Posted on 05/31/2003 5:48:59 AM PDT by summer
Florida, Georgia and Alabama Close to Reaching Water Sharing Deal
By: Brendan Farrington
The Naples Daily News
May 17, 2003
TALLAHASSEE — The governors of Florida, Georgia and Alabama said Friday they have almost completed an agreement on how to share water from three rivers flowing through their states, saying the major point to discuss now is the length of the agreement.
The three states have been arguing for more than a decade over the water flowing through the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, but the Republican governors expressed hope that an agreement would be in place by a July 31 deadline.
"It almost looks like the same proposal all the way through," Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said while showing Gov. Jeb Bush and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue a chart showing each state's water flow proposals. "If you look at all of them, they are absolutely so similar that I think we've solved the problem."
Bush said the last remaining issue could be the length of the agreement.
The states have debated how to meet the water needs of metropolitan Atlanta and farming in southwest Georgia while ensuring enough still flows into the environmentally sensitive, oyster-rich Apalachicola Bay in Florida.
The Chattahoochee flows from Atlanta to Columbus, where it forms the border between Alabama and Georgia. The Flint forms south of Atlanta and flows southwest to Lake Seminole. It converges with the Chattahoochee to form the Apalachicola, which flows through the Florida Panhandle to the Apalachicola Bay, which Bush has said produces 90 percent of Florida's oysters and 10 percent of the nation's.
Perdue said he is looking forward to taking an agreement back to Georgia water users.
"It looks like it meets many of the requirements I've come to understand," he said.
A question remains on how long the agreement should last, and Bush acknowledged the water flow models become less accurate as more time passes.
Alec Poitevint, representing the federal government in the water talks, said a shorter agreement would be better.
"We would look more favorably on a shorter period of time because it allows our models to be more accurate," he said.
Several people told the governors about concerns about preserving barge traffic on the waterways, protecting the environment and making sure water was available for farmers.
Most people speaking for environmental groups praised the governors for their work on the agreement.
"We've been very happy with the governors," said Dan Pennington of 1000 Friends of Florida. "I think we're beginning to set a precedent for this country on how rivers are managed."
The governors will meet again after Memorial Day in Georgia.
Every time they mess with this river it gets worse. Those of us who fish in the Gulf near the river are aware that the fish we catch either grew up in the Apalachicola's estuaries, or the critters they feed on grew up there. In some cases it's both.
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