Sunday, November 11, 2007

Will Florida v. Georgia Water Fight Become Political?


The Southeast drought isn't getting any better--northern Georgia remains dry as a bone and Lake Lanier, which supplies water to several million Atlantans continues to dwindle. (This is where a good ol' hurricane or tropical storm could be a big help.)


Meanwhile, Georgia and Florida continue to fight over the allocation of water from Lake Lanier. The Bush Administration has tried to broker a deal between the two states (and also Alabama, which relies on Lanier water to cool a major nuclear power plant), but Florida officials have backed away from a temporary truce that would have cut water flow into the Apalachicola River, threatening the economy of Florida's Apalachicola Bay.


Florida's Secretary of Environmental Protection argues that the deal proposed by the Bush administration would cause a "catastrophic collapse of the oyster industry" in Apalachicola.


We wonder whether this dispute won't spill over into the presidential nominating contests, particularly with Florida being an early primary state. And while we're not sure the drought will last long enough to carry into the general election next November, it could become an interesting issue.


Florida, of course, is a battleground state, whereas Georgia is not. The Democratic nominee could easily afford to back Florida in the dispute, figuring Georgia is written off anyway. The Republican nominee couldn't afford to let Florida go, so he, too, would probably side with Florida.


Whether any of that will ultimately happen depends on whether the water situation in north Georgia remains desperate for another full year. In the meantime, the Bush administration has its hands full trying to placate three Southern Republican governors who are at each other's throats.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course Florida will stop it, they also have too rapid growth, but at least Tampa has a desalinization plant, why should they have to suffer for years of mismanagment, poor planning, and sprawl???? Is this GW's "trickle down" theory...that the Chattahoochee is now down to a trickle???

Environmentalists who happen to be scientists who GW doesn't believe have told Atlanta for years not to depend on the hurricane season to support their sprawl....

A Republican governor just prays instead of actually providing real solutions....and people fall for this???? I guess Republicans will spin trucking in water as real man's work and good for you, like they spun the drought in Lake Okachobee in FL as now that there is no water we can finally clean the bottom!!! This government's stupidity and audacity is unbelievable....

They frame the situation is pitting mussels vs. humans, forgetting that Atlanta's incessant sprawl is the main culprit, not the mussels simply trying to exist!!!!!

"Sonny" Perdue apparently is an old-school preacher and believes in man's dominion over nature, instead of living with nature....unfortunately, when these Bible thumping morons become environmental refugees, they will come to climates that haven't yet been affected and try to destroy them also...can we put up a fence????

Imagine if either AL or FL had a Dem. Gov, GW would have cut flow immediately, the only thing he hates worse than conservative white religious "patriotic" Southern folk and oil is the environment...

X Curmudgeon said...

You make an excellent point that if Florida and Alabama had GOP governors, Bush would've sided with Georgia.