Minor Thoughts from me to you

The Southeast has been experiencing drought conditions for over two years now. Many residents don't want to watch their lawns turn brown or their flowers die off. So, they're drilling their own wells.

While Atlanta's main water source, Lake Lanier, has sunk 15 feet below desired levels and ordinary families have let their lawns go brown, affluent residents are paying thousands of dollars to hydrogeologists and drilling companies to scout their estates for underground water to draw from whenever they please. The Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness in Atlanta has issued 305 well permits to homeowners and businesses since the beginning of this year -- 36% more than for 2006 and 2007 combined. Homeowners who have obtained permits include film director Tyler Perry and Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine, according to county records. In Raleigh, N.C., 95 permits have been issued this year, compared with 46 last year and 19 in 2006. And Orange County, N.C., which includes Chapel Hill, has had such an influx of applications that it raised the price of a permit 65% to $430 on July 1.

Sadly, many people are angry about this display of initiative and investment.

Jason Cooper, who lives in Asheville, N.C. and whose lawn is currently the color of straw, is frustrated by rich people pampering their grass. "The fact that people would circumvent water restrictions in order to keep their lawns green amazes me," Mr. Cooper says. "But I realize that around the world, the people with the most money tend to hoard scarce resources."

Hoarding scarce resources? Hardly. These people are increasing the amount of usable water in their neighborhoods. Rather than taking water away from their neighbors, they're producing new water.

The new wells in Atlanta and Raleigh aren't the shallow wells that are sometimes found in backyards, particularly in areas that aren't on sewer lines. Building one of the new deep wells is a messy and noisy process: Drilling companies bore holes usually 300 to 600 feet deep into fractured rock and then extract the water with an electric pump discreetly hidden in the shrubbery or concealed by a $400 faux rock. Sometimes residents buy plaques with gold lettering to politely and unabashedly tell folks they're using their own well water, not the city's supply. Total installation cost ranges from $5,000 to $25,000 -- a drop in the bucket for the type of owner who spends several hundred thousand dollars on landscaping.

Ironically, there is no opportunity for profits that would allow this water to be shared with the rest of the area. Water rates are regulated by local governments and don't rise and fall according to supply and demand. If water rates did rise according to supply and demand, the cost of water would be sky-high across the Southeast. That would give these residents an incentive to drill the wells and sell the water to their neighbors. Instead of using the water for their own lawns, they'd have an incentive to distribute the water to someone else.

Sadly most of the U.S. is covered by regressive, in-humane laws and no one is allowed to profit off of water supplies. What a shame.