ABOVE THE WATER LINE

It is 9 a.m. on an early fall morning and I have one hour to water the parched plants in my yard or I will violate the state’s outdoor watering restrictions. This long and brutally hot summer, Atlanta’s second-hottest ever, has been challenging, especially for us Southerners who love our gardens.

Since 2010, when a state water conservation law was passed – on the heels of an “exceptional” drought in north Georgia that dropped Lake Lanier 19 feet below its normal pool – homeowners have been restricted to the hours of 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. for outdoor watering. In truth, this is a minor inconvenience considering the importance of having enough clean water for our daily lives, the economy and healthy rivers.

Floods and droughts – the extremes that bracket what we think of as “normal” weather – are often mentioned together in news stories about climate disruption. A large political difference between them is the speed of their arrival.

Floods are quickly observed. Droughts, on the other hand, are much more slowly perceived, arriving in people’s lives like chronic ailments: they are preceded by periods of uncertainty about (or unwillingness to acknowledge) their existence.

By Sally Bethea

Sally Bethea is the retired executive director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (chattahoochee.org), a nonprofit environmental organization whose mission is to protect and restore the drinking water supply for nearly four million people.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), which is charged with officially declaring a drought and thereby triggering water-reduction requirements, has developed a penchant for delaying this important action.

During the exceptional drought of 2006-2008, state officials failed to officially declare a drought early enough to prompt conservation measures that could have reduced impacts on waterways and communities. By the time the state took action, it was too late to make much of a difference; people, businesses and rivers suffered.

This year, EPD did not declare a Level 1 Drought Response until September 9 – a full three months after the metro region reached “severe” drought conditions and two months after it moved into the drier “extreme” drought category, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Level 1 requires water utilities to enact a public information campaign, a modest first step that raises awareness.

Given the state’s delayed response to the current drought, it appears that our officials did not learn any lessons from the last dry period. Or, perhaps, this silence has more to do with the ongoing “water wars” in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Basin and the big trial scheduled for late October.

Another explanation for the failure to act in a timely manner could be that metro growth boosters do not want any public acknowledgement that the region has water supply problems that have not yet been resolved.

While metro Atlanta has made real progress in conserving its limited supplies over the past decade, greater water efficiency can be achieved in every sector. Millions of gallons continue to be wasted daily through inefficient outdoor watering, supply system leaks, old plumbing fixtures and an increasingly paved-over landscape that keeps rainwater from soaking into the ground.

In the past 20 years, we have faced some level of drought 55 percent of the time – up from 45 percent in the past century. By all accounts, climate change will continue to bring droughts to our region every few years and some will be multi-year events.

Our state officials must embrace a precautionary approach to the drought-level determinations they make when severe droughts are documented by the federal agencies that manage the U.S. Drought Monitor.

This approach will help protect the public from exposure to harm when there is a plausible risk. That risk became evident in June this year and a drought should have been declared then. Precaution is just a smart way to manage our precious water resources conservatively and keep our gardens green.

PEACHTREE HILLS 2275 Fairhaven Circle NE, $824,500

5BR/4fb. FMLS: 5687261

Dream Homes by Jenny 404-394-0934

Global Connections

BROOKHAVEN 1074 Abington Court #17, $1,250,000 4BR/4fb/1hb. FMLS: 5683881 Dream Homes by Jenny 404-394-0934

DECATUR

1359 Rupert Rd , $305,000 Duplex. FMLS: COMING SOON Dream Homes by Jenny 404-394-0934

DRUID

VININGS

3930 Randall Farm Road SE, $680,000 4BR/3fb/1hb.

LINDRIDGE/ MARTIN MANOR

1005 Lindridge Drive NE, $365,000

3BR/2fb. FMLS: 5746158

Andy Philhower 404-964-4550

ATLANTA NORTH 770-622-3081

EAST COBB 770-977-9500

ATLANTA PERIMETER 770-394-2131

905 JUNIPER

905 Juniper Street NE #406, $279,000

1BR/1fb. FMLS: 5724241

Rodney Hinote 404-786-9562

MARTIN MANOR /LINDRIDGE

2317 Pembrook Place NE, $384,900

2BR/2fb. FMLS: 5746379

Andy Philhower 404-964-4550

BIG CANOE - NORTH GEORGIA 770-893-2400

FORSYTH/LAKE LANIER 770-497-2000

HIAWASSEE 706-632-7211

CROSSING 1069 Woodbridge Hollow NE, $289,900 3BR/2fb/1hb. FMLS: 5741951 Kevin Kilbride 404-229-5520

OLD FOURTH WARD 236 Lampkin Street, $479,000 2BR/2fb/1hb. FMLS: 5740143 Craig Mihaly 404-234-9098

