No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Water crisis: the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, regional water supply conflict
Abstract
Many large population centres are currently facing considerable difficulties with planning issues to secure future water supplies, as a result of water allocation and environmental issues, litigation, and political dogma. A classic case occurs in the metropolitan Atlanta area, which is a rapidly growing, large population centre that relies solely on surface water for supply. Lake Lanier currently supplies about 70% of the water demand and has been involved in a protracted legal dispute for more than two decades. Drought and environmental management of the reservoir combined to create a water shortage which nearly caused a disaster to the region in 2007 (only about 35 days of water supply was in reserve). While the region has made progress in controlling water demand by implementing a conservation plan, per capita use projections are still very high (at 511 L/day in 2035). Both non-potable reuse and indirect reuse of treated wastewater are contained in the most current water supply plan with up to 380,000 m(3)/day of wastewater treated using advanced wastewater treatment (nutrient removal) to be discharged into Lake Lanier. The water supply plan, however, includes no additional or new supply sources and has deleted any reference to the use of seawater desalination or other potential water sources which would provide diversification, thereby relying solely on the Coosa and Chattahoochee river reservoirs for the future.
... Much of the LULC change is from agriculture or forest to urban area as southern cities experience rapid low-density, sprawling growth (McManamay et al., 2019;Sanchez et al., 2020;Sleeter et al., 2018;Terando et al., 2014). Population growth, paired with increasingly severe hurricanes and dry periods (Allen et al., 2016;Emanuel, 2013;Pielke et al., 2008) due to climate change, can lead to higher water demand in urban areas (Brown et al., 2019;Duan et al., 2019), many of which get their public water supply from surface water sources (McManamay et al., 2019;Missimer et al., 2014). Urban water stress can even lead to regional and inter-state legal conflicts, as happened between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida due to a dispute about the allocation of water from Lake Lanier to the Atlanta metropolitan area, which experiences water shortages (McManamay et al., 2019;Missimer et al., 2014). ...
... Population growth, paired with increasingly severe hurricanes and dry periods (Allen et al., 2016;Emanuel, 2013;Pielke et al., 2008) due to climate change, can lead to higher water demand in urban areas (Brown et al., 2019;Duan et al., 2019), many of which get their public water supply from surface water sources (McManamay et al., 2019;Missimer et al., 2014). Urban water stress can even lead to regional and inter-state legal conflicts, as happened between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida due to a dispute about the allocation of water from Lake Lanier to the Atlanta metropolitan area, which experiences water shortages (McManamay et al., 2019;Missimer et al., 2014). ...
... The novelty of this study is to use top-down data-driven models to assess how different climate and anthropogenic drivers affect the variability of surface water in a region of the U.S. experiencing more LULC change and population growth than any other in the country (McManamay et al., 2019;Terando et al., 2014). The southeastern U.S. is also experiencing increasingly severe hurricanes and dry periods (Allen et al., 2016;Emanuel, 2013;Pielke et al., 2008) leading to billions of dollars in recovery costs (Smith, 2020) and legal conflicts between states (McManamay et al., 2019;Missimer et al., 2014). These models can help identify areas where land use and water management practices, which are easier to regulate than climate change, are crucial to mitigating and/or adapting to water stress. ...
Surface water is the most readily accessible water resource and provides an array of ecosystem services, but its availability and access are stressed by changes in climate, land cover, and population size. Understanding drivers of surface water dynamics in space and time is key to better managing our water resources. However, few studies estimating changes in surface water account for climate and anthropogenic drivers both independently and together. We used 19 years (2000–2018) of the newly developed Dynamic Surface Water Extent Landsat Science Product in concert with time series of precipitation, temperature, land cover, and population size to statistically model maximum seasonal percent surface water area as a function of climate and anthropogenic drivers in the southeastern United States. We fitted three statistical models (linear mixed effects, random forests, and mixed effects random forests) and three groups of explanatory variables (climate, anthropogenic, and their combination) to assess the accuracy of estimating percent surface water area at the watershed scale with different drivers. We found that anthropogenic drivers accounted for approximately 37% more of the variance in the percent surface water area than the climate variables. The combination of variables in the mixed effects random forest model produced the smallest mean percent errors (mean −0.17%) and the highest explained variance (R² 0.99). Our results indicate that anthropogenic drivers have greater influence when estimating percent surface water area than climate drivers, suggesting that water management practices and land‐use policies can be highly effective tools in controlling surface water variations in the Southeast.
... These impacts only compound the hydrologic alteration resulting from cities more proximate to those watersheds. Additionally, Georgia legislature is renegotiating their state boundary with Tennessee to claim part of the Tennessee River to support Atlanta's water demand (19). Our framework challenges the prevailing viewpoints of city-to-city water competition and policy governance in two main ways. ...
... Indeed, cities occurring downstream or in adjacent basins can inflict just as much, if not more, water competition on other cities than if they had occurred upstream. Second, the only monetary compensation for water use relates to the physical (19). Our analysis suggests, however, that Atlanta is already impacting the Savanah River and its tributaries, because the basin provides over 20% of Atlanta's electricity demand. ...
... Translating LEW networks into metrics of hydrologic alteration offers a template to examine sector-to-sector competition and provide clarity to complex disagreements over water. The 30-y water conflict between Florida and Georgia over flows in the Apalachicola Chattahoochee Flint (ACF) River reached a climax in 2013 with Florida requesting the US Supreme Court create an equitable apportionment of water between the two states (19). Florida's suit claims that Georgia overuses water for Atlanta's public water supply and Georgia's agriculture industry (19). ...
Significance
We introduce a unique and detailed data-driven approach that links cities’ hard infrastructures to their distal ecological impacts on streams. Although US cities concentrate most of the nation’s population, wealth, and consumption in roughly 5% of the land area, we find that city infrastructures influence habitats for over 60% of North America’s fish, mussel, and crayfish species and have contributed to local and complete extinctions in 260 species. We also demonstrate that city impacts are not proportionate to city size but reflect infrastructure decisions; thus, as US urbanization trends continue, local government and utility companies have opportunities to improve regional aquatic ecosystem conditions outside city boundaries through their hard infrastructure policies.
... The Appalachian Mountains, as with many mountain regions around the world, receive more precipitation P than their surrounding lowland areas (Viviroli et al. 2007;Marston and Marston 2016). Large cities in the eastern United States such as Washington, D.C.; New York, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia, as well as central U.S. cities such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Memphis, Tennessee; and New Orleans, Louisiana (Brooks et al. 2018), are located in areas drained from the Appalachian Mountains (Pires 2004;Missimer et al. 2014;Acharya et al. 2017). Climate change as a result of global warming, together with population growth and land-cover changes, can jeopardize regional water supplies on which downstream ecosystems, economies, and communities are dependent (Vörösmarty et al. 2000;Haddeland et al. 2014;Schewe et al. 2014). ...
... As most mountain egions in the world, the Appalachians receive disproportionate amounts of P in comparison with its underlying lowlands of the eastern Atlantic coast and Mississippi River valley (Viviroli et al. 2007;Marston and Marston 2016). The Appalachians serve as a water tower (Viviroli et al. 2007) to lowlands and contain the headwaters of large river systems, namely the Potomac, the Delaware, the Savannah, and the Chattahoochee-Apalachicola that supply large cities in the eastern coast areas (Pires 2004;Missimer et al. 2014;Acharya et al. 2017). To the west the Appalachians supply water through many tributaries of the Mississippi River (Brooks et al. 2018), one of the largest river systems of the world. ...
