http://www.atlantawatershortage.com/A deal reached today by the governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida will reduce the water flowing out of Lake Lanier by 16% starting as soon as November 15.
Officials say that this will certainly improve the length of remaining water supply, but they couldn’t say how much longer it would make it last. Let’s try to figure it out. Please realize that these are very rough numbers and they’re intended to just give us a crude estimate.
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If they reduce the outflow by 16%, that means it will only have a daily outflow of around 800 million gallons (instead of 950 million). Combined with the inflow of 150 million gallons, the total daily loss will only be 650 million gallons — a reduction of 19% in the total loss. If we then reduce the 0.12 feet by 19%, it become a daily loss of only 0.10 feet.
We’ve got about 20.5 feet to go until we hit the “dead pool”. Losing 0.10 feet per day gives us 205 days worth of water left, not counting whatever they can pump out of the dead pool. Not bad!
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