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shipperxFederal officials to wade into water war
The water war involving Alabama, Georgia and Florida has drawn in two top conservation and natural resources officials, who plan to meet with Gov. Bob Riley this afternoon.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and James Connaughton, who chairs the Council on Environmental Quality, planned to talk with Riley after they meet this morning in Atlanta with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.
"Georgia will make their case, we'll make ours ... and then at least everyone will understand the debate," Riley said Thursday.
Extreme and exceptional drought this week covered most of Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, and spread across 43 percent of Georgia, mainly north Georgia, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
Perdue in a recent press conference called it "the single worst drought in Georgia's history," and Riley in a recent letter to President Bush called the drought "severe and unprecedented."
Perdue wants the Army Corps of Engineers to release less water into the Chattahoochee River from Lake Lanier in north Georgia. The lake is the main source of drinking water for more than 4 million people in the Atlanta area. Riley said he would fight any cuts in water releases that would hurt Alabama
Riley, Perdue and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist plan to meet Thursday in Washington to talk about the drought and water resources their states share, aides to Perdue and Riley said.
"I hope we can get a better understanding of what our positions are," Riley said. "I think it's much better to do it face-to-face than it is to continue this rhetoric that has become so heightened over the last few days."
Riley said that, in today's meeting with Kempthorne and Connaughton, he plans to say that all three states need to give up something if there is to be a water-use compromise.
"The only way all of us get through this is through a concept of shared pain," Riley said. "We're not willing to let Georgia make a determination for what the flow should be into Alabama and Florida."
Sen. Jeff Session, Ala, plans to join Riley in today's meeting. "It is very important that the federal government not take any action that strikes an unfair balance between our states," Sessions said.
Perdue's press secretary, Bert Brantley, said both of Georgia's U.S. senators, Republicans Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, planned to join Perdue in today's talk with Kempthorne and Connaughton in Atlanta. Brantley said he expects Georgia officials to talk about falling water levels in Lake Lanier.
"That pool is getting shallower and shallower each day," Brantley said.
"We're certainly going to talk to the secretary and chairman about ... how we can hopefully get their consideration on helping us to conserve what supply we have left," Brantley said.
The Corps of Engineers one week ago estimated that, at current water withdrawal rates and assuming virtually no more rain, Lake Lanier had about 282 days of usable water supply remaining. However, only about 113 days' supply was left in the conservation pool, the normal usable pool in the upper part of the lake, according to the corps. Georgia officials say water from lower levels of the lake is more polluted.
Perdue last week asked Bush to declare a major disaster area in Georgia and to use his power to limit water releases from Georgia reservoirs.
Riley sent his own letter to Bush on Monday, expressing "Alabama's strong opposition" to Perdue's request. Riley's letter stressed that reduced water flows in the Chattahoochee could threaten the operation of the Farley Nuclear Plant, which withdraws about 100 million gallons of cooling water a day from the river.
Crist, in a letter to Bush dated Wednesday, also protested requests by Georgia officials for reduced water releases into the Chattahoochee, one of the main tributaries of Florida's Apalachicola River. Crist said reductions could have "serious, adverse effects" on the river and Apalachicola Bay and the businesses there.
