Opinion


Poaching Water Isn't The Solution

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Usually, this time of year, we have an abundance of rocket scientists come out of the woodwork complaining about daylight savings time. Last year, there was an article in the local newspaper complaining about how that extra hour of daylight was contributing to global warming. The writer was convinced that if we left our clocks set on regular time, global warming would cease to exist.

Then there was the legislator in Alabama that stood in the State Assembly and actually stated that the "extra hour of daylight was burnin up his maters." His remedy was to "set the clocks back to where God intended them to be." We have some real smart people down here in Dixie. Unfortunately, they never seem to be the ones representing us in our state governments.

It's kind of like the state of Georgia assembly. Lately, they have been attempting to dispute an 1828 survey boundary between Georgia and Tennessee. They claim that the Georgia border should be a mile north of where it currently sits. They even went so far as to pass a resolution to raise the border north one mile.

Georgia's problem with the border isn't a legitimate attempt to right any long standing tort committed against the state. It's more of an attempt to tap into the Tennessee River. If they raise the border one mile, that will give them access to the river. That water could be the godsend Atlanta needs to cover its severe water needs.

The problem is that even if the border were shifted, which it never will be, the water problems of Atlanta would still be there. The Corps of Engineers would never allow any diversion of the flow of the Tennessee River into Georgia. The Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Corps of Engineers, would bring a screeching halt to any environmental change to the river.

That means that the Georgia assembly has just been spinning its wheels in trying to solve its longstanding water shortage problem. Wouldn't it have made more sense to start a desalinization plant in Savannah? Georgia could capture all the water it wanted that way. Also, how about some concrete solutions to conserving water in Atlanta. Better, more efficient water treatment plants would be another aid to their problem. There are solutions to the existing problem. Poaching is not one of them. The folks in Georgia are not being served by the people they elected to represent them.

Rod Dagnan
Hixson
roddagnan@comcast.net


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