The Appalachian Mountains serve as a water source for important population centers in the eastern and midwestern United States. Despite this, the effects of climate change on the hydroclimatology of the region have not been thoroughly assessed, and its effects for water resources remain uncertain. In this study, we analyze the effects of climate change in a holistic approach to consider differential changes between atmospheric water supply (precipitation) and atmospheric water demand (potential evapotranspiration). We analyze the absolute and relative changes in both variables, as well as their relation (aridity index) and future projected shifts in their seasonality. Our findings show that precipitation is projected to increase in the northeastern part of the region and decrease in the southwest with a transition zone in the central Appalachians. Potential evapotranspiration increases consistently throughout the twenty-first century at a higher rate than precipitation, increasing the aridity of the region except for some small localized pockets at high elevations. The seasonality of precipitation indicates different shifts across the region related to changes in the dominant synoptic drivers of the region and changes in the seasonal characteristics of the land surface. All changes are exacerbated in the most extreme future climate scenario, highlighting the importance of local to global policies toward a more sustainable water resources development. In addition, we perform a basin-scale assessment on 20 major rivers with headwaters within the “Appalachian Region.” Our basin-scale results enforce the gridded regional results and indicate that, as temperatures continue to increase, lowland areas will rely more heavily on higher-elevation forested headwater catchments for water supply.
... For a visual depiction of the location of the city and reservoir, see Supplementary Fig. S1. Atlanta is in a semi-humid climate zone, yet the region regularly experiences severe droughts that are accompanied by drops in reservoir levels 24 . Atlanta is a major metropolitan area in the United States, currently home to over 470 thousand people within the city limits and 5.7 million people in the metropolitan area 25 . ...
... Atlanta is a major metropolitan area in the United States, currently home to over 470 thousand people within the city limits and 5.7 million people in the metropolitan area 25 . The Atlanta population is heavily dependent on Lake Lanier for its drinking water, making it imperative that it is secured for the future, a task which is complicated by the water laws in the Chattahoochee River basin 24 . If the water managers in charge of Atlanta's water supply have knowledge on the hydroclimatic conditions that may lead to reduced water supply, they can better prepare while maintaining adequate supply downstream. ...
Urban water supplies are critical to the growth of the city and the wellbeing of its citizens. However, these supplies can be vulnerable to hydrological extremes, such as droughts and floods, especially if they are the main source of water for the city. Maintaining these supplies and preparing for future conditions is a crucial task for water managers, but predicting hydrological extremes is a challenge. This study tested the abilities of eight statistical learning techniques to predict reservoir levels, given the current hydroclimatic conditions, and provide inferences on the key predictors of reservoir levels. The results showed that random forest, an ensemble, tree-based method, was the best algorithm for predicting reservoir levels. We initially developed the models using Lake Sidney Lanier (Atlanta, Georgia) as the test site; however, further analysis demonstrated that the model based on the random forest algorithm was transferable to other reservoirs, specifically Eagle Creek (Indianapolis, Indiana) and Lake Travis (Austin, Texas). Additionally, we found that although each reservoir was impacted differently, streamflow, city population, and El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) index were repeatedly among the most important predictors. These are critical variables which can be used by water managers to recognize the potential for reservoir level changes.
... Because Atlanta was built on ridges as a railroad hub, it lacks access to a large river system that is typical of most other large inland cities in the U.S. Its primary water source is surface water from Lake Lanier in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. The city is growing rapidly, and water demand between 2015 and 2030 could increase by as much as 100% (Missimer, 2014). The region is subject to recurrent droughts, and it is widely recognized that dependence on Lake Lanier is not adequate. ...
... In response to the Atlanta area's increasing demand for water and to a series of drought years during the 1980s, the Corps proposed in 1989 that 20% of the Chattahoochee River water could be used for drinking water. In response, the states of Georgia and Florida filed lawsuits in 1990 against the state of Georgia, where Atlanta is located, and sought to have the Army Corps prevent the local consumption of water from Lakes Lanier, Carters, and Allatoona (Missimer, 2014). The potential loss of downstream flow threatened to have economic impacts on agriculture, fishing, recreation, and electric power. ...
Available open access here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23251042.2016.1227417. Abstract: This study contributes to the analysis of the politics of sustainability transitions by developing a focus on regime actor conflicts and a processual model for how these conflicts develop and are resolved. In a comparison of water-supply systems in four U.S. cities, we show how conflicts among regime actors and political jurisdictions lead to the formation of system governance organizations (SGOs) that bridge jurisdictional boundaries to manage conflicts over a technological system (TS). SGOs coordinate relations among water utilities and diverse stakeholders to reduce pervasive conflicts, but they can also serve as drivers of improved sustainability. We analyze resistance that can emerge, such as from urban growth coalitions, which limit the capacity of SGOs to drive changes. We develop a four-stage processual model (first-order regime conflicts, SGO formation, sustainability transition expansion, and second-order regime conflicts) that opens research in the politics of transitions to the dynamic of regime actor conflicts and provides the basis for generalizations about the causes of SGO formation and their effects on the governance of TSs such as water-supply infrastructure. Policy implications regarding how to improve political support for SGO sustainability efforts are also discussed.
... The journal Water Policy has published a number of recent works on the economic impacts of drought (Hughes & Mallory, 2009;Stillwell & Webber, 2013;Chong, 2014;Missimer et al., 2014;Keshavarz, 2016;Sousa et al., 2022). Several other peer-reviewed journals have also published celebrated recent works on drought impacts and mitigation measures (Ahloowalia et al., 2004;Ding et al., 2011;Meyer et al., 2013;Jiang et al., 2014;De Silva & Kawasaki, 2018;Mora et al., 2018). ...
While numerous studies have examined the economic repercussions of drought, there remains a gap in integrated analyses comprehensively assessing its economic effects, especially where there is no drought adaptation policy under debate calling for a standard cost-benefit analysis. This work's first contribution comes from the development of a non-linear econometric model predicting total county income for several counties and years, for which population growth in some regions showed increasing water use despite the presence of drought. Using the arid southwest US state of New Mexico as a case study for the drought years of 2017–2019, this work develops a second innovation to assess drought damages based on comparing changes in per capita water use from 2015 to those later years. Using those two innovations, total economic damages to water users summed over the three drought years amount to $1.983 billion, just under 1% of the state's total income for that period. Overall, the effects of drought in New Mexico were more modest than anticipated partly because water users in this state showed remarkable resilience in handling water shortages due to several unique structural features of the state's income generation processes.
... Most research on water crises focuses on droughts, such as crises in the United States (Willhite, 2000;Missimer et al., 2014), Brazil (Soriano et al., 2016), and Australia (Head, 2014). Although there is a growing body of literature on water supply problems and droughts in the Caribbean region, research on water crises in this region is limited, particularly that which examines crises as cyclical and evolving processes. ...
