A Water War Stalemate

WASHINGTON (AP) - Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne
acknowledged today that White House-brokered water negotiations
between Alabama, Florida and Georgia have failed to produce an
agreement.
Kempthorne said in a letter to the governors that federal
agencies will move forward with developing a water-sharing solution
of their own.
Kempthorne said the talks, which began last fall, yielded more
progress in three months than at any time during the last 18 years.
The Interior Secretary says it is "unfortunate" the states
will move forward with ongoing litigation while the federal
agencies proceed.
The three states have been feuding for nearly two decades over
water rights in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and the
Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basins.
Georgia is fighting to hold back more water in federal
reservoirs around Atlanta to serve its growing population.
Florida and Alabama argue that Georgia hasn't adequately planned
for its growth. The extra withdrawals, they argue, would damage the
environment and dry up river flows into their states that support
smaller municipalities, power plants, commercial fisheries and
industrial users like paper mills.
With a record drought gripping the region last fall, President
Bush dispatched Kempthorne to try to settle the dispute.
But the talks appeared doomed from the start, with Florida
almost immediately backing away from an initial agreement to allow
Georgia to temporarily hold back more water in Lake Lanier outside
Atlanta as the governors worked toward a longer-term pact by
February 15.
After a series of meetings, the governors missed that deadline
but said they would continue talking until March 1.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)