Posted on 03/09/2008 11:19:57 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
One state representative would lose a mile of his district along the Georgia state line from Red Clay Historical Area to the town of Copperhill if politicians in the Peach State are successful in an efforts to move the state boundaries a mile north.
District 22 State Rep. Eric Watson said Friday Georgians are forcing the Tennessee legislators into taking a firm stand against redrawing the border between the two states.
“It’s a lawyer’s issue is all it is,” Watson said. “They tried it with North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and now Tennessee.”
A joint resolution, HJR 919, by Rep. Gary Odom, D-Nashville, is scheduled for a vote by the full House on Monday.
The resolution says “… our legislative neighbors to the south have passed ill-conceived legislation alleging a boundary dispute between Georgia and Tennessee at the 35th parallel and purporting to settle such dispute by the creation of a Boundary Line Commission composed of legislators from both states.”
Watson said the Georgia legislation seeks to move the border one mile north of its current designation due to Georgia’s claim that the border was incorrectly drawn in 1818. This shift would allow Georgia to tap into the Tennessee River, which would be a valuable resource to sprawling Atlanta.
“This resolution allows Tennesseans to formally voice where we as a state stand on the issue.” Watson said. “At first, Georgia’s proposition was laughable. However since the Georgia legislature continues to push the idea, it is important Tennessee sends a clear message to Georgia.
“Now they want to form a commission. We are not going to do it.”
Watson said the issue never had anything to do with faulty boundaries. His district would lose Red Clay, which was the last council ground of the Cherokee Nation before the forced removal in 1838. It would also lose the mining town of Copperhill and the Ocoee River where it enters Tennessee.
“We would lose our most important Cherokee and copper mining history,” he said. “It’s all about water and that’s all it is.”
Watson said Georgia should invest in desalination of the Atlantic Ocean if they need water.
“The Atlantic Ocean contains an unlimited supply of water,” he said. “Other states and countries rely on desalinization to meet drinking water needs and Georgia should entertain this idea as well.”
“Besides,” Watson quipped, “If Atlanta is that thirsty, maybe Georgia could save New York City from flooding in case of global warming.”
It's feudin' time...
Priceless!!!!
Georgia legislators, especially now that the GOP is firmly in control there, are really embarrassing themselves pursuing this nonsense, seriously.
PING
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Eric Watson is a big ol’ sheriff’s deputy and knows how t’ handle hisself...
Hope y’all’s good at rasselin’
LOL
I live in S. Georgia, on a private well that draws from the Floridian aquifer.:)
Ain’t gonna have no part of no feudin’.;)
Dear Editor,
Some interesting facts I discovered while researching the claim to the land originally surveyed in order to establish state boundaries.
The State of Georgia is using the 35th Parallel as a basis for its claim of Tennessee land.
Parallels are also known as circles of latitude, which are the east to west circular lines with different radii. The only true straight line parallel is the 0 degree Circle of latitude located at the equator, that divides the northern and southern hemispheres.
Through-out the years, different factors may have caused the Circles of latitude to move into different locations; with the movement of the Earth's core and mantle, the removal of weight, of the ice from the last ice age, (Isostatic Rebound) and, with the change in direction of the earths spin axis caused by the tidal attraction of the Moon and Sun (Nutation) and, with the fluctuating pressure on the bottom of the ocean, caused by temperature and salinity changes, and the circulation of the oceans due to wind, (Chandler wobble), the land under a parallel may be different today that it was in the past.
Georgia's claim that their State boundary be located to an "originally authorized location", when the land that existed under that precise location may not be the same, and a survey exists that has been honored, possessed, and maintained for almost 200 years, seems to lead to a false remedy for its water shortage.
Steve Moss
http://polknewsonline.com/2008/03/05/Opinions/Letters_to_the_Editor/1216.html
Tennessee will not give our water away to a grossly overpopulated minority city that does not know how to manage its self. Sorry, I like Georgia but my loyalty is to the great state of Tennessee. They call it the volunteer state for a reason. We are not pushovers. No land no water nothing. Dont like it tough, blame your legislators and your mismanaged urban sprawl.
As a native of Georgia, actually born and raised somewhat close to Atlanta, not in it, I left in 1990 for the green pastures of SE Tennessee and never looked back, because of the total mismanagement by the goobermint in Georgia. The horrible traffic was my main concern, but this water thing has been known about for at least 25 years, probably more like 30 years.
It should also be noted that Lakes Alatoona and Lanier were never intended to be primary water sources for Atlanta. Drinking water and recreation on those lakes were secondary considerations. The primary reasons for the construction of those lakes was flood control and power generation. The local powers that be agreed to those terms in 1957 when they signed the agrement with the Corps of Engineers.
The "powers that be" in the Atlanta Regional Planning Commission have known about this for a long time and did absolutely nothing, except concoct various ways to steal water from the Tennessee River. These efforts include, but are not limited to, a thrice proposed high speed rail boondoggle between Atlanta and Chattanooga (which was nothing more than a water line corridor), and now this latest attempt to rewrite the boundaries between the states. This boundary issue was tried back in the early 70's, using these exact same reasons, and it failed miserably.
The bottom line is you can't invite 5 million people to come and move into your state and not adapt your water supplies, power supplies, roads and other infrastructure to meet the new demand. Another case in point is the dismal Atlanta sewer system. Georgia made token changes for 30 some odd years while they continually invited people to move there. Now, they are short on water, short on roads, short on sewers and really, really short on brains.....
Y’all stealin’ Floridah watah ????
LOL
Ping
Why don’t we let them draw the line on the TN river..... with the condition that they take Memphis too.
NOW THAT is a great idea!!!!
I owe you freepmail, plan to reply to yours tonight.
Them’s fightin’ words !!!!
LOL
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