Caribbean islands are particularly vulnerable to extreme events like droughts, co-occurring with groundwater pollution, water inequalities, and weak governance. Consequently, many island communities that rely on tourism are experiencing ongoing and deepening water crises. Technical solutions like desalination are regularly employed throughout the Caribbean, yet water crises persist despite these mitigation strategies. This research focuses on San Andrés, a Colombian Caribbean Island. Following the 2016 water crisis, residents saw the crisis as social: pre-existing social inequalities led to differential water access, quantity, and distribution during the crisis. In contrast, organisational leaders attributed the water crisis to a natural hazard (drought or, more broadly, climate change), even if they recognised disproportional distribution. Interviews revealed strong support from all participants for the use of desalination to address the crisis, despite the inequities that characterise the implementation of this strategy. We argue that San Andrés is moving towards technological water dependence, disconnected from traditional local forms of collecting water and rendering islanders less able to control the resource. We posit that there is a connection between injustice, desalination, and water crises. When a water crisis occurs, it often reveals pre-existing injustices in the social system. Instead of resolving the injustices, desalination, which is often seen as the main solution to the crisis, perpetuates and reinforces them. The result is a cycle of crises that persist over time.
... In the survey, participants were evaluated on their personal beliefs on four regional water topics (listed in Figure 2), their perceptions of scientists' beliefs on those topics, and their willingness to reconsider their personal beliefs depending on the provider of new information. The four water topics were selected because they are points of scientific consensusfertilizer and septic systems are sources of water pollution in both states (Berndt, 1996;Cooper & Monroe, 2021;Sullivan & Monroe, 2021), climate change will impact the availability of water in both states (Environmental Protection Agency, 2016a, 2016b, and in 20 years there will not be enough surface and ground water to meet demand throughout both states (Missimer et al., 2014; Declaration of Water Resource Caution Areas, 2014). ...
... It should be understood as a situation that has a negative impact on the level of people safety, property, or the environment, which causes significant limitations in the operation of public administration bodies due to the inadequacy of the available forces and resources [1]. In the event of a crisis situation in the WSS, caused, e.g., by a power blackout, failure of the pumping station, failure of the main pipe, or warfare, the pressure in the water supply network drops, which prevents the supply of water to recipients [2][3][4][5]. Water accumulated in water pipes cannot be used. ...
When it is not possible to supply water through the water supply network, it is necessary to use other resources of the water supply company, e.g., water tanker. This requires maintaining the efficiency of alternative water sources (in terms of quality and quantity). This work focuses on the possibility of using water accumulated in water pipes in a crisis situation. This work proposes a drain well to supply the population with water in a crisis situation. Thanks to this solution, the function of water supply drainage can be combined with the possibility of obtaining water accumulated in water pipes in crisis conditions. In addition, the standards for water demand in a crisis situation are analyzed. This work extends the view on the problem of water supply to residents in a crisis situation by taking into account a new solution that allows the consumption of water accumulated in water pipes.
... Urban water systems worldwide are increasingly under stress as more people live and work in cities and climate change accelerates (Flörke et al., 2018, Nobre et al., 2016, Maxmen, 2018, McDonald et al., 2014, Missimer et al., 2014, Satterthwaite, 2016, Johannessen and Wamsler, 2017, Fleck and Udall, 2021. Adaptation in urban water systems is, thus, an urgent priority to ensure safe and adequate water supplies in the future. ...
Urban water systems need to serve increasing numbers of people under a changing climate. Studies of systems facing extreme events, such as drought, can clarify the nature of adaptive capacity and whether this might support incremental (marginal changes) or transformative adaptation (fundamental system shifts) to climate change. We conducted comparative case studies of three major metropolitan water systems in the United States to understand how actions taken in response to drought affected adaptive capacity and whether the adaptive capacity observed in these systems fosters the preconditions needed for transformative adaptation. We find that while there is ample evidence of existing and potential adaptive capacity, this can be either enabled or diminished by the specific actions taken and their cascading effects on other parts of the system. We also find social dimensions, such as public acceptance, learning, trust, and collaboration, to be as critical as physical elements of adaptive capacity in urban water systems. Finally, we suggest that changes in practices initiated during drought, combined with sustained engagement, collaboration, and education, can lead to substantial and long-lasting changes in values around water, a precursor to transformative adaptation.
... This natural hazard causes adverse impacts to human beings (i.e., water resources, agriculture, and livestock supply), which results in famine, energy rationing, blackouts, and contributes to increased incidence of social conflict (Getirana, 2016). Also, the rapid growth of population and industry magnify these impacts due to the water demand increase, becoming a huge challenge for urban water planners (Missimer et al., 2014;Bharti et al., 2020;Bischoff-Mattson et al., 2020). ...
From 2013 to 2015, the Brazilian southeast region experienced the most severe and intense drought recorded, the Water Crisis. This outstanding drought led the government to make efforts toward an adequate water resources management. In Campinas, the third most populous city of the State of São Paulo, the government proposed the Campinas Water Resources Master Plan (CWRMP), the main objective of which was to ensure the quantity and quality of water, reducing water vulnerability in the municipality. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of this plan through the major guidelines into four actions: (1) increase the permeability rate and the soil infiltration capacity, (2) increase the vegetation cover, (3) improve the sanitation services, and (4) minimize the number of contaminated areas. For Actions 1 and 2, we inferred that the aforementioned parameters have increased after the CWRMP enactment. About the Action 3, we found that Campinas has historically provided good sanitation services to the population, regardless of the CWRMP promulgation. However, more improvements should be given to waste collection and recycling services. The underground water consumption also has to be regulated, as significant exploitation has no legal permit. Finally, considering Action 4, the number of contaminated areas was reduced in the available data period. Therefore, the CWRMP was considered a valuable initiative to support an integrated and sustainable use of water, improving the water resources management in Campinas. HIGHLIGHTS
The 2013–2015 water crisis was the most severe drought recorded in the southeastern region of Brazil.;
The CWRMP was enacted to ensure the water quantity and quality, reducing its vulnerability in Campinas.;
The CWRMP actions have been effective to restore the local vegetation cover.;
The CWRMP was a valuable initiative for the water resources management of Campinas.;
... Both cities are expected to display significant population growth and urban sprawl in the next decades; however, Atlanta urbanization may be extremely high given the surrounding pressures of inter-city urbanization expected of the Piedmont megaregion [18]. Additionally, Atlanta has experienced significant water shortages during drought conditions, leading to legal conflicts with surrounding states [19], whereas Knoxville's size and proximity to the Tennessee River has rarely limited water availability. ...
Cities drive the majority of global human resource consumption and serve as hubs of major infrastructural networks. To offset their resource demands, cities derive goods and resources from regions well outside urban boundaries inducing stress and impacts on distal ecosystems. As cities grow, these stressors are likely to increase, depending on choices about how resource demands will be addressed through new infrastructures; hence, city governance is extremely important to future global sustainability. However, to support effective decision-making and infrastructure transitions, developing tangible city-scale alternative future scenarios is needed. We present a methodology for developing plausible spatially explicit alternative futures for city infrastructures and discuss the tradeoffs in land, energy, carbon, and water resources among alternative future pathways. We first estimate future city populations and urban boundaries and characterize future land cover scenarios. Future population along with residential housing and commercial characteristics are used to estimate current and future electricity and water demand. We characterize the energysheds of cities, which then become the spatial template for designing future electricity production scenarios. Future electricity mixes and spatial distributions of powerplants provide wide-ranging tradeoffs in carbon reduction, water use reduction, and land usage. Additionally, we explore future alternatives for meeting water supply demands. Herein, we emphasize the importance of translating scenarios into physical on-the-ground relevance in order to ensure transparent communication among city- and utility-governance. Unless spatially explicit future infrastructure scenarios are provided, we believe city-level goals will become difficult to implement, or even worse, result in unintended consequences on regional natural resources.
