Friday, February 22, 2008

Tennessee working out a retort

From the Chattanooga Times Free Press:
Tennessee officials said Thursday that drought-parched Georgia lawmakers legally are all wet in their attempts to claim part of the Tennessee River on grounds the border was drawn sloppily in 1818.

Tennessee state Rep. Henry Fincher, D-Cookeville, said his research of several legal cases indicates Georgia officials would not succeed if they sought to challenge the current border before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has original jurisdiction in state boundary disputes.
What really gets my goat is what Georgia Senator Shafer (one of the initial Georga state senators to draft the resolution passed yesterday) said on Wednesday, “This is a serious effort to secure our [Georgia's] border and begin a discussion of water sharing.”

If this is a "serious effort," then why did Shafer wait until 2008 to introduce his resolution? If a nearly 200-year-old border dispute was a "serious effort," then why wait a whole seven years of being in the senate before raising it? Furthermore, why does it suddenly become a "discussion of water sharing" when Georgia can't figure out how to share water among its own users? When does "water sharing" mean "we will steal your water and when you complain about it, we'll say that you don't want to share with us"? And why is "a discussion of water sharing" contingent on on "securing [Georgia's] border"? Shouldn't you be thinking about water management (of which water sharing is but one option) anyway? (By the way, wasn't Georgia supposed to be talking about a regional water-sharing agreement with Florida and Alabama, anyway? And wasn't that supposed to be completed on February 15?)

The Georgia General Assembly attempt at a water grab from Lake Lanier was already shut down by the Army Corps of Engineers who manage the dam for the primary purposes of flood control and hydropower (the provision of municipal water to Atlanta was an additional incidental use that was approved by Congress - sorry Atlanta). In the meantime, I cannot find evidence on the interwebs that the Georgia General Assembly has made a real good-faith effort to figure out how to use water conservatively during a time of regional drought. (Makes you wonder - what with a time extension on water-sharing agreements - just how good these closed-door policy decisions are really going. "Smoke-filled rooms" anyone?)

There's a great timeline (through article progression) at the Chattanooga Times, so if you want to check out some of the previous stories on this (prior to this iteration of this silly little mess of cross-border politics), go and check it out.

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