THE DRY SOUTH.

Why am I not surprised that Southern state governments are having more than the ordinary level of difficulties handling drought conditions?

The response to the worst drought on record in the Southeast has unfolded in ultra-slow motion. All summer, more than a year after the drought began, fountains sprayed and football fields were watered, prisoners got two showers a day and Coca-Cola’s bottling plants chugged along at full strength. On an 81-degree day this month, an outdoor theme park began to manufacture what was intended to be a 1.2-million-gallon mountain of snow...Last-minute measures belie a history of inaction in Georgia and across the South when it comes to managing and conserving water, even in the face of rapid growth. Between 1990 and 2000, water use in Georgia increased 30 percent. But the state has not yet come up with an estimate of how much water is available during periods of normal rainfall, much less a plan to handle the worst-case event -- dry faucets.

I think there are a few things going on here. The first has to do with the fact that state governments in the South are, more than anywhere else in the U.S., vehicles for patronage rather than institutions capable of solving problems. Combine that with massive exurban growth and a cultural hostility to anything that smacks of liberalism, and the stage is set for some serious environmental problems. Of course, southwestern states also face serious water problems and haven't covered themselves with glory in trying to solve them, but at least those states don't seem to be caught as flatfooted as Southern states have been.--Robert Farley