... A single water source, Lake Lanier, supplies over 70% of the Atlanta metropolitan area's water demand. Such heavy reliance on one water source nearly caused a failure in water supply in the city during the below-average rainfall periods from 2004 to 2008 [14,15]. The metro region has also been involved in lawsuits (referred to as the "Tri-State Water Wars") for more than two decades with Alabama and Florida over Georgia's increasing water withdrawals from their shared watershed to meet the water demands of the Atlanta metro's rapidly growing residential and jobs base. ...
Urban water systems face multiple challenges related to future uncertainty and pressures to provide more sustainable and resilient modes of service delivery. Transitioning away from fully centralized water systems is seen as a primary solution to addressing these urban challenges and pressures. We first review the literature on advantages, potential risks, and impediments to change associated with decentralized water system. Our review suggests that adopting decentralized solutions may advance conditions of sustainability and resilience in urban water management. We then explore the potential to incorporate decentralized water systems into broader urban land use patterns that include underserved residential neighborhoods, mixed-use developments, and industrial districts.
... In several world regions, the precipitation and the streamflow are no longer enough to supply the multiple demands of the society by water, including the water supply for human consumption, as reported in California state, USA (Mini, Hogue, and Pincetl 2014); in the metropolis Beijing-Tianjin, China (Zhou, Zhang, and Shi 2015); and in Atlanta City, USA (Missimer et al. 2014). According to Padowski and Gorelick (2014), the number of water vulnerable big cities in the world will rise from 25 to 32 by 2040, representing a 28% increase in urban areas facing severe water issues. ...
Water resources sustainability is critical to urban areas that are facing increasing water crises. Understanding the interactions in a system perspective is necessary for designing policies for sustaining water systems serving concentrated urban centers. This study uses the dynamics of Cantareira Water Supply System to diagnose the recent water crisis in the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo, Brazil. We assessed the system data using generalized linear, mixed models. The results show a high seasonal variation between dry and rainy periods. The temperature increased in 2013, while the reservoir volume has been reduced since 2012, as well as the precipitation and spring inflow. The water supply is influenced by spring inflow, precipitation, evaporation and extent of withdrawals. The increase in temperature and the population growth can bring a worse water crisis in the near future. Integrated watershed management is important to improve the water sustainability in cities and need comprehensive strategies for sustainability.
... In both states, the amount of forested area has remained relatively stable in recent years, but there is continual flux (both gains and losses) between forests and agriculture and developed uses. This region has had some severe droughts in the recent past; one drought period between 2004 and 2007 resulted in a severe water crisis (Missimer et al. 2014). ...
We describe here a study based on analysis of vegetation indices and land surface temperatures, which provides relevant information for estimating soil moisture at regional scales. Through an analysis of MODIS satellite imagery and in situ moisture data, the triangle method was used to develop a conceptual land surface temperature-vegetation index model, and spatial temperaturevegetation dryness index (TVDI) values to describe soil moisture relationships for a broad landscape. This study was situated mainly within two states of the southern United States (Georgia and South Carolina). The total study area was about 30 million hectares. The analyses were conducted using information gathered from the 2009 growing season (from the end of March to September). The results of the study showed that soil moisture content was inversely proportional to TVDI, and that TVDI based on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) had a slightly higher correlation with soil moisture than TVDI based on the enhanced vegetation index (EVI). © 2017, Finnish Society of Forest Science. All rights reserved.
... In view of several functions served by lakes in the natural environment -both in relation to its natural elements (water cycle, microclimate, biodiversity, etc.) as well as artificial ones related with human life (agricultural irrigation, industry, tourism, etc.) -it is obvious that lakes should function in the environment for the longest possible period, serving the above (and other) roles to the greatest possible extent. A significant problem is connected with water deficits observed in different regions of the world [9][10][11], and lakes may constitute considerable reservoirs of readily available water, in contrast, e.g., to underground waters. Poland is a country with the least amount of water resources in Europe [12] comparable to those of Egypt. ...
Processes of lake shrinkage as a result of the action of natural and anthropogenic factors in recent decades have been considerably accelerated. On the other hand, lake capacities may have increased as a consequence of damming. These changes are typically analyzed in relation to changes in lake area, while horizontal and vertical components are excluded. The aim of this study was to assess changes in morphometry in several lakes in central western Poland and to determine changes in water resources in selected lakes as a result of changes in their morphometry. These changes were analyzed based on archival data concerning the area and capacity of lake basins, collected from studies prepared by the Institute of Inland Fisheries in the early 1960s and current bathymetric studies. These investigations showed that within approx. 50 years a considerable decrease was recorded in the area of the analyzed group of lakes, amounting to 14.8% (i.e., 172.6 ha). As a result of changes in the area and shallowing of lakes, the water resources stored in lakes decreased by a total of 7.7%, which amounts to 3.6 million m(3). Referring to the factors determining the above-mentioned transformations, it was found that both climatic and anthropogenic conditions were disadvantageous. While in the study period no trends were observed for changes in precipitation, a significant increase in temperature was found, thus contributing to increased evaporation. This situation was compounded by human activity connected with land reclamation operations or agricultural activity.
... If we accept that there will neither be a political settlement nor a legal resolution to the conflict in the near future, then we also have to accept that it is time to draw attention to the structural tendencies within metro-Atlanta's growth model for economic crisis and water conflict. Moreover, if we accept the premise that endless capital accumulation and urbanisation are sine qua non under capitalism, then it is easy to see why the current portfolio of elite policy proposals, including water conservation and reuse, desalination, and interbasin water transfers (Missimer et al., 2014), are potentially dangerous spatiotemporal distractions from pursuing solutions which are fully commensurate with the fundamental nature and urgency of the problem. Thus, by proposing a framework which is based on the political economy of capitalist growth and crisis, we have tried to argue that understanding water conflicts in terms of the inherent contradictions and crises of capitalist urbanisation, as exemplified by metro-Atlanta, offers a more realistic point of entry for what needs to be done to resolve a "wicked" problem like the ACF Basin water conflict. ...
The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin conflict officially began in 1989 and despite ongoing declarations of readiness to seek a negotiated outcome to the conflict, there is still no end in sight. In fact, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of this conflict. In this paper, we depart from conventional explanations of the crisis and propose an alternative theoretical point of entry to draw attention to the key structural forces driving water accumulation strategies in the basin. In doing so, we turn to David Harvey's theoretical framework of capitalist growth and crisis to present an alternative understanding of the water conflict. By adopting this framework, we will reveal how the most dominant political and economic actor in the conflict, metro-Atlanta, has devised a series of spatial and temporal strategies to delay and displace a resolution while simultaneously using the impasse to entrench its economic and territorial interests to secure as much water as possible from the ACF water basin. The paper emphasises the crisis of capitalism in the form of suburbanisation in metro-Atlanta as the primary context in which the water conflict exists.
