Worst Drought this Century

The sun keeps shining and while we've seen some rain, it's not enough. As the drought continues, the Tennessee Valley Authority speaks out about how it affects you.

The sunshine and lack of rainfall has affected many areas of life in the Tennessee Valley, from lawncare services to crops, to cattle. Gene Gibson with the Tennessee Valley Authority says, "The reason the amount of water used goes up each summer is because people are watering their lawns and gardens so there's an increase demand on local, municipal water suppliers."

Today, Gibson pointed out the well below average rainfall, which shows just how bad the situation is getting. He spoke about the drought to the engineers club. "We're in one of the driest, in terms of overall rainfall, one of the driest periods in the last hundred years or so."

Gibson says the people of Chattanooga use 30 to 40 million gallons of water each day. But he says even with the river only seventy or eighty percent full like it is now, you'll still get plenty of water at your home. He says, "We don't anticipate any impact from a water supply point of view, the TVA is maintaining the water channel for the entire length of the Tennessee River system, so as long as there's enough water to navigate, there's enough water for supply purposes."

But even if the water doesn't stop flowing, what kind of water are we getting? Gibson says, "Drought situations do have the ability to impact water quality, of you're getting less rainfall and less flow through the system, but TVA is monitoring that."

Gibson says right now the water quality hasn't gone down, but it is something that T.V.A. is monitoring.