we are.

Only a few weeks ago, during a June 25 news conference, the message was stark: There are still drought conditions that make watering restrictions necessary—but not as much as everyone.

As of July 1, Atlanta was down more than seven inches of rainfall for the year. What about that Fourth of July weekend rain? Take a shovel into your backyard and dig down a bit below the surface. You’ll find that soil moisture seems to be approaching Sahara-dry levels. 

 Nonetheless, Georgians may have learned something during last summer’s drought restrictions. Georgia Environmental Protection Division head Carol Couch lauds this year’s 12 percent drop in water use in the 55-county “level four” drought response area in North Georgia, including metro Atlanta. She says that to date, 45 communities and utilities have been granted looser watering schedules, including the now seemingly archaic practice of lawn sprinkling.

But there are a couple of catches. Local governments that want to allow a little more water use can’t be dependent on Lake Lanier, and they have to show evidence of sufficient water supply and conservation measures. Elsewhere across the region, only hand-watering (using a single hose with a shutoff valve) is allowed 25 minutes three times a week, on an odd-even address schedule.

“That’s really a reward for communities who planned ahead,” says Georgia’s official state climatologist, David Stooksbury. The great majority of such areas are smaller communities outside metro Atlanta, places like Toccoa, Newnan and Madison, although Clayton County also made the cut. 

 “Even in those communities, the message is: Don’t use water willy-nilly,” says Stooksbury. “You need to conserve to make sure you maintain an adequate supply for the future.”

Stooksbury says the hand-watering provision is designed to protect “foundation plantings,” such as shrubs and trees. Adequately watering grass adequately is an extremely tough proposition.

But what the state of Georgia giveth, the state of Georgia can taketh away. Couch says that the relaxations will be revisited, and without responsible water use, the exemptions could be dropped, and even hand-watering could be scuttled.

For plant producers, landscapers and landscape lovers, that’s a cold splash in the face.

The Georgia Urban Agriculture Council says garden centers, nurseries, grass and sod growers, landscapers and golf courses boast a combined $8 billion in revenue for the state and provide jobs for 70,000 Georgians. Their major talking point: Their industry does most of the conservation that gets done, but they get criticized and cracked down on. Outdoor water use accounts for a mere 20 percent of total residential use, the group claims, while most residential use is inside houses, not in their yards. Proper landscaping planting and maintenance reduces soil erosion, cools the environment and increases groundwater retention, helping to recharge supplies to streams and rivers.

“If you don’t have plants, the water runs away,” says Wayne Juers, a vice president for Pike Family Nurseries, which, following last year’s ban of most outdoor water use, filed for bankruptcy  and was sold to California-based Armstrong Garden Centers in March. Fifteen Atlanta stores have kept the Pike name.
 
“There are a lot of industries using a lot of water, and you just don’t see the amount they use,” says Juers. “You see how much we use when the sprinkler goes on.”

Urban agriculture industry watchers say that with last September’s outdoor watering shutoff, sales plummeted, layoffs ensued and companies went under—but things are better now.

“We’ve had a good season,” says Pike’s Juers. “Now with it getting hot, it’s slowing down some.” Juers says Pike has made it a easy for customers buying landscaping plants to register for special certification allowing 10 weeks of sprinkler watering on a three-day basis for new grass, shrubs, trees and flowers.

“That gives them a pretty good chance of getting established,” he says. The same new-plant provision also benefits commercial landscapers.

Juers warns that Pike, still finding its footing after its bankruptcy and sale, would suffer a “catastrophic” blow, along with the entire urban agriculture industry, if the restrictions were once again tightened.

    “Last year put a lot of people out of business. It affected the whole chain, back to the growers and plant producers,” he says. “And [the ban] was one of the factors that led to the demise of Pike. It’s amazing how long it’s taken for the consumer to recover confidence that ‘they’re not going to turn my water off like they did last year.’”

    At Buck Jones Nursery, store manager Tommy Nobis says the tightened restrictions knocked business down 25 to 30 percent last year, and led to layoffs for the first time in the company’s history.

    This spring was an improvement, he says, but with hotter weather, sales have dropped off again.

    For Nobis, good business these days is a combination of educating consumers on proper watering and planting techniques (emphasizing fall planting, grouping plants with similar water needs together; and less frequent, but more thorough, water applications), pushing the sale of more native and drought-tolerant plants, and selling more products such as catchment “rain barrel” systems designed to trap rain and utilize it.

    Heading into Georgia’s third summer of water restrictions, he says, his industry has to act as if the current state of affairs is permanent if it wishes to take root in a difficult economic environment.

    What would it take for a relatively quick turnaround in parched Georgia’s fortunes?

       Ironically, what’s bad for the Gulf and the Caribbean is good for us: tropical storms. Without tropical help, Stooksbury says, there’s little hope of large-scale relief through October, when officials would hope for more plentiful fall and winter rains to recharge reservoirs, streams and soil moisture.

    Stooksbury, who points out that Atlanta got only 8 percent of “normal” rainfall in the 30 days ending June 25, says “the caveat this time of the year is that tropical activity could change the picture quickly, but we cannot assume that we’ll have an active tropical season over Georgia. We will have to assume that it’s like the last two years, which have seen little.” SP

 EPD: These utilities and communities are allowed to use more water

As of  July 8:

(See restriction code below.)

Haralson County – remain on Level IV
Drought Response Modification Petition IV Levels

Level IVa – All outdoor water uses are allowed on an odd/even basis, one day per week between midnight and 10:00 a.m.  At your (city/county/facility) discretion, odd addresses may water on Thursdays and Sundays; even addresses may water on Mondays and Saturdays.


Level IVb – All outdoor water uses are allowed on an odd/even basis, two days per week between midnight and 10:00 a.m.  Odd addresses may water on Tuesdays and Thursdays; even addresses on Mondays and Wednesdays.  At your (city/county/facility) discretion, odd addresses may water on Thursdays and Sundays; even addresses may water on Wednesdays and Saturdays.


Level IVc  - All outdoor water uses are allowed on an odd/even basis, three days per week between midnight and 10:00 a.m.  Odd addresses may water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays; even addresses on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.