... If we accept that there will neither be a political settlement nor a legal resolution to the conflict in the near future, then we also have to accept that it is time to draw attention to the structural tendencies within metro-Atlanta's growth model for economic crisis and water conflict. Moreover, if we accept the premise that endless capital accumulation and urbanisation are sine qua non under capitalism, then it is easy to see why the current portfolio of elite policy proposals, including water conservation and reuse, desalination, and interbasin water transfers (Missimer et al., 2014), are potentially dangerous spatiotemporal distractions from pursuing solutions which are fully commensurate with the fundamental nature and urgency of the problem. Thus, by proposing a framework which is based on the political economy of capitalist growth and crisis, we have tried to argue that understanding water conflicts in terms of the inherent contradictions and crises of capitalist urbanisation, as exemplified by metro-Atlanta, offers a more realistic point of entry for what needs to be done to resolve a "wicked" problem like the ACF Basin water conflict. ...
Spatial displacement and temporal deferral: Toward an alternative explanation of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin water conflict. Water Alternatives 7(3): 584-609 Wong and Bosman: the ACF water conflict Page | 584 ABSTRACT: The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin conflict officially began in 1989 and despite ongoing declarations of readiness to seek a negotiated outcome to the conflict, there is still no end in sight. In fact, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of this conflict. In this paper, we depart from conventional explanations of the crisis and propose an alternative theoretical point of entry to draw attention to the key structural forces driving water accumulation strategies in the basin. In doing so, we turn to David Harvey's theoretical framework of capitalist growth and crisis to present an alternative understanding of the water conflict. By adopting this framework, we will reveal how the most dominant political and economic actor in the conflict, metro-Atlanta, has devised a series of spatial and temporal strategies to delay and displace a resolution while simultaneously using the impasse to entrench its economic and territorial interests to secure as much water as possible from the ACF water basin. The paper emphasises the crisis of capitalism in the form of suburbanisation in metro-Atlanta as the primary context in which the water conflict exists.
Changes in climate and land‐use/land‐cover will impact surface water dynamics throughout the 21st century and influence global surface water availability. However, most projections of surface water dynamics focus on climate drivers using local‐scale hydrological models, with few studies accounting for climate and human drivers such as land‐use/land‐cover change. We used a data‐driven, machine learning model to project seasonal surface water areas (SWAs) in the southeastern U.S. from 2006 to 2099 that combined land‐cover and climate projections under eight different development and emissions scenarios. The model was fitted with historic Landsat imagery, land‐use/land‐cover, and climate observation data (mean squared error 0.14). We assessed the change in SWA for each scenario, and we compared the surface water projections from our data‐driven model and a process‐based model. We found that the scenario with the largest forest‐dominated land cover loss and most extreme climate change had watersheds with the greatest projected increases (in the South Atlantic Gulf) and decreases (in the Lower Mississippi) in SWA. When compared to the increase or decrease in surface water projected by the process‐based model, most of the watersheds across scenarios agreed on the direction of change. Our findings highlight the importance of forest‐dominated land cover in maintaining stable surface water availability throughout the 21st century, which can inform land‐use management policies for adaptation and water‐stress mitigation as well as strategies to prepare for future flood and drought events.
Globally, rapid population growth in cities, regulatory and governance failures, poor infrastructure, inadequate funding for urban water systems, and the impacts of climate change are each rapidly reconfiguring regional hydrosocial relations. In the United States, these hydrosocial reconfigurations tend to reinforce racial inequalities tied to infrastructure, exacerbating environmental injustices. More generally, according to a framework of racial capitalism, infrastructural regions and hydrosocial relations are always already racialized and structured simultaneously by capitalism and racism. In this paper, we integrate hydrosocial and racial justice perspectives with the literature on infrastructural regionalism to examine Atlanta’s position in the so-called tri-state water wars between Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Combining analysis of academic, policy, and legal documents, journalistic accounts, and semi-structured interviews with water conservationists and managers working in Atlanta, we examine conflicts over water use in the infrastructural region of the Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint (ACF) river system. We emphasize that the ACF conflict reworks regional hydrosocial relations through territorializations of racial capitalism. We demonstrate how particular discourses that reify Atlanta as a monolith overly simplify the regional dimensions of the crisis, diminishing the views, roles and interventions of diverse actors in the ACF region. We argue that work on infrastructure regionalism and water governance can be deepened through attention to the hydro-racial fix.
Although cotton is a drought-tolerant crop, irrigation is still needed to ensure productivity, even in the humid Southeastern United States. Irrigation must be carefully managed to limit unnecessary water use while ensuring maximum economic productivity. To better understand the costs and net returns of irrigation and cultivar selection, field experiments were conducted in 2016 and 2017 to compare cotton lint yield and fiber quality in dryland plots and plots irrigated using the University of Georgia checkbook method (UGA Checkbook) at a field site near Camilla, Georgia. Results showed cultivar differences in fiber quality parameters of micronaire and uniformity in 2016, but there was no cultivar difference in fiber quality in 2017. Cultivar differences were not observed in yield or net returns for both years. However, stoplight chart analysis of net returns indicated differences in cultivar selection for irrigated or dryland production. ST 6182 GLB2 would be a better option for a producer to minimize downside risk under dryland conditions, and PHY 333 WRF would be a better option under irrigated production. Results also indicated that broadly applying simplistic water balance approaches could decrease yield, water productivity, and net returns, especially in environments where rainfall is sufficient yet unpredictable. Overirrigation affected some fiber quality parameters but did not impact the overall market price for cotton. In 2016, irrigating according to the UGA Checkbook method negatively impacted yield and net returns. In 2017, irrigation did not affect yield but negatively impacted net returns. Average losses in net returns associated with excessive irrigation in these two wet years were 645 per hectare for net return over irrigation total costs. Implementing robust, efficient irrigation strategies is necessary to achieve high cotton yields, reduce water usage, and improve economic returns.
To combat increasing water scarcity, many U.S. communities are considering potable water reuse to expand water supplies. Negative public perceptions, however, have been shown to inhibit the implementation of recycling projects. Our analysis was initiated in response to a request by the water reuse committee of a water utility organization in the U.S. state of Georgia who believe that comprehensive state water recycling legislation will contribute to public support for potable reuse. Because no guidance otherwise exists, the managers asked us to review the legislation enacted by other U.S. states to recommend elements appropriate for adoption in Georgia. We predicted that common legislative elements to promote public support of local reuse projects would include a clear and compelling enunciation of the goal for recycling, a delegation of responsibility for oversight and management to specific state agencies with appropriate expertise, an articulation of the types of recycling allowed and the associated water treatment required for each, and liability and funding provisions. We analyzed the laws of the fifteen states which have enacted comprehensive water recycling legislation to determine how they addressed these elements and to recommend those policies we found most likely to assuage public concerns. These include involving both the state health and environmental agencies in developing and implementing recycling regulations, streamlining and simplifying the permitting process to combine wastewater treatment and reuse permits, and requiring utilities to develop outreach programs for consumers of recycled water. Strategies we did not anticipate but found noteworthy and included in our recommendations were appointment of a diverse group of stakeholders to contribute to legislative and regulatory drafting, holding public listening sessions during the drafting process, and requiring utilities to consider reuse as a supply option in their ongoing planning. As Georgia and other states consider the adoption of water recycling legislation, they should consider these recommendations to assure the public that the practice is safe and may play a critical role in providing for resilient water supply and environmental protection.
