A Keystone Dam and Georgia’s New Ocean - Southern Water, Southern Power - page 61

Chapter 4: A Keystone Dam and Georgia's New
Ocean
Dry months and a lack of water left Georgians with a serious problem and grim choices in
1941. Geographic pockets in the American South had rotated from one alleged natural dis-
aster to another like a broken record since the 1920s. And as with previous multiple-year
droughts, observers in the 1940s could no longer pass this one off as a drought that only af-
fected farmers. By the spring of 1941, another urban drought threatened water and electrical
consumption in homes, businesses, and factories at the very moment that the nation's indus-
trial machine mobilized to provide its European Allies with additional war material. Condi-
tions were so bad that the Georgia Power Company began rationing electrical service to cus-
tomers via controlled blackouts in Atlanta and Augusta. 1 A rainfall “deficiency” threatened
the Blue Ridge's and Piedmont South's rivers. But more important, the drought jeopardized
the corporate energy-water nexus by withholding the water supplies necessary for electrical
production. 2
To save the interconnected production and consumption network, Georgia Power Com-
pany spokespeople announced a “SAVE ENERGY Plan” and continued to run nearly full-
page announcements in the Atlanta Constitution and other state newspapers. The Georgia
Power Company, a powerful New South energy institution in operation since the first dec-
ade of the twentieth century, communicated a serious message to urban residents: “This is
not a 'scare.'” 3 The Augusta Chronicle editors picked up the company's energy conservation
message and implored city officials, business leaders, and the general public to make “sac-
rifices” for national defense production, since the “water in Lake Burton”—the largest of
the Tallulah-Tugaloo River storage reservoirs in the Savannah River basin “where the Geor-
gia Power Company derives most of its hydro-electric power”—was reduced by 40 percent.
The company and the editors clearly linked water conservation and energy production with
electrical demand and consumption in urban areas. For example, the company requested that
business owners “raise the temperature to 83 degrees” in their air-conditioned shops as a
part “of the patriotic power thrift campaign.” One Georgia Power spokesperson explained
that citywide controlled blackouts—which required shopkeepers to turn off display window
lights, reduced streetlight coverage, and cut elevator usage—were necessary to get through
“the present serious situation,” which had slowly “been approaching a crisis for two years.” 4
As the editors noted, “The electric power situation became critical not only because of the