Out of the American Southeast comes a glimpse of the future: the town of Orme, Tennessee has run out of water. Orme, a former mining town with a population of 145 and an annual municipal budget of $13,000, has been waterless since August when Mayor Tony Reames reduced the town’s water use to three hours per day.
Although this arid land has always been prone to droughts and the people of Orme have had their water restricted in the past, it has never before been turned off. The town used to get its water from a natural spring that provided 60,000 gallons per day. When the drought dried up all but 5,000 gallons of spring water, the loss of pressure left the town’s waterlines dry. Now, the fire chief makes several roundtrips three days a week to collect water from a pump in Alabama. These water collection excursions alone have cost Orme $8,000 or 62% of their annual budget.
The collected water – 20,000 gallons every three days – sits in a town tank until the mayor turns the valve open at 6pm. From 6 until 9pm, the entire town’s population must run their appliances, make dinner, bottle drinking water and bathe themselves. Each resident of Orme uses about 46 gallons of water a day compared to the average American, who uses 159 gallons daily.
To resolve the ongoing water crisis in Orme, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the town an emergency grant of $377,590 – enough to cover the solution. With the money, Mayor Reames has hired a utilities crew to hook Orme up to the municipal system of the neighboring town. Of course, with so small a population, a quick fix can be permanent.
Though without a water source, Orme’s residents can still use dishwashers and laundry machines. A larger scale crisis would require more innovative solutions. As Mayor Reames said to a reporter from the Charlotte Observer: “I fear for the folks in Atlanta. We can survive. We’re 145 people. You’ve got 4.5 million people. What are they going to do? It’s a scary thought.”
Atlanta, also hit by the drought, is only 150 miles away.
