Tri-state settlement on water
between Florida, Georgia & Alabama
December 1999
ATLANTA (AP) - Efforts to reach a
tri-state settlement on water sharing appear to be
headed for failure, President Clinton's appointee to
the process said.
Negotiators from Georgia, Alabama
and Florida have been trying for almost two years to
craft a regional water-management plan to divide up
the waters of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint
river basin and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river
basin.
The headwaters of both systems are
in Georgia, and they pass through the explosive growth
area of metro Atlanta.
Clinton's appointee, Lindsay Thomas,
said the complexities of the water dispute and
unyielding demands from various groups for more water
may doom the negotiations, which have a Dec. 31
deadline looming.
``At this late date, a failure to
reach an agreement is a very real possibility,''
Thomas said at a negotiation session in Atlanta.
If that happens, the states may be
headed for ``long, costly and arbitrary litigation''
in federal court, said Thomas, a former Georgia
congressman and head of the state Chamber of Commerce.
``This dispute could be settled by a
federal judge who has never seen these river basins
and who does not know of the very important roles
these basins play in these states,'' he added.
As a representative of nine federal
agencies on the committee deliberating over a water
agreement, Thomas has the power to veto any settlement
the negotiators may reach if the decision adversely
affects the agencies.
Georgia wants enough water to
sustain metro Atlanta's projected growth during the
next 30 to 50 years. Alabama wants adequate water
supplies to fuel its own growth, and Florida wants to
be assured of enough water coming down the
Apalachicola (formed by the conjunction of the
Chattahoochee and Flint) to nourish its Gulf Coast
oyster industry.
Caught up in the mix are farmers in
southwest Georgia, commercial barge operators on the
lower Chattahoochee and environmental groups who say
that more water for people and industries will leave
less water for fish and other aquatic creatures.
Related Links:
ACT/ACF
TRI-STATE WATER BASIN COMPACTS - "The
Compacts", as they are known, are the
congressionally authorized negotiation processes for
Georgia, Alabama and Florida to negotiate water
allocation formulas for the
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) and the
Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) river basins.
Negotiations for the two compacts have been in
progress for two years and recently the three states
agreed to extend them to May 1, 2000. The
negotiations will end at that time unless agreements
have been reached or the states agree to additional
extensions...
