But that seems to be precisely the route Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is taking on the heels of a federal judge’s ruling that went against Perdue’s state. In the ongoing saga of “Water Wars,” a two-decade battle among Georgia, Alabama and Florida over water sharing, Perdue is threatening to take what he called a “hardball” stand.
Much like a bully kicks sand in the face of his adversaries, Perdue is threatening Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley with posturing that can only hurt negotiations in the long run.
Perdue is leveling criticism at Florida’s conservation record. And for Alabama, he is resurrecting an 1859 US Supreme Court ruling that designated Georgia’s boundary along the western edge of the Chattahoochee River. That river is shared by all three states, and Perdue claims that it would mean Alabama and Florida would have to ask for water sharing rights from Georgia instead of the other way around.
The fight centers on Georgia’s diversion of water in two river basins that eventually run downstream to Alabama and Florida, affecting their water levels.
Georgia has been trying to divert the water to meet the drinking water needs of a burgeoning Atlanta population. But a federal judge ruled in July that Georgia did not have the right to withdraw water from federal reservoir, Lake Lanier, to use for drinking water.
He further ruled that either the three states come to some agreement over water sharing, or it would be a question settled by Congress. If that does not come to pass in three years, the judge ordered that Georgia’s water rights would be returned to 1970s levels, which would be much lower than they are now and when Atlanta was much smaller than the sprawling city of today.
If Perdue is the consensus builder he claims he is, he will cease the nonsense and the threats and get to work on a serious compromise. He has much to gain from that approach and much more to lose by choosing the other.
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