Drought drives water conservation efforts in Southeast: Atlanta-area operators enact stricter liquid-use rules, brace for rise in commodity costs

Nation's Restaurant News,  Nov 5, 2007  by Catherine R. Cobb

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In addition, all employees are urged to be conscious of every facet of water usage, he said, including such things as thaw methods and dishwasher use.

The drought has pushed other costs higher, too, Kukler said.

"Over the spring and summer the drought impacted the price of commodities, which are already through the roof from corn and other price rises," he said. "It has impacted the price of produce and has reduced the yield, too. Supply of water is down, but demand is not."

According to Mark Malsick of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the biggest impact of the drought is likely to be the availability and cost of meat and produce.

"Along with an April freeze that decimated the South Carolina peach crop, the drought has reduced the harvest yield of other fruits and vegetables," Malsick said. "It has also increased the price of hay and feed grain for livestock. We fear that this could be a prolonged, possibly multiyear drought that will seriously affect agriculture--and subsequently the foodservice industry," he said.

Added Kukler of the Fifth Group: "If this worsens, or just doesn't get any better, the next steps will be figuring out what we as operators will have to do. It will be something I've never had to deal with in the 15 years we've been in business in Atlanta."

The National Weather Service has placed more than a quarter of the Southeast, including Atlanta and its environs, in the 'exceptional' drought category, its worst. The director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division declared restrictions in 61 northern counties, including the city of Atlanta, and the commissioner of Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management, Robert J. Hunter, made a plea for conservation recently, calling it a drought "of historic magnitude."

Many other areas of the Southeast also are affected. A recent U.S. Drought Monitor survey showed that the drought is getting worse, with the eastern half of Alabama under the worst drought conditions on the scale. Also severely impacted are Tennessee, parts of Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.

Bramble of Rathbuns said Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is working on legislation that would regulate water use by creating levels of use.

"Restaurants are in the third level, as are all commercial businesses," Bramble explained. "What that legislative act states is yet to be known, but all vendors and restaurant owners are talking about it. We are hoping that the local government will assist in helping out with decisions that will not adversely affect restaurants or the patrons that frequent them."

ccobb@nrn.com

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