In case you had any doubt we’re in serious drought conditions, here’s a PR from GA EPD of 30 July 2012 suspending new agricultural water permits in numerous southwest Georgia counties, as close as Colquitt County, which adjoins Lowndes County.
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The Director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has announced that consideration of new applications for agricultural water withdrawal permits in a 24county area ofsouthwest Georgia will be suspended. The suspension takes effect immediately, but does not apply to applications EPD has already received as of this date.
Map of SW GA suspended water permit regions
The suspension affects both agricultural groundwater and surface water withdrawals in the lower Flint and Chattahoochee River basins in a region known as Subarea 4, which includes all or part of the following 17 counties: Baker, Calhoun, Colquitt, Crisp, Decatur, Dooly, Dougherty, Early, Grady, Lee, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole, Sumter, Terrell, Turner and Worth. In addition, agricultural surface water withdrawal applications for parts of Calhoun, Chattahoochee, Clay, Early, Marion, Randolph, Schley, Stewart, Sumter, Terrell and Webster counties in areas outside of Subarea 4 will not be considered. (Click here for a map of the affected area.)
“The water resources affected by the suspension are a significant source of water for irrigation,” said EPD Director Jud Turner. “A continued increase in withdrawals from these resources may ultimately lead to unacceptable impacts to existing users or compromise the sustainable capacities of these resources.”
The suspension applies to new applications for groundwater withdrawal from the Floridan aquifer, as well as applications for surface water pumping from streams and rivers in the Spring Creek, Ichawaynochaway Creek, KinchafooneeMuckalee Creek, and Lower Flint river subbasins in the Flint River Basin. The suspension also applies to applications to modify existing permits to increase withdrawals or increase the number of irrigated acres.
“This suspension will give us time to update the mathematical models used to assess water resources in the area and to evaluate the impact of increased withdrawals,” said EPD Director Turner. “The suspension will be reevaluated annually beginning in November 2013.”
The suspension does not apply to permit applications from other areas of the lower Flint and Chattahoochee River basins. For more information contact the EPD Agricultural Permitting Office in Tifton at 2293912400.
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And Southern Company/Georgia Power are still pushing for power plants that waste hundreds of thousands of gallons of water daily (nuclear, biomass)? Water for cooling purposes instead of agriculture? That’s about as insane as corn for the production of ethanol instead of feeding people. And how much water do wind mills or solar panels need once they have been installed? About as much as they create problems with air pollution and radioactive waste: zero!
In the context of comments I made earlier, please note a recent article by George Monbiot on a global crisis caused by investments made in biofuels (e.g. ethanol from corn). To quote from the article:
“Already, 40% of US corn (maize) production is used to feed cars(6). The proportion will rise this year as a result of the smaller harvest. Though the market for biodiesel is largely confined to the European Union, it has already captured seven per cent of the world’s output of vegetable oil(7). The European Commission admits that its target (10% of transport fuels by 2020) will raise world cereal prices by between 3 and 6%(8). Oxfam estimates that with every 1% increase in the price of food, another 16 million people go hungry.”
http://www.monbiot.com/2012/08/13/hunger-games/
Where does this leave our “Christian” values as we are obviously more concerned about feeding cars than the hungry?