The Atlanta Drought
Neither my roommate nor I are anywhere near being environmentalists, but since the beginning of the drought here in Atlanta (the worst in a century), we’ve done what we could to preserve water. Quick showers, washing dishes by hand, shaving in the sink, bad-mouthing people that water their lawn in secret, etc. But of course, it isn’t water bans or restrictions that is going to solve our problem. Some good common sense would go a lot further.
For instance, if the Army Corps of Engineers hadn’t “accidentally” released 22 billion extra gallons from our biggest water resource, Lake Lanier, last June, that would probably help. But what is much worse is what the Army Corps of Engineers does on purpose, in accordance with the Endangered Species Act.
Nevertheless, in compliance with the Endangered Species Act, the Army Corps of Engineers continues to drain more than a billion gallons a day from Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s main water source, to release it downstream for an endangered species of mussel.
“The Endangered Species Act is a danger to the human species,” said Dr. Keith Lockitch, a resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute. “People find it hard to believe that environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act could really require the sacrifice of human beings to nature. But that is exactly what they have to mean in practice; they mean that in order to sustain some obscure mussel species, the people in Atlanta must go without water.
Environmentalists claim that blaming the mussels is unfair. They say it is just a way of diverting attention from the real causes of the water crisis, which, in their view, are a lack of strict water conservation mandates and the ‘unbridled development’ of metro Atlanta over the last few years.”
Does this seem wrong to anyone who isn’t a dirty capitalist? Because it’s difficult to believe that only people like me are outraged at this. Every news article on the drought is pushing ways people can lower their water usage, but no one in the area is speaking out against this anti-Man nonsense that is going to drain us dry that much faster.