Forests provide the most stable and highest quality water supplies among all land uses. The Southern United States is heavily forested, and most of the forests are owned and managed by State and private entities, thus it is critical to understand the role of forest lands in providing water across the region, the fastest growing in the Nation. We quantified surface water supply originating on State and private forest (SPF) lands in the 13 Southern States at the 12-digit Hydrologic Unit Code watershed scale, using the Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) hydrologic model. Water originating on seven forest ownership types was tracked through the river network and linked to a database of surface drinking water intakes to quantify the population served by water from SPF lands across the South. We found that the area of SPF lands was 44.2 percent of the total land area and that SPF lands contributed 44.3 percent of the 836 billion m 3 yr-1 total available surface water supply in the region. Of the 7,582 surface drinking water intakes in the study area, 6,897 (91.0 percent) received some portion of their water from SPF lands, with 4,526 (65.6 percent) receiving > 20 percent of their water from SPF lands. Approximately 55.3 million people in the South and 1.8 million people outside the 13 Southern States derived some portion of their surface water supply from SPF lands. These results highlight the importance of southern State and private forests in providing drinking water to downstream communities.
Water availability on the continents is important for human health, economic activity, ecosystem function and geophysical processes. Because the saturation vapour pressure of water in air is highly sensitive to temperature, perturbations in the global water cycle are expected to accompany climate warming. Regional patterns of warming-induced changes in surface hydroclimate are complex and less certain than those in temperature, however, with both regional increases and decreases expected in precipitation and runoff. Here we show that an ensemble of 12 climate models exhibits qualitative and statistically significant skill in simulating observed regional patterns of twentieth-century multidecadal changes in streamflow. These models project 10-40% increases in runoff in eastern equatorial Africa, the La Plata basin and high-latitude North America and Eurasia, and 10-30% decreases in runoff in southern Africa, southern Europe, the Middle East and mid-latitude western North America by the year 2050. Such changes in sustainable water availability would have considerable regional-scale consequences for economies as well as ecosystems.
The City of Atlanta plans to convert a recently acquired urban quarry into Bellwood Quarry Reservoir (BQR), an off-stream supplemental water supply. CE-QUAL-W2, Version 3.5, was used to perform five-year water quality simulations of the reservoir. Nine inflow/outflow design and operation scenarios were evaluated for thermal stratification, dissolved oxygen (DO), algae, and iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn). For a perpetual storage scenario with no inflow and outflow and an operating scenario with monthly pump exercising flows, the model predicts ample reservoir DO to maintain an oxidizing environment in the hypolimnion and low dissolved Fe and Mn. A single portal near the bottom of the reservoir is recommended for alternating pump exercise inflows and outflows. Continuous flow-through operating scenarios do not improve predicted water quality. However, if selected, a mid-depth inflow and bottom outflow design configuration is recommended. A natural monomictic cycle is essential to maintain hypolimnetic DO. BQR's relatively large mean depth (60 m) and low sediment surface area to volume ratio is consistent with other mesotrophic lakes of similar water quality. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EE.19437870.0000582. (C) 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
In the middle of the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas casinos use billions of gallons of water for fountains, pirate lagoons, wave machines, and indoor canals. Meanwhile, the town of Orme, Tennessee, must truck in water from Alabama because it has literally run out. Robert Glennon captures the ironyâand tragedyâof Americaâs water crisis in a book that is both frightening and wickedly comical. From manufactured snow for tourists in Atlanta to trillions of gallons of water flushed down the toilet each year, Unquenchable reveals the heady extravagances and everyday inefficiencies that are sucking the nation dry. The looming catastrophe remains hidden as government diverts supplies from one area to another to keep water flowing from the tap. But sooner rather than later, the shell game has to end. And when it does, shortages will threaten not only the environment, but every aspect of American life: we face shuttered power plants and jobless workers, decimated fi sheries and contaminated drinking water. We canât engineer our way out of the problem, either with traditional fixes or zany schemes to tow icebergs from Alaska. In fact, new demands for water, particularly the enormous supply needed for ethanol and energy production, will only worsen the crisis. America must make hard choicesâand Glennonâs answers are fittingly provocative. He proposes market-based solutions that value water as both a commodity and a fundamental human right. One truth runs throughout Unquenchable: only when we recognize waterâs worth will we begin to conserve it.
Pursuant to congressional authorization, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the agencies with primary responsibility for federal water resources management, operate water projects for specified purposes. In the case of Corps dams and their related reservoirs, Congress generally has limited the use of such projects for municipal and industrial (M&I) water supply, but growing M&I demands have raised interest in-and concern about- changing current law and reservoir operations to give Corps facilities a greater role in M&I water storage. Reallocation of storage from a currently authorized purpose to M&I use would change the types of benefits produced by a facility and the stakeholders served, which has led to controversy over project operations at some federal projects. The Corps and Reclamation, therefore, may be authorized to operate federal water projects for M&I use under the project-specific authorization statutes. Alternatively, the generally applicable Water Supply Act of 1958 (WSA) authorizes the Corps and Reclamation to include water storage for municipal and industrial use as a project purpose for new and existing projects. The WSA requires congressional approval if adding water supply storage would seriously affect the original project purposes or involve a major operational change for the project. However, the WSA does not define the extent to which the change in water supply storage must affect existing purposes or what constitutes a major operational change. This ambiguity has become a particular issue when severe drought raises the competition for water supply, and is an especially contentious issue in eastern riparian states where all users are affected by any drought. Because of such water shortages in some riparian basins with Corps projects, the Corps' reallocation of water storage at its discretion has been of particular interest. This issue is at the center of ongoing litigation related to the Corps' activities in the ApalachicolaChattahoochee-Flint River Basin (ACF). The scope of the Corps' authority under the WSA was the subject of a 2008 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Southeastern Federal Power Customers v. Geren), as well as a 2011 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (In re Tri-State Water Rights Litigation). The D.C. and 11th Circuits reached different results, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined a petition for its review of the issue in 2012. These cases each addressed a tri-state water dispute involving Lake Lanier, a Corps water project in the ACF basin, which includes parts of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. Using the Corps' reallocations of water storage for M&I use at Lake Lanier as an example, this report analyzes the legal and policy issues associated with reallocation under the WSA. Specifically, it examines Corps authority under the WSA, including limitations on modifications that constitute major operational changes. The report details data and examples regarding the Corps' reallocations under the WSA. It also analyzes various legal challenges of water supply storage at Lake Lanier, including courts' identification of congressionally authorized purposes, and discusses results of the litigation and options for Congress. Although the WSA provides authority to Reclamation as well, the application of the WSA to Reclamation is beyond the scope of the report.
Desalination capacity has rapidly increased in the last decade because of the increase in water demand and a significant reduction in desalination cost as a result of significant technological advances, especially in the reverse osmosis process. The cost of desalinated seawater has fallen below US1.00/m3) for a similar facility. In addition to capital and operating costs, other parameters such as local incentives or subsidies may also contribute to the large difference in desalted water cost between regions and facilities. Plant suppliers and consultants have their own cost calculation methodologies, but they are confidential and provide water costs with different accuracies. The few existing costing methodologies and software packages such as WTCost© and DEEP provide an estimated cost with different accuracies and their applications are limited to specific conditions. Most of the available cost estimation tools are of the black box type, which provide few details concerning the parameters and methodologies applied for local conditions. Many desalination plants built recently have greater desalinated water delivery costs caused by special circumstances, such as plant remediation or upgrades, local variation in energy costs, and site-specific issues in raw materials costs (e.g., tariffs and transportation). Therefore, the availability of a more transparent and unique methodology for estimating the cost will help in selecting an appropriate desalination technology suitable for specific locations with consideration of all the parameters influencing the cost. A techno-economic evaluation and review of the costing aspects and the main parameters influencing the total water cost produced by different desalination technologies are herein presented in detail. Some recent developments, such as the increase of unit capacity, improvements in process design and materials, and the use of hybrid systems have contributed to cost reduction as well as reduction in energy consumption. The development of new and emerging low-energy desalination technologies, such as adsorption desalination, will have an impact on cost variation estimation in the future.
