There are programs for water reclamation in place. Gwinnett County treats their wastewater to a very high standard (tertiatry filtration followed by MBR for microconstituent removal) and discharges back in to the lake. And they're on outdoor watering bans, so the vast majority of water that gets pulled from the lake for drinking water is put back in.
The same thing for Allatoona. They don't mention that Cobb County Water System returnins water to the basin.
Okay - water programs in place and
promoting water reclamation are two different things. When I was involved in my small piece of this pie, one of the major arguing factors was that there was so little water reclamation that CONSERVATION needed to be evaluated as one of the pieces of the puzzle.
It's been awhile since I have been involved - I suspect water reclamation is better ... but probably low on the radar.
I sure hope those Gulf Sturgeon and mussles are happy. No telling how many millions of dollars we spent on them. Maybe Georgia should just go scoop them up and put them in the aquarium in ATL. Problem solved.
I have been wanting to check out the ATL aquarium!! I heard that it totally rawked!
I don't remember seeing anything about gulf sturgeon or mussles in the authorized purpose of the lake either. The Lake’s authorized purpose was to provide flood control, hydropower and navigation. So I guess the sturgeon and mussels are **** out of luck too.
Class III surface water body is chracterized as: Recreation, Propagation and Maintenance of a Healthy, Well-Balanced Population of Fish and Wildlife is typically the most protective classification of water. Class II surface water bodies (Shellfish Propagation or Harvesting) is typically subsumed under Class III.
Nope, they're in Florida, no person, place or thing in Florida will be SOL. Animals in Florida are higher priority than drinking water for 6 million people.
I read something amazing recently .. a bottom wetland that was deeded to my company from the DEQ for longterm stewardship as the company saw fit. In the letter, the DEQ acknowledged that the bottom wetland had been severely degraded and "
no longer served the public interest." I find it interesting that at one time, government realized that there were environmental areas, especially sensitive areas that wouldn't be brought back to 'quality' regardless of how they were managed.
Perhaps, Atlanta falls in the same boat - so poorly degraded that it no longer serves the public interest.
JR
