The seemingly intractable battle over regional water rights has frustrated Gov. Nathan Deal's administration has much as it has his predecessors. And though a tipping point in the feud may be near, it may make both sides unhappy.
Over the weekend, the AJC published two pieces that bring the state's water strategy into sharper relief.
It was one year ago this month that the U.S. Supreme Court appointed Ralph Lancaster as the so-called special master to resolve 25 years of water war between Georgia and Florida.
But an analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of the burgeoning case file, as well as on- and off-the-record interviews with sources familiar with the lawsuit, appears to give the upper hand to Georgia. Nobody, though, takes anything for granted.
Lancaster warns that his decision will leave neither side totally satisfied and urges Georgia and Florida to seek a settlement. Georgia recently requested a mediator to bring Gov. Nathan Deal and his Florida counterpart to the negotiating table.
The second explores Deal's plan to pump a $300 million tide of state cash to bolster local reservoirs and fund novel experiments.
The program has underwritten a slew of state-financed loans to spur the construction of a range of lakes across North Georgia, but one county recently squelched a lake-building project that was awarded $21 million from the state. Two others have greatly benefited from the program, while several more remain lodged in various stages of planning and are years, if not decades, from completion.
And the experiments that Deal's initiative funded in search of new ways to pump and store water have been largely hit-or-miss, including one controversial project that scientists abandoned and two others that remain in limbo.
Stay tuned for a third part to pop later Monday. We'll update when it moves.
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