Regional climate models suggest that climate change resulting from a doubling of the pre-industrial levels of atmospheric CO2 may increase annual air temperatures by 3-4oC. Changes in precipitation are highly uncertain, but the most probable scenario shows higher levels over all but the northernm interior portions of the region, with increases primarily occurring in summer and occurring as more intense or clustered storms. Only in Florida and the Gulf Coast ares of the USA and Mexico are precipitation increases likely to exceed evapotranspiration increases, producing an incarease in runoff. The ecological effects of climate change on freshwaters of the region include: a general increase in rates of primary production organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling; reduction in habitat for cool water species, particularly fish and macroinvertebrates; reduction in water quality and in suitable habitat in summer; reduction in organic matter storiage and loss of organisms during more intense flushing events in some streams and wetlands; shorter periods of inundation of iparian wetlands and greater drying of wetland soils; expansion of subtropical species northwards; expansion of wetlands in Florida and coastal Mexico, but increase in eutrophication of Florida Lakes; and changes in the flushing rate of estuaries that would alter their salinity regimes, stratification and water quality as well as influence productivity in the Gulf of Mexico.
Adult male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were exposed to effluent from the City of Boulder, Colorado wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) under controlled conditions in the field to determine if the effluent induced reproductive disruption in fish. Gonadal intersex and other evidence of reproductive disruption were previously identified in white suckers (Catostomus commersoni) in Boulder Creek downstream from this WWTP effluent outfall. Fish were exposed within a mobile flow-through exposure laboratory in July 2005 and August 2006 to WWTP effluent (EFF), Boulder Creek water (REF), or mixtures of EFF and REF for up to 28 days. Primary (sperm abundance) and secondary (nuptial tubercles and dorsal fat pads) sex characteristics were demasculinized within 14 days of exposure to 50% and 100% EFF. Vitellogenin was maximally elevated in both 50% and 100% EFF treatments within 7 days and significantly elevated by 25% EFF within 14 days. The steroidal estrogens 17β-estradiol, estrone, estriol, and 17α-ethynylestradiol, as well as estrogenic alkylphenols and bisphenol A were identified within the EFF treatments and not in the REF treatment. These results support the hypothesis that the reproductive disruption observed in this watershed is due to endocrine-active chemicals in the WWTP effluent.
Proceedings of the 1989 Georgia Water Resources Conference, May 16-17, 1989, Athens, Georgia. The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is the regional planning and development agency for the seven-county Atlanta Region. The area encompasses Clayton, Cobb; DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Gwinnett and Rockdale counties. The Region currently has a population of 23 million people and is expected to have 3.7 million people by the year 2010. ARC's dual mission is (1) to provide a forum for the Region's leaders to discuss issues of common concern and plan for coordinated solutions, and (2) to develop comprehensive plans to guide future growth. Water supply is one of ARC's functional areas. In March, 1988 the ARC Board adopted an updated Regional Water Supply Plan to reflect new long-range forecasts for population and employment. This plan serves as a guide for the allocation of raw water supplies in the Atlanta Region. This paper describes the main elements of the ARC Water Supply Plan. This presentation will also briefly discuss ARC's role as a forum for discussing water restrictions during the 1988 drought. Sponsored by U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Georgia Institute of Technology. This book was published by the Institute of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602 with partial funding provided by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey, through the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1984 (P.L. 98242). The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia or the U.S. Geological Survey or the conference sponsors.
Forty-eight hours after fertilization, fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) eggs were exposed to the synthetic estrogen 17alpha-ethinylestradiol (EE2) at nominal concentrations of 0.32 and 0.96 ng/L and measured concentrations of 3.5, 9.6, and 23 ng/L. The fish were observed through the larval, juvenile, and adult stages. Growth, secondary sex characteristics, the liver somatic index, the gonadosomatic index, and fecundity were examined after several lengths of exposure. No significant changes were seen in fry or juvenile growth from 8 to 30 days posthatch (dph). An increase in the ovipositor index (a female secondary sex characteristic) was the most sensitive early response at 60 dph and was seen in fish exposed to EE2 concentrations > or = 3.5 ng/L. Continuation of the EE2 exposure until 150 dph, through maturation and reproduction, allowed measurement of two sensitive end points: decreased egg fertilization and sex ratio (skewed toward females), both of which were significantly affected at the lowest EE2 concentration tested, 0.32 ng/L. The next most sensitive end point was demasculinization (decreased male secondary sex characteristic index) of males exposed to an EE2 concentration of 0.96 ng/L. The effects of low concentrations of EE2 (0.32 and 0.96 ng/L) were manifested in male fish (decreased male sex characteristics and reduced egg fertilization success), whereas female fish showed no changes in the gonadosomatic index. Exposure to higher EE2 concentrations negatively affected females, as shown by a reduced gonadosomatic index at 150 dph in fish exposed to > or =3.5 ng/L EE2. Although there were some end points that showed changes at 60 dph, the reproductive end points and external sex characteristics measured in mature fish at 150 dph were more sensitive, with response thresholds of EE2 ranging from 0.32 to 0.96 ng/L. The concentrations of EE2 that negatively affected fathead minnows were similar to or lower than those detected in many municipal wastewater effluents. In conclusion, life-cycle exposure of fathead minnows proved to be a very sensitive bioassay, and responses were seen at concentrations of less than 1 ng/L, which are environmentally relevant concentrations of EE2.
Low levels of human medicines (pharmaceuticals) have been detected in many countries in sewage treatment plant (STP) effluents, surface waters, seawaters, groundwater and some drinking waters. For some pharmaceuticals effects on aquatic organisms have been investigated in acute toxicity assays. The chronic toxicity and potential subtle effects are only marginally known, however. Here, we critically review the current knowledge about human pharmaceuticals in the environment and address several key questions. What kind of pharmaceuticals and what concentrations occur in the aquatic environment? What is the fate in surface water and in STP? What are the modes of action of these compounds in humans and are there similar targets in lower animals? What acute and chronic ecotoxicological effects may be elicited by pharmaceuticals and by mixtures? What are the effect concentrations and how do they relate to environmental levels? Our review shows that only very little is known about long-term effects of pharmaceuticals to aquatic organisms, in particular with respect to biological targets. For most human medicines analyzed, acute effects to aquatic organisms are unlikely, except for spills. For investigated pharmaceuticals chronic lowest observed effect concentrations (LOEC) in standard laboratory organisms are about two orders of magnitude higher than maximal concentrations in STP effluents. For diclofenac, the LOEC for fish toxicity was in the range of wastewater concentrations, whereas the LOEC of propranolol and fluoxetine for zooplankton and benthic organisms were near to maximal measured STP effluent concentrations. In surface water, concentrations are lower and so are the environmental risks. However, targeted ecotoxicological studies are lacking almost entirely and such investigations are needed focusing on subtle environmental effects. This will allow better and comprehensive risk assessments of pharmaceuticals in the future.
