U.S. Water News Online
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama and Georgia began negotiating a compromise plan Thursday for sharing water resources as the federal government recommended ways for the two states to bridge their differences.
For the first time, the federal government gave guidance to the states on how they can conclude their years-long dispute over the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river basin.
``We got down to some hard bargaining,'' said Lindsay Thomas, federal commissioner of the ACT and Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint compact. ``We're letting them (the states) know what our areas of concern are.''
Alabama officials say Georgia takes too much water from rivers that flow into neighbor states. But Georgia, with its booming population in metro Atlanta, wants to make sure it has enough water for future growth.
The proposed compromises are technical in nature -- one of the main sticking points is finding a formula on how much water should be distributed from lakes, rivers and reservoirs downstream to cities.
The federal suggestions, laid out in a 17-page document Thursday, guided the states on flow and reservoir levels, compensation for hydropower losses, logistics, congressional approval and gathering the public's input.
Negotiations had stalled since last summer until they picked up again over the last month.
The states have to agree on how much water is available for drinking, industry, recreation, and other purposes for the next 30 years.
``There are more areas of agreement than disagreement,'' said Jim Campbell, alternate commissioner for Alabama. ``This is a significant move in the direction of having both states and federal agencies getting down to specifics.''
The states have a Jan. 15, 2002, deadline to find a solution, but the time limit probably will be extended as it has been many times before, Campbell said.
``It's dangerous for us to all of a sudden reach for a trump card that may end this,'' Thomas said.
The federal commission isn't yet ruling out any proposals or evaluating the merits of specific flow targets or reservoir levels, according to the document. Instead, its role is to outline the areas that need work and set an agenda for reaching an agreement.
``The purpose ... is to head off a possible train wreck sometime in the future,'' said John Harrington, who represented the Department of the Interior at the meeting.
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