Archive for the 'Blog' Category
If you don’t understand the water issues presently facing Atlanta, this diagram should make it crystal clear:
Still not clear? Let me refer you to the website for the Metropolitan North Georgia Water District (MNGWD) and their Water Supply and Water Conservation Management Plan (WSP). The MNGWD was created by the Georgia Legislature in 2001 to get a handle on the water issues for the 16 metro counties under its jurisdiction. The WSP was issued in September 2003. If you don’t want to read the whole plan, you will find the Executive Summary comforting.
I found a lot of encouragement from the fact that, according to the Executive Summary:
This WS Plan Outlines a balanced, long-term water management strategy for meeting future needs, while protecting water quality through 2030, and preserving water resources in all five major river basins.
If they have already planned this out through 2030, what’s to worry, this is only 2007!
A few other interesting facts:
(1) Surface water (rivers, reservoirs) account for 99% of the Metro’s water sources. Thus, groundwater (wells) is less than 1%. Page 6.
(2) The Basin Estimated Available Supply in Million Gallons Per Day
Average Annual Daily Basis
Chattahoochee 641
Etowah 133
Flint 61
Ocmulgee 98
Oconee 0
District Total 933 (See Page 7)
(3) There are 5 new reservoirs in various stages of permitting which will provide an additional 114 MGD. Page 7. (As far as I know, none of these will be online in the next 3 months, but not to worry, it’s in the plan.)
(4) All of the counties within the District maintain connections with at least one other county for either routine or emergency water sale. Page 7. (Proof that drought is good for capitalism.)
(5) Indirect potable reuse, or reclaimed water that is returned to water supply sources such as Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona, provides the most flexibility in meeting future potable demands. Page 11. (I think this means that your toilet is going to have a direct line to your sink.)
Don’t let this list deter you from reading either the plan or the executive summary. I assure you there is a lot more there that you should know about that I have not mentioned.
If you are still concerned, then I suggest you attend the “State of the Region” program to be presented by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) on November 8, 2007 at the Hyatt Regency. The ARC provides the staff for the MNGWD and is equally interested in water issues.
The keynote speaker will be futurist, Glen Hiemstra, who will kick off a two-year initiative to develop a vision action plan for Atlanta for the next 50 years. To get a ticket you can go to the ARC website, or call Monique Steele at 404-463-3191 or email her at msteele@atlantaregional.com.
I am confident that if Mr. Hiemstra is going kick off a 50-year vision, all the answers to your water questions will be answered November 8th. This is HUGE! HUGE, I tell you. Be There or Be Thirsty!
By the way, if you are wondering what the heck is a “futurist,” they aren’t crazy enough to suggest that they can predict the future. Rather, they just project it! My mother used to project the future: “Just wait until your father gets home!”
Courtesy of Mike Lester, Rome News-Tribune.
The water problem has apparently gotten the people of Rome, GA active. A lesson to all of us: you better find out what the hell is going on!
Comments like the following will make you think:
Joe Cook, executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, said that, without restrictions, the metro area will be pumping 60 million gallons of water a day from the Etowah River in 2030 and flushing 60 percent of it down the Chattahoochee River.
“That’s a tremendous consumptive loss for the Etowah, and it is simply not acceptable,†he said, sparking cheers from the crowd.
The Water Council is still receiving comments on the State Water Plan through October 31, 2007. To send them a comment, you first have to register, but it is something you need to do.
The Water Council is holding public hearings on the Water Plan. If you missed the first round, here is your opportunity to participate.
According to the website, all meetings begin at 6:00 p.m.
October 15th
Fort Valley State University
Pettigrew Center
1005 State University Drive
Fort Valley, GA 31030
Georgia Southern University
Neesmith Lane Building
Plant Drive
Statesboro, GA 30460
Augusta Technical College
Information Technology Center
3200 Augusta Tech Drive
Augusta, GA 30906
October 16th
Gainesville State College
Continuing Education Auditorium
Continuing Education Building
3820 Mundy Mill Road
Oakwood, GA 30566
Albany State University
Criminal Justice Building, Room 111
504 College Drive
Albany, GA 31705
October 17th
Armstrong Atlantic State University
Armstrong Center Auditorium
11935 Abercorn Street
Savannah, GA 31419-1997
Okefenokee Technical College
Miller Lecture Hall
1701 Carswell Avenue
Waycross, GA 31503
October 18th
The Forum
2 Government Plaza
Rome, GA 30162
University of Georgia – Athens
Georgia Center for Continuing Education
Masters Hall
1197 South Lumpkin Street
Athens, GA 30602-3603
October 19th
James H. Rainwater Conference Center
Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference
Center & Tourism Authority
Conference Room A
One Meeting Place
Valdosta, GA 31601
Columbus State University
Elizabeth Bradley Turner Center - Auditorium
4225 University Avenue
Columbus, GA 31907
Atlanta Technical College
Cleveland L. Dennard Building - Ballroom
1560 Metropolitan Parkway, SW
Atlanta, GA 30310
I don’t generally use this site to discuss legal matters, but this one burns me up, so here goes. A local citizen comes to see me about a problem with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. His vehicle has been in a motor vehicle collision, was totalled and he had to rent a vehicle for a period of time.
Enter Enterprise.
