By KEITH LAING
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Oct. 1,2010……….There is a lot of talk about a long-standing water dispute between Florida, Georgia and Alabama in the race to replace Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who has sought a resolution by meeting with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.
However, in the races to replace Crist and Riley, both also leaving office early next year, not much has been said about the search for a deal to better share the water that comes from the Atlanta area through the Chattahoochee River and down into the Flint and Apalachicola Rivers.
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The issue is more pressing for the would-be Georgia governors because a court ruled last year that the state’s sprawling capital city, Atlanta, takes more water than it should at the head waters of the Chattahoochee. In 2009, the states were given until 2012 to come up with a water-sharing agreement.
If that doesn’t happen, water allocations for each state will revert to 1970s levels, halfway through the new governors’ first terms.
That would presumably be a bigger problem for a Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes or a Gov. Nathan Deal than it would be for a Florida Gov. Alex Sink or a Gov. Rick Scott or an Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley or Ron Sparks. Barnes, Sink and Sparks are Democrats, while Bentley, Scott and Deal are Republicans.
The number of people living in each state has drastically increased as the water fight has dragged on for decades, but metro Atlanta’s population has quadrupled in size, putting Georgia in a major water deficit.
Barnes and Deal both have entire sections of their campaign Websites dedicated to the tri-state water talks, unlike Sink, Scott or the Alabama candidates. In a debate this week, Barnes said that Georgia would be at a distinct disadvantage in negotiations no matter who replaces Sonny Perdue, who has met face-to-face with Crist and Reilly several times.
“We don’t have anything to negotiate with. What are we going to give up?,” Barnes said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We have lost the case. This idea that all the governors are going to hold hands and sing ‘Kumbaya’ and it is going to be settled is just fantasy. Before this matter will ever be resolved, we have to show that we can solve it ourselves without having to beg Florida or Alabama.”
Deal agreed in the debate that a resolution was vital, though he was less specific about Georgia’s negotiating position.
Having represented the district containing the largest reservoir in the ACF river basin, Nathan is uniquely aware of the issues involved in the ongoing water dispute, his campaign Website says. As governor, he will fully utilize his experience and leadership to work cooperatively with the next governors of Florida and Alabama to reach a resolution that protects Georgia’s right to much-needed water.
In Florida, there has not been much talk from elected officials since Crist, Riley and Perdue met in Birmingham in December 2009. Spokespersons for both Sink and Scott told the News Service of Florida that they would continue negotiating with their counterparts who are elected in Georgia and Alabama, though neither candidate has said much publicly about the tri-state dispute.
“As governor, Alex Sink will work to resolve the litigation between Florida, Georgia and Alabama to preserve Florida’s best interests while protecting our multi-state water resources,” Sink spokeswoman Kyra Jennings said in an E-mail to the News Service.
“The water dispute between Florida, Georgia and Alabama has been an ongoing problem and it appears that it will be left up to Rick Scott and the next Governors from Georgia and Alabama to resolve,” Scott spokesman Joe Kildea said. “As a political outsider and experienced business negotiator, we will finally resolve the issue in a manner favorable to Florida.”
In interviews with the Birmingham Times, Bentley and Sparks both said they would continue to press Georgia to use less water from Lake Lanier, as Riley has done. Sparks told the paper that Florida has attempted to have too much control over the flow of water from Alabama, while Bentley said he wants to bar transfers of water between basins in Alabama so he press Georgia to do the same.
A spokesman for Gov. Crist told the News Service that Crist would likely not meet again with Riley and Perdue again before he leaves office in January.
“There’s not been any of meetings or talks recently,” Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said.”There’s not anything scheduled on the immediate horizon.”
But Ivey said that the replacements for Crist, Riley and Perdue would likely continue talking each other, as the governors that preceded them did.
“I think staff between the states are going to continue to meet, regardless of what happens in November,” he said.