Sometimes the hardest part of resolving a big problem is admitting that help is needed. It is thus encouraging that Georgia has requested a mediator’s assistance toward settling the long-flowing water battle with Florida.
To place things in context, it takes a great stretch to think of a pressing public problem more in need of professional, dispassionate help in devising a solution than the wrestling match over H2O that’s embroiled three states for a full quarter-century.
Thus, Georgia officials should be commended for asking for a neutral party to help end the legal struggle over how water is allocated. At stake, among other interests, is metro Atlanta’s future, as well as business prospects for southwest Georgia farmers and Florida’s oyster harvesting industry.
Time, drought’s devastation, human emotions and commercial pressures have all played into the drama over the waters of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers. So it makes good sense that a third-party mediator might be able to make headway where legions of lawyers and a succession of governors have not.
Even the nation’s highest court saw fit after the latest lawsuit to appoint a so-called “special master” to try and resolve what’s come to be known as the “Water Wars.” At various points, skirmishes have involved Georgia, Florida and Alabama.
Ralph Lancaster, the octogenarian lawyer appointed as the case’s master, has been unflinching in urging the sides to settle. As reported from court filings in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month, Lancaster has written that, “As I have said from the start, if there’s anything, any way at all – any way at all – that this can be settled, it ought to be done.” Lancaster has previously, and bluntly, warned the parties that neither side would likely be content with any settlement imposed by him, and/or the U.S. Supreme Court.
And resolution is unlikely to come from a Washington government consumed with one-upmanship. So any sustainable treaty had best come from the ground up, not from the top down, in our view.
Earlier this year, a grassroots group offered a tantalizing model that could contribute to resolving the matter. A tri-state group known as the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint Stakeholders Inc. issued a detailed report last summer, outlining a collaborative way in which to manage the embattled river basins for mutual benefit.
The group