Although he did not know it, his problem began the moment he signed that boilerplate contract that Enterprise so deftly slides in front of its unsuspecting customers. Now many of us know that when you sign those contracts you become responsible for any physical damage that might occur to the vehicle while in your possession. Although I hate to pay for it, I always get the physical damage waiver. I just have this fear of the kind of incident that Wile E. Coyote experienced with the Roadrunner.
Well, anyway, so this guy rents the car, drives it a few days and then it starts having problems. Enterprise gives him another car and takes the broken one. A few weeks later, the guy hears from Enterprise who is now contending that he owes them $1000+ for repairing the engine! Apparently, the guy;s bad luck didn’t stop with the wreck. He was also unfortunate enough to have bought gas at the local Walmart that, according to Enterprise, had water in it and damaged the motor in the car. Now, Enterprise wants the guy to pay for fixing the motor.
I politely called Enterprise and said, come on guys, let’s be reasonable. Chalk this one up to normal repair and maintenance or something, but don’t make this guy who, through no fault of his own, has lost one vehicle and now is supposedly responsible for damage caused by bad gasoline from Walmart. Enterprise politely said, “NO!” They just love insisting on every term of that contract they make you sign, the one none of us read because it would do no good.
And on top of all this, Enterprise will probably sue him is some state of the union far away from Georgia because that same contract said the guy agreed they could.
An individual has absolutely no chance of winning in this kind of case. The law isn’t necessarily on his side, after all he signed the contract. The amount of money isn’t enough to justify the expense of getting a lawyer.
So what happens? Enterprise, god rest their sorry corporate attitude, makes tons of money selling physical damage waiver insurance and can’t assume any expense (a motor for goodness sake) as a part of its cost of doing business. The customer gets screwed again.
The remedy! A law that does something to prevent this kind of ridiculous outcome. I hear the moans of those people that like limited government. I’ll be all for limited government when we have limited corporate power and abuse, but as long as corporations demand having the upper hand, the hand of government needs to be there to slap the silly out of them.
Query: You rent a car and sign a contract that makes you responsible for any damage to the vehicle while in your possession and don’t buy the physical damage waiver. The motor blows up, slings a rod, throws a piston, ie., sustains physical damage. Would Enterprise claim you owe them to fix the car?
I wondered why no one was listening to Alan. I put one too many spaces in the file name. Rusty says that is not good. I have fixed it. Alan’s interview is worth listening to.
Take a look at this CNN video featuring Reverend Spencer Frances Barrett and D. A. King discussing the “New Sanctuary Movement.”
People like the good Reverend who interpret scripture to suit their purposes, bother me. If I recall correctly, the New Testament doesn’t even support the ideas that slaves should be rebellious. I don’t mind the debate about what to do with and about illegal aliens, but injecting the church into it is a little much. No, it’s not a little much, it’s ridiculous.
I don’t remember Martin Luther King hiding in churches. It also seems to me that he got arrested for protesting bad laws, rather than breaking the bad law itself. I could be wrong, but that is what I remember.
Now if you want to break the law, whether you call it civil disobedience or something else, in order to make a point, that is fine with me. Have at it, but if you get arrested, don’t blame the police. Just don’t hide in the church building (or on the church farm) as if God has blessed your efforts in particular. After all, even the devil thinks he is God.
This article in the New York Times about tobacco companies losing before the Supreme Court today led me to a new website dedicated to that atrocious, obnoxious, sinister, deceitful, un-American, pile of legislative hogwash known as tort reform. Choke, gag, vomit. But at least this website has it right: It’s Tort Deform!
I can’t say that I know much about the site other than the fact that Allie Wall, Excutive Director of Georgia Watch is a contributor on occassion, so that indicates to me that it has credibility. It does look like a good site to keep up with developments nationwide in the law, access to the courts, etc.
Comments anyone?
A friend of mine who is into poetry sent me a poem that did not seem to be a poem, at least not in the sense of iambic pentameter, which is the way I was taught. Anyway, I decided to post it even though it is a little out of my comfort zone. Maybe someone will straighten me out on poetry, ’cause I sure didn’t get it in high school. (Please ignore the punctuation, I was not sure how to do it.)
I am certain of this:
that I am not certain of this.
Certainty is not the same as knowing.
But I long to be certain of the things
that cannot be known, both the deep
and shallow things of life.
Many are certain but they do not know.
They listen to the part that suits their inner hearing
and claim they are certain they have heard.
Hearing is such a difficult thing, of that
I am certain, and even when I hear without doubt
my mind creates uncertainty against all my wishes.
Being uncertain is not a way of life,
But a condition of existing. It tires me
to think about certainty in a world that is not.
And the thing of which I am most certain
Is that I am not troubled by uncertainty
Until I encounter someone who is–certain that is.
It is rather like seeing the largest diamond,
Or a magic trick, or a couple in love.
To see and yet know it is beyond your reach.
The greatest uncertainty is to know you are right
And yet the powers that govern, claim to
know they are right about things that were not certain when they were like me.
And if I doubt the certainty they claim to know,
I must form an argument to repel their certainty,
As if uncertainty did not exist without proof
And all this time it was me who thought
That it was certainty that required the proof of the pudding.
For uncertainty survives the most certain of things.
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