Demands on the water supply are skyrocketing. No one seems to know precisely how much water is being used or how much land is being artificially wetted. In 1998, the UGA Extension service estimated 1.4 million acres were irrigated. That guesstimate has now risen to between 1.6 million and 2 million acres. The Census of Agriculture reports 750,000 Georgia acres are in irrigated lands.
Farmers understandably resist telling the government how much water they are pumping out.
At the moment, as bad as agricultural conditions have become, they are not quite so acute as the coming calamity in the state's more populous areas. As builders keep building, manufacturers keep manufacturing and people keep coming, we are flat running out of fresh water in parts of Georgia, particularly along the coast and in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The water problem is measurable and real. Known but expensive solutions to the water-quality challenges are available. Water supply presents more complicated hurdles, especially in the dry-dry months of summer.