I think they will just make it very expensive for us. Then the wealthy and the businesses will have green gardens and the rest will have tumbleweeds. I'll probably have a brown lawn surrounded by my pines which are so old that they can make it on their own. I hope my established roses can survive but I worry about the younger own root bands I just planted. Bathwater for them I think. Our air quality is so bad- I got 2 rain barrels but after seeing the toxic amber water that came off the roof after a months of no rain, I just dumped it all out. Now they don't get filled unless it has rained a few days to clean off the roof. Actually, I have hose water in them now, just in case theres a quake. I'm sorry you have to see your garden suffer. It's unfair that people can waste all they want in their homes but gardeners cant water their prized plants. I was using a bucket to rinse my laundry out on the back lawn and it was work but I felt good about it.

Hi. I am new to this board. I also live in Georgia. (Loganville-Walton County side) We haven't been given a total watering ban...but I am assuming it is enivitable. Over development of the land is one big problem here. The government sees dollar signs and revenue. They don't see the big picture and the problems they will cause allowing over development. I am sure in Forsyth, too. Also Alabama and Florida feel "entitled" to the water flowing out of the "hooch." The local goverments there have been hounding Georgia for years to "share." It is unfair that the TAX PAYING resident is being punished for poor government planning. I also thought about using grey water...I researched it. Local governments are extremely picky about it. They are right ...disease could be spread if not properly handled and used. I heard it wasn't recommended for veggies..only landscape plants. I looked up some info on the web site below. http://interests.caes.uga.edu/drought/articles/gwlands.htm http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/misinfo/index.htm Allot of info here. I collected rainwater last year...as much as could be collected. I had to use mosquito dunks to keep the mosquitoes out of it. I got those as the local home improvement store. Worked well. An article in the AJC online allowed commments to be posted about the watering ban in Forsyth. There were some really angry individual comments there. I don't blame them for being pissed off at all. They are well in their right to be mad. I spent alot of money and time in my garden. It is a precious place for me to be. It is simple but I cherish it. I'm preparing for the ban in Walton...a few suggestions here sound good. Especially, collecting cold bath water in buckets! I wish all of you luck and pray for rain! Just wondering...can ya hop over to another county ...to a friends house...fill up some garbage cans with water and haul them over to your house? It wouldn't be Forsyth County's water ...now would it.

The lake level fell slightly, even though there was significant rainfall in the Lanier watershed area during the period. Guess the USACE decided to refill West Point, since it had dropped below full summer pool! All of the lakes downstream from Lanier, WP, WFG, Woodruff (Seminole) are now at, near or above summer pool. Guess that makes the operators of the commercial oyster beds in FL and the gravel barges on the lower river happy! And it also makes the politicians in FL & AL speechless, thank goodness! I probably won't change any watering routines, since the county water rates will not be reduced during my lifetime. Even if the usage rate returns to pre-drought level, they will just add more people to the Welfare Works water department, so that there will be 5-6 people, instead of the present 3-4, to entertain the 1-2 that are working. Rb

I was very happy to see this subject here. I live in So. Cal. (Solvang) and we have enormous water bills due to some questionable handling of the State Water deal that came in.....last month hit $305.......ouch! If we are gone and the house is closed the base is still $75 before use. We have 96 sprinkler heads through 2/3 acre. I am in the process of changing any unneeded sprinkler heads to drip as sprinklers are great for lawns but notorious water wasters elsewhere. What I want to do is tap down into my backwash pipe that heads down to the street. We have a narrow strip of orchard with 15 fruit trees and grass next to the driveway and the backwash is buried through the orchard. Seems like we could tap into the pipe and when running backwash it could be watering the fruit trees instead of going down the street. People use gray water systems (w/out soft water), and I agree that chlorine levels can be higher from the tap than what's in your pool. I did reduce the amt. of backwashing needed by getting a robotic cleaner that filters better than my sand filter and using a cover to greatly reduce pool water evaporation. So unless someone can really attest to backwash water not being useable, I'd say this would be a great idea. Obviously people doing slight saltwater pools etc. should steer clear....and yes, don't shock your pool than backwash immediately afterwards although I think the chlorine level would be safe within a day or two of shocking.