PRINCETON LAKES 3631 Ramsey Close SW, $260,000 4BR/2fb/1hb. FMLS: 5746127 Brenda Shaw 404-379-4924

MURPHY, NC

268 Bill Curry Road, $849,900 3BR/3fb/1hb. FMLS: 5707336

Bruce J. Olsen 706-675-5228

HAYESVILLE, NC

45 Drake Ridge Lane, $525,000

3BR/3fb. GAMLS: 8069345

Bruce J. Olsen 706-675-5228

HARRYNORMAN.COM

BLUE RIDGE 706-632-7211

INTOWN 404-897-5558

BUCKHEAD 404-233-4142

BUCKHEAD CHASTAIN 404-233-1492

LUXURY LAKE & MOUNTAIN 706-212-0228

MURPHY, NC

645 Outlook Road, $435,000 3BR/3fb/1hb. GAMLS: 8008737

Bruce J. Olsen 706-675-5228

BUCKHEAD NORTH 404-814-9000

NORTH FULTON 678-461-8700

BUCKHEAD NORTHWEST 404-261-2700

PEACHTREE CITY 770-632-8526

COBB MARIETTA 770-422-6005

SANDY SPRINGS 404-250-9900

Parks rule, cars drool! That was a post I found at the top of my twitter feed on September 16 to kick off PARKing Day. Founded in 2005, this is an annual pop-up event, held on the third Friday in September, to transform parking spots into temporary public parks.

People across the world converged on streets and parking lots to reclaim concrete spaces. Images abound of communities across the world converting parking spots into yoga classes, poetry readings, chess games, art installations, and inflatable pools and lounge chairs. Atlanta was no exception. Midtown, Buckhead and Downtown Atlanta all got into the act with fun ways to think of streets in more creative ways. The Office of Sustainability joined the Livable Buckhead- sponsored event at Lenox Square with edible plants and a stationary bicycle equipped with a blender smoothie maker. Transforming a mall into a mini park for a day was a great way for the Sustainability Team to engage with the public in how to think differently about public spaces.

PARKing Day reminds us that cities are built for people. For too long, large swaths of urban space are devoted almost exclusively to our car culture – roadways, parking spaces and lots, and gas stations. PARKing Day is a way to get us out of our cars and interacting with each other and our environment while also having a little fun.|

By Stephanie Stuckey Benfiel

Now more than ever we need to focus on how we envision urban space. With an upcoming ballot referendum enabling Atlanta citizens to invest in major transit alternatives, it’s critical that we re-think about how we want our city to grow. Do we want more parking to accommodate more cars on the road? Or do we want viable transit options that enable us to engage with each other as a community and transform our concrete islands into open, green spaces?

Although PARKing Day officially only comes once a year, I look forward to the day when city parks outnumber parking and communities gather in creative, fun ways in places once populated by cars.

Eco Briefs

The Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum has been awarded a Level II Accreditation by The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and The Morton Arboretum, for achieving particular standards of professional practices deemed important for arboreta and botanic gardens. The Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum, being planted and maintained by Trees Atlanta, is also now recognized as an accredited arboretum in the Morton Register of Arboreta, a database of the world’s arboreta and gardens dedicated to woody plants. An arboretum is a botanical garden focused on woody plants, which are grown for research, education and display.

to operate as an environmentally friendly hotel very seriously and have made a conscious, long-term commitment to ensure success by making this part of our hotel culture.”

• NOV. 13th

Edgewood Community Learning Garden 1503 Hardee Street, Atlanta. For more information, visit wyldecenter.org.

Park Pride and its project partners have been selected by the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) to receive a Great Urban Parks Campaign grant for $437,500 to convert a neglected space on English Avenue into a vibrant public park, known as Boone Park West Park Pride, in partnership with The Conservation Fund, will facilitate a community-directed visioning process to develop the park masterplan and ensure that the resulting green space meets the needs of the communities it serves.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in collaboration with the City of Atlanta, Georgia Stand-UP and local partners, have launched the Proctor Creek Trash Free Waters Community Workforce Program. The objective of the program is to reduce and eliminate the dumping of tires and trash that contribute to water pollution and bacteria, causing poor water quality in the Proctor Creek Watershed. The program will hire local workers.

fabrics & home

The Wylde Center is hosting five, free familyoriented gatherings, S’mores for All, from 5 to7 p.m. There will be a chance to explore the gardens, hear stories, and all the s’mores fixings will be provided.

• OCT. 9th

Oakhurst Garden 435 Oakview Road, Decatur

• OCT. 16th

Hawk Hollow, 2304 1st Ave., Atlanta

Solar America Solutions has completed

• OCT. 23rd