From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
The Tennessee River has plenty of water. And the state of Georgia has plenty of legal ammunition to move the state line and get it.
These more or less are the marching orders set forth in the “Confidential Water Policy Memorandum.” Released Friday, the document ratchets up the talk of border war between Georgia and Tennessee.
The 18-page memorandum —- drawn up in recent months by lawyers, politicians and water engineers —- was the basis of resolutions in the Georgia state legislature this week to move the Tennessee line a mile north to the 35th parallel.
That would put part of the Tennessee River in Georgia and possibly set in motion the building of a water treatment plant, pumping stations and a 100-plus-mile pipeline to move as much as 500 million gallons of water a day to north Georgia and Atlanta.
Though the Tennessee line has been where it is since an erroneous survey of 1818, legal precedents indicate the U.S. Supreme Court would likely rule that the line should be moved to the 35th parallel, where Congress intended it to be, the document says.
And from The Chattanoogan:
The city of Chattanooga, facing a possible Georgia land grab as part of an effort to get access to the Tennessee River, is sending a truck load of bottled water to Atlanta.
Mayor Ron Littlefield said the water will be delivered on Wednesday by his aide Matt Lea wearing a coonskin cap.
The mayor has officially proclaimed Feb. 27, 2008, as “Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.” The proclamation comes as a result of the Georgia Legislature passing a joint resolution that seeks to pursue reestablishing the boundary between Georgia and Tennessee.
The truck load of bottled water along with the proclamation will be delivered to the Georgia Legislature Wednesday morning.
Mayor Littlefield’s Proclamation:
WHEREAS, it has come to pass that the heavens are shut up and a drought of Biblical proportions has been visited upon the Southern United States, and
WHEREAS, the parched and dry conditions have weighed heavily upon the State of Georgia and sorely afflicted those who inhabit the Great City of Atlanta, and
WHEREAS, the leaders of Georgia have assembled like the Children of Israel in the desert, grumbled among themselves and have begun to cast longing eyes toward the north, coveting their neighbor’s assets, and
WHEREAS, the lack of water has led some misguided souls to seek more potent refreshment or for other reasons has resulted in irrational and outrageous actions seeking to move a long established and peaceful boundary, and
WHEREAS, it is deemed better to light a candle than curse the darkness, and better to offer a cool, wet kiss of friendship rather than face a hot and angry legislator gone mad from thirst, and
Whereas, it is feared that if today they come for our river, tomorrow they might come for our Jack Daniels or George Dickel,
NOW THEREFORE, In the interest of brotherly love, peace, friendship, mutual prosperity, citywide self promotion, political grandstanding and all that
I Ron Littlefield, Mayor of the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee,
Do hereby Proclaim that Wednesday, February 27, 2008 shall be known as
“Give Our Georgia Friends a Drink Day”
