There's a reason for the near total silence surrounding ongoing water-sharing talks among Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

On Jan. 9, the states signed a confidentiality agreement along with several federal representatives and two private electric utilities, Georgia Power and Alabama Power.

Kevin Begos, a representative of Florida's seafood industry, asked his state's Commission on Open Government to investigate.

"Is it easier to perhaps negotiate behind closed doors, without the public being involved? Maybe... but that's not how our government works," Begos said.

From 1998 to 2003, the three states tried to work out a water-sharing deal over the Chattahoochee River and Lake Lanier under a Congressionally authorized compact that required meetings to occur in public.

This time, Begos said the workers he represents as part of the Franklin County Oyster & Seafood Task Force feel shut out.

"All [the states are] doing is putting out this spin how they're solving everything," Begos said. "The thing that worries us. . . is community groups don't have the right to review the final agreement."

The three states disagree over the operation of Lake Lanier, a federal reservoir that supplies more than 3 million metro Atlantans with drinking water. Georgia wants as much water as possible retained in the lake; Alabama and Florida want it to supplement drought-restricted flows downstream for their uses.

Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said the negotiations, which the White House is facilitating, need to be confidential to protect the states from litigation.

"If you don't have one of these agreements in place, the sides might be hesitant to lay out all their cards on the table," he said.

Brantley said the power companies were included in the talks as technical advisors, not as negotiators. The companies have hydropower dams and power plants on the Chattahoochee which use billions of gallons of water.