Posted on 11/02/2007 12:13:43 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
NASHVILLE -- Gov. Phil Bredesen said he has no interest in seeing Tennessee River water diverted to relieve drought-parched metro Atlanta and northern Florida.
"I would have a real problem ... with a wholesale transfer of water out of the Tennessee watershed into Florida," Gov. Bredesen said this week. "I just think it's one of the very important natural resources that we have in Tennessee, and (we) should be very, very cautious about allowing it to be degraded in any way."
Gov. Bredesen said he does not object to water already being sent outside the state through existing agreements, including those permitted under Tennessee's Interbasin Water Transfer Act, which began regulating river watershed transfers in 2000.
The act permits Tennessee regulators to block water diversions between watersheds, and potentially between Tennessee and its neighbors. A watershed is the land area draining into a stream, river or river system.
Gov. Bredesen said Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has not approached him about obtaining access to water from the 562-mile-long Tennessee River, the fifth largest river in the United States.
But Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin recently was quoted by The Associated Press suggesting the region explore piping in water from areas including the Tennessee or Savannah rivers.
"We need to look beyond our borders," she said.
Ms. Franklin's spokeswoman Catherine Woodling said in a telephone voice mail message Thursday that the mayor was talking about obtaining water "from all over the place."
"It wasn't specific to Tennessee, but she has mentioned it," Ms. Woodling said.
According to AP accounts, Lake Lanier only has enough water to supply the 4 million-person Atlanta area for about 80 more days.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a former Chattanooga mayor, said he called Gov. Bredesen recently when he saw "conversations beginning to take place about Atlanta and about water."
"If you remember when I was mayor, I was very concerned about any water leaving the Tennessee River basin, leaving Tennessee for any parts of the country, i.e. Georgia," said Sen. Corker, noting he is "adamantly opposed" to the idea.
U.S. Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., also opposed water transfers out of Tennessee.
"When you talk about taking the Tennessee River and running it down to Atlanta, Georgia, I'm not that happy about that," he said.
Gov. Bredesen said he told Sen. Corker that he thinks the state's interbasin water transfer law provides adequate protections.
The law was a Sundquist administration initiative. Justin Wilson, a former deputy governor, said Sundquist administration officials pushed for the law in part out of ongoing talk that Atlanta was interested in getting Tennessee River water from the Chattanooga area.
"As far as the Tennessee River's concerned, Atlanta was a principal interest, but it was not the only" one, Mr. Wilson said.
Gov. Bredesen noted the state is sharing some Tennessee River water with Dalton, Ga., through one interbasin agreement with the Hamilton County-based Eastside Utility District.
"That's probably appropriate, and that's basically suburban to Chattanooga," Gov. Bredesen said. "I don't have a problem with that."
About 5.8 billion gallons per day of Tennessee River water flow through Chattanooga on a daily basis.
Tennessee has 23 interbasin transfer agreements that covers all its rivers, not just the Tennessee River. Many involve transfers within Tennessee. Seven agreements were approved under the 2000 law, among them was the one for the Eastside Utility District.
Pam Sohn and Herman Wang contributed to this story.
E-mail Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com
"About 5.8 billion gallons per day of Tennessee River water flow through Chattanooga on a daily basis."
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink for GA...
After all it's not as though fish will get to drink it...it's only for humans...
PING
There’s a hole in Bredesen’s bucket...ahhh head
To be fair, he’s less of a liberal than Sundquist ever was.
I’m really enjoying not having a state income tax right now, and he’s given Tenncare a pretty good mauling too.
Not that beating Sundquist is a great achievement or anything, lol.
One teenie weenie little problem here that you fail to mention. In order for Atlanta, being located in a different watershed, to draw water from the Tennessee River, every drop taken out must be replaced with something, according to the Corps of Engineers. Atlanta only has one thing to send back and that is not so well treated sewage. This idea of a water line from the Tennessee River to Atlanta has been floated (no pun intended) for at least 20 years that I'm aware of. The much talked about high speed train line between Atlanta and Chattanooga is nothing more than a heavily subsidized water line corridor paid for with your tax dollars.
I was born and raised near Atlanta, but I reside in Tennessee now. I think I can speak for the majority of Tennesseans when I say we don't want Atlanta's turds and I'm certain those folks living downstream of Chattanooga along the Tennessee River feel the same way. Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on our part.
The water crisis in Atlanta has been coming on for DECADES and it is of their own making. Lakes Lanier and Alatoona were never supposed to be primary water sources for Atlanta and it's 'burbs. The primary use for these lakes was flood control and power generation. Drinking water and recreation were secondary and Atlanta and the surrounding areas agreed to that in 1957, long before those lakes were built. The Atlanta area received record rainfall as recently as 2004, yet no one thought to build new reservoir capacity, despite being one of the fastest growing areas in the nation for the past 25 years? Nothing stopped them from issuing building permits, did it? Now, Atlanta residents somehow think they are more entitled to that water than folks down stream in Lagrange, Columbus, and in Alabama and Florida? Gimme a break!
“Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”
Exactly the attitude North Floridians have towards Atlanta.
What would he say if humans started to urinate in it daily?
You are correct, some of the posters here do not realize what they are talking about. A lot of Tennessee water is used to produce hydro electricity in damn after damn, as well as to move freight. Atlanta has over built and under planned. It's time to put a freeze on building permits and to start building some water sheds and reservoirs.
Many of the posters don't understand that in the long run they would be increasing their own power bills for a problem Atlanta made for itself.
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