Intersex white suckers (Catostomus commersoni) were collected in Boulder Creek and the South Platte River downstream of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent but not at reference sites. Eighty-three percent of the 60 white suckers collected downstream of the Boulder WWTP in spring and fall were female compared to 45% upstream (n=33). Only female (n=16) and intersex white suckers (n=4) were collected in the South Platte River downstream of the Denver WWTP in the spring. Gonad deformities and delayed follicular maturation were noted in some white suckers in Boulder Creek and the South Platte River downstream of the WWTP effluents. Asynchronous ovarian development was found in some female white suckers downstream of the WWTP effluents, but not upstream. The types and extent of sexual disruption differed in each river studied.
Climate change and water. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Technical Paper VI
- B Bates
- Z W Kundzewica
- S Wu
- Palutikof
Bates, B., Kundzewica, Z. W., Wu, S. & Palutikof, J. P. (eds) (2008). Climate change and water. Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change Technical Paper VI. IPCC Secretariat, Geneva, Switzerland, 210 pp.
Georgia claims a sliver of the Tennessee River. The New York Times
- S Dewan
Dewan, S. (2008). Georgia claims a sliver of the Tennessee River. The New York Times, February 22.
Largest US metropolitan areas by population In: World Almanac and Book of Facts
US Census Bureau (2012). Largest US metropolitan areas by population, 1990–2010. In: World Almanac and Book of Facts.
Janssen, S. (ed.). Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, p. 612.
US lakes, Lake Sidney Lanier Water Levels. US Lakes Information
Anonymous (2013). US lakes, Lake Sidney Lanier Water Levels. US Lakes Information. http://.uslakes.info/Level.asp, accessed
10 April 2013.
Untangling a border could leave a mess for some. The New York Times
- K Severson
Severson, K. (2012). Untangling a border could leave a mess for some. The New York Times, April 4.
Georgia wins, where's the equity: commentary
- T Leithead
- B Austin
Leithead, T. & Austin, B. (2012). Georgia wins, where's the equity: commentary. Atlanta Forward, July 6.
Georgia wins, where's the equity
- D Tonsmeire
Tonsmeire, D. (2012). Georgia wins, where's the equity. Atlanta Forward. July 6, 2012.
- W F Falls
- C Ransom
- J E Landmeyer
- E J Reuber
- L Edwards
Falls, W. F., Ransom, C., Landmeyer, J. E., Reuber, E. J. & Edwards, L. (2006). Hydrogeology, Water Quality, and Saltwater
Intrusion in the Upper Floridan Aquifer in the Offshore Area Near Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and Tybee Island,
Georgia, 1999-2002. US Geological Survey (USGS) Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5134. USGS South Carolina
Publications, 48 pp.
Civic league's forum brings conservation to Georgia and Atlanta's water issues
- M Mcwilliams
- M Mumper
McWilliams, M. & Mumper, M. (2012). Civic league's forum brings conservation to Georgia and Atlanta's water issues. ATL
Crossroads, April 24.
How much water is needed in emergencies? In: WHO/SEARO, Technical Notes for Emergencies. World Health Organization
- B J Reed
Reed, B. J. (2011). How much water is needed in emergencies? In: WHO/SEARO, Technical Notes for Emergencies. World
Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
Perdue cuts desalination study. The Florida Times-Union
- D Williams
Williams, D. (2004). Perdue cuts desalination study. The Florida Times-Union, January 10.
Georgia offers to swap road and rail for water
- A Johns
Johns, A. (2011). Georgia offers to swap road and rail for water. Chattanooga Times Free Press, June 7.
Johns, A. & Sohn, P. (2009). Quenching thirst in dry Atlanta. Chattanooga Times Free Press, June 7.
Water worries. Georgia Trend
- J Grillo
Grillo, J. (2007). Water worries. Georgia Trend, May 2007.
Lawmakers eye Tennessee River for Ga. water supply. Georgia Public Broadcasting
- J Bonner
Bonner, J. (2011). Lawmakers eye Tennessee River for Ga. water supply. Georgia Public Broadcasting. www.gpb.org/news/
2011/03/22/lawmakers-eye-tennessee-river-for-ga-water-supply, accessed 8 May 2014.
Tri-state Water Wars. www.atlantaregional.com/environmental/tri-state-waterwars
Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) (2013) Tri-state Water Wars. www.atlantaregional.com/environmental/tri-state-waterwars, accessed 8 April 2013.
City of Atlanta completes purchase of the quarry. News release from the Mayor's Office of Communications
- Atlanta City
City of Atlanta (2006). City of Atlanta completes purchase of the quarry. News release from the Mayor's Office of Communications. City of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, June 30.
Desalination is one option
- R Mahoney
Mahoney, R. (2006). Desalination is one option. Atlanta Business Chronicle, June 6.
- T M Missimer
T. M. Missimer et al. / Water Policy 16 (2014) 669–689
Quenching thirst in dry Atlanta
- A Johns
- P Sohn
Johns, A. & Sohn, P. (2009). Quenching thirst in dry Atlanta. Chattanooga Times Free Press, June 7.
Georgia coast eyed as future water supply for Atlanta
- Anonymous
Anonymous (2003). Georgia coast eyed as future water supply for Atlanta. Savannah Morning News, May 3.
Port of Savannah Total Annual Container Trade for Fiscal Year
Georgia Ports Authority (2012). Port of Savannah Total Annual Container Trade for Fiscal Year 2008 through 2012. Report of
the Georgia Ports Authority, Savannah, GA.
Largest US metropolitan areas by population, 1990-2010. In: World Almanac and Book of Facts
- D Tonsmeire
Tonsmeire, D. (2012). Georgia wins, where's the equity. Atlanta Forward. July 6, 2012.
US Census Bureau (2012). Largest US metropolitan areas by population, 1990-2010. In: World Almanac and Book of Facts.
Janssen, S. (ed.). Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, p. 612.
Reallocation of Water Storage at Federal Water Projects for Municipal and Industrial Water Supply. SRS Report for Congress 7-5700
- C Brougher
- N T Carter
Brougher, C. & Carter, N. T. (2012). Reallocation of Water Storage at Federal Water Projects for Municipal and Industrial
Water Supply. SRS Report for Congress 7-5700. Congressional Research Service, Washington, DC.
City of Atlanta (2006). City of Atlanta completes purchase of the quarry. News release from the Mayor's Office of Communications. City of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, June 30.
Water Supply and Water Conservation Management Plan
Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (MNGWPD) (2003). Water Supply and Water Conservation Management
Plan. MNGWPD, Atlanta, GA.
A Review of Water Conservation Planning for the Atlanta, Georgia region. Pacific Institute for Studies in Development
Pacific Institute (2006). A Review of Water Conservation Planning for the Atlanta, Georgia region. Pacific Institute for Studies
in Development, Environment, and Security, Oakland, CA.
Memorandum and Order. In re Tri-State Water Rights Litigation
- Us District Court
US District Court, Middle District of Florida (2009). Memorandum and Order. In re Tri-State Water Rights Litigation, July 17.