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DEL.ICIO.USSome after-the-fact politicking on the water crisis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This water crisis has every politician in Georgia, in particular Gov. Sonny Perdue, wary of sparking a regional backlash.
Over the weekend, Perdue calls for President Bush to hand metro Atlanta the keys to Buford Dam, the better to preserve water for Georgia’s premier economic engine.
But don’t you know that ticks off downstream Georgia.
So what does the governor do? First, late Tuesday he requires upstream Georgia to reduce its water usage by 10 percent. You can’t ask downstream Georgia (and Alabama) to do with less water — unless you ask upstream Georgia to feel the pain first.
Then he schedules a press conference at 2:45 p.m. today on the shores of West Point Lake, in downstream Georgia. We haven’t been clued in on what Perdue will say.
But we’re guessing that the governor wants to assure locals that he knows human beings and human economies live in downstream Georgia — not just federally protected mollusks.
By the by, Harris Blackwood of the Gainesville Times has an article out today noting that one court case arising out of the three-state water dispute is being overseen in Jacksonville, Fla., by a federal judge from Minnesota.
The judge, Paul A. Magnuson, seems to have the appropriate background. Past cases include a lawsuit filed by Jesse Ventura against the World Wrestling Federation.
Comments
By Phil
October 24, 2007 3:32 PM | Link to this
Perdue is in the classic lose lose position. He only needs rain. He really isn’t a bad governor, and I’m sorry now that I called him our gubernatorial goober. Sorry, sonny.
By STEVE LLOYD
October 24, 2007 4:23 PM | Link to this
I think we have waited far too long to deal with this crises. I think sonny is doing what he thinks is best under the current situstion, but I also feel that the warning signs from mother nature have been going on for a couple of years now. It is easy for me to sit here and say how this should have been handled, but I really think action should have been taken a long time ago
By Matt
October 24, 2007 4:42 PM | Link to this
I find it absurd that the federal government is prioritizing mussels more than humans.
By A. Morris
October 24, 2007 5:26 PM | Link to this
I agree with all the comments here in at least 1 way or another. So with that said I believe it’s time to stop any and all finger pointing by anyone at anyone and ask what do we do now? How can I help make a difference?
By Victor Jones
October 24, 2007 9:39 PM | Link to this
A Lucid Idiocy rumor says that Glenn Richardson and Casey Cagle put out a joint press release today, announcing the unveiling of their Water Reservoir Plan.
The meeting will be held at 10a.m. in the Historic Cox Capitol Theatre in Downtown Macon. Google Glenn, Casey and/or the CCT for details.
It’s been raining here in Macon everyday since the water crisis was officially announced by the Governor last week. Today it was like cats and dogs; tomorrow dogs and ponies at the Capitol, bring a bucket and be there.
We have 500 days of water and y’all only have 178 days left. Mayor Ellis is trying to ship our water to Mayor Franklin to use at your Airport.
If one ships 500 days of water that serves 130,000 people to ATL that serves like 6 billion hot, angry, roadway maniacs, how long will it take for Macon to run dry too? I’m calculatin 66 days.
and they say Jim, Bob and me are nuts… 33.3% of the peoople are right 33.3% of the time, which adds up to 66.6%… my head hurts from all this math, later bros…
By RJ
October 24, 2007 11:07 PM | Link to this
A. Morris, Finger pointing is all we citizens can do now because decision making about this matter is in the hands of Perdue, the elected person. You call it finger pointing, I call it accountability. We should hold our elected officials accountable when they do no perform. This is simply another in a series of policy areas that demonstrates Perdue’s ineptness. He may be a nice guy but he is out of his element in the job.
By One
October 25, 2007 10:12 AM | Link to this
The main problem is that they waited far to long to handle this issue. I don’t know what affect letting those mussels die will have on the environment, but I have to think they are helping them survive for a reason. I also believe that no one wants to cut back as far as any of the involved states are concerned. This all goes back to the fact that there is hardly any unity in our government.
By Mako Y
October 25, 2007 8:20 PM | Link to this
I like the tone of the articles and comments. After all, all they need is rain. Despite, naturally, the natural occurrence of such things…