Those aggressive northerners are staying out of this water fight. It’s a strictly all Dixie affair:
Georgia senators today passed a resolution calling for the correction of survey areas along the state’s northern border in a 48-2 vote, a news release states.
“The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified the Tennessee River as a likely source of water for North Georgia,” said Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, as he presented the resolution. “Yet the state of Tennessee has used mismarked boundary lines to block our access to this important waterway.” […]
The Tennessee Valley Authority must approve interbasin water transfer that take water out of the Tennessee River watershed. TVA says it has not recommended using the river as a primary water source for North Georgia.
I suppose this has absolutely nothing to do with the Georgia Senatte’s sudden desire to reclaim their state’s right to all that water Tennessee has been stealing from them.
During the summer of 2012, up to 95 percent of the state experienced some level of drought; in December, it hit 99 percent. Last May, nearly a quarter of the state experienced drought that registered as extreme. Despite the state legislature arguing that the drought wasn’t that bad (in an effort to avoid hurting the landscaping industry), it was.
Nor was last year the first time such a drought imperiled the state. In 2008, there was a similarly bad drought — prompting the state to try to gain access to the river by moving the boundary north. Tennessee rejected that effort.
Georgia’s renewed focus on accessing the river isn’t just a smart plan for right now. (Eighty percent of the state is still under drought conditions.) Climate change is likely to ensure ongoing droughts of similar magnitude, making an additional steady source of freshwater a critical need for the state.
Expect more of these intrastate conflicts to break out over the coming decade, because much of the Midwest and West face the same problem – not enough water to go around, exacerbated by population growth, increased demand by industry (Hi their Mr. Hydrofracking Oil & Gas Company!) and our familiar moody super villain, Mother Nature. She’s still pissed at us:
The National Weather Service said Thursday above-normal temperatures are predicted across most of the Lower 48 states and northern Alaska. The forecast also calls for little relief for the drought-stricken Midwest and Southwest. Currently, half the country is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought.
Hey, my in denial about climate change friends, all I can say is Al Gore told you so.