Anniston Star – Editorial: The war that won’t end — Still waiting for serious negotiations between Alabama Florida Georgia

The tri-state water war began in 1990 when Georgia, Florida and Alabama could not resolve the question of how much water Georgia could take from lakes Lanier and Allatoona, which are federal reservoirs in the Peach State.

So the states, Georgia mostly, went to court. After a convoluted series of decisions and appeals, Georgia got a ruling that metro Atlanta could draw water from Lake Lanier.

At that point Alabama and Florida turned to Congress, where senators from those states were able to add a provision to the 2013 Water Resources Development Act that said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would have to seek congressional approval if a municipality or industry’s request for water changed the approved water-storage plans of a federal reservoir by 5 percent or more. Georgia’s requests exceed the 5 percent.

Realizing this and not wanting Congress to get into the act, Georgia’s senators went to work and got the provision removed. Senators from Alabama and Florida sought to get the provision restored. The U.S. Senate sided Wednesday with Georgia, voting 83-14 not to limit Georgia’s water use from the two reservoirs.

via Anniston Star – Editorial The war that won’t end — Still waiting for serious negotiations between Alabama Florida Georgia.