inDECATUR

Statewide watering rules

Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a law Wednesday that requires local water utilities to follow state rules unless they get permission to impose stricter or more lenient rules.

Here are the state rules:

• No sprinklers. Use a hand-held garden hose with an automatic shut-off only. And only one hose at a time.

• Water three days a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays for houses with odd-numbered addresses and Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays for houses with even-numbered addresses.

• Water between midnight and 10 a.m.

• Water for 25 minutes only.

More liberal rules for new landscaping allow sprinklers for 10 weeks after planting new grass, shrubs, trees and flowers, on the three-day schedule and limited hours.

To use the more lenient rules, homeowners must be certified through an on-line course given by the Georgia Urban Agriculture Council at www.urbanagcouncil.com. Certification is also available from each county's extension agent.

For more on outdoor watering, go to Georgia Environmental Protection Division.

SS | AJC | 2008May14

Decatur featured in CSM drought article

Remembering summer: Johnny Whitt of Decatur, Ga., (l.) and his friends try to put a silver lining on prospects that swimming pools will go unfilled this year because of drought. Empty pools are good surfaces for skateboarding, notes one. Meanwhile, the carwash at Scott and DeKalb Industrial advertises "guilt-free waterless" car washes.

"The coincidence of having [potential] recession plus drought is a tough one for the economy," says Jeff Humphreys, an economist at the University of Georgia in Athens. "It's coming on top of the housing recession and the oil price shock, making our economy more vulnerable than would otherwise be the case. I don't think the drought alone is able to produce a recession, but it adds to negative forces that are already out there."

And on it drags, as recent rains have failed to refresh exhausted reservoirs. As an unusual bank of fronts in the West channeled the South's usual rains into deluges in Texas and the Midwest, the drought interfered with rural baptisms and put landscapers out of work, with losses in that industry totaling nearly $1 billion. A pool ban alone would wreck Georgia's $150 million pool-maintenance industry, experts say.

Patrik Jonsson|Christian Science Monitor|2008FEB03MON

Water queen lives in Decatur

Carol Couch is a Columbus native who lives in Decatur. As director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, she leads the 850-person agency that implements and enforces state and federal laws designed to protect, conserve and restore Georgia's environmental resources. She has been at the center of state's water wars with Alabama and Florida.

She made Georgia Trends list of 100 most influential people in the state.

CW|Columbus Ledger-Enquirer|2008JAN08Tue

Sprinkles in Decatur Wed. night!

A light sprinkle started around 11:30P in Decatur Heights in the NE quadrant of Decatur.

Hopefully, we'll see more overnight and into Thursday morning.

Every little bits helps. Praise God!