U.S. Water News Online
HERNANDO, Miss. -- A Mississippi utilities regulator says the Public Service Commission should get involved in the state's lawsuit against the city of Memphis over the use of groundwater to represent consumers. The case is set for trial Feb. 4 in federal court in Oxford before U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson.
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is seeking more than $1 billion in damages from the City of Memphis and Memphis, Light, Gas and Water for millions of gallons of water that the lawsuit alleges is being pumped from an aquifer -- one that the state and DeSoto County contend rightfully belongs to Mississippi.
The case ultimately could force Memphis to draw its water from the Mississippi River instead of wells, attorneys have said.
The lawsuit was filed in 2005 in federal court.
Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley said he'll push for the PSC to get involved in the lawsuit. Presley told the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors that the regulatory agency needs to represent water customers.
"I think the PSC has to have a role in that case," Presley said. "It's on the minds of everybody in DeSoto County to make sure we've got that water supply here."
Presley, the former mayor of Nettleton mayor, is one of two new members on the PSC. Presley succeeded Bo Robinson, who chose not to seek re-election to the three-member board.
The PSC administers a no-call registry and regulates telecommunications, water, sewer, electric and gas utilities.
Presley said the previous PSC didn't act on the water rights lawsuit in time to be a party to it. Whatever the outcome, he anticipates the case will be appealed, and the PSC will get an opportunity to file a friend of the court brief.
Presley said if city utilities and water districts that serve DeSoto were forced to seek other sources of water, "it would put an undue burden on our ratepayers."
Attorneys for the city of Memphis have said it was "unprecedented for one state to seek damages against another governmental entity for groundwater that is moving between states."
The lawsuit focuses on an aquifer known in Tennessee as Memphis Sands. Mississippi officials said they became concerned after a 2002 report from the state of Tennessee noted that pumping by Memphis could deplete Mississippi supplies.
Mississippi officials say that has now happened because the Memphis usage has created a depression in the water table that is pulling the water beneath Mississippi northward into Tennessee.
Attorneys for MLGW argue their wells go straight down and are not slanted to pull water from Mississippi.
DeSoto County filed its own lawsuit in federal court in 2005 against Memphis and Memphis Light, Gas & Water Division, based on the same grounds as those put forth by the state.
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