Eideard

I could have posted pics of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, but this water hog was cuter.

Governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida had 19 years to reach to an agreement over how to share the water from Lake Lanier.

Now a federal judge has given Congress three years to work out the dispute….

The governors of Florida and Alabama said they’re willing to return to negotiations, but Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue seemed to sound a different note.

“I will use this opportunity not only to appeal the judge’s decision but, most importantly, to urge Congress to address the realities of modern reservoir usage,” Perdue said. “The judge’s ruling allows a three-year window for either congressional action or an agreement by the states, and we will work diligently with Georgia’s delegation and members of Congress to re-establish the proper use of federal reservoirs throughout the country.”

In his ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said it was illegal for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Lake Lanier, to draw water from the lake to meet Atlanta’s needs. The Corps has been making such withdrawals for decades….

The court said Lanier was not intended to be Atlanta’s water supply, and the Corps may not use it that way unless Congress authorizes it to do so.

If Congress fails to pass a water-sharing bill in three years, Magnuson said he would order Atlanta’s withdrawals cut to 1970s levels, a measure that the judge acknowledged would be draconian.

Given the arrogance of the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta on this and similar issues, my sympathy is limited. Whenever the subject of overdevelopment and poor planning is raised, noses are raised high in the air as if citizens are little school children incapable of comprehending adult issues. Now a federal judge has ruled that Atlanta has essentially been stealing water all of these years. Good for him. Maybe the governor and the mayor of Atlanta will negotiate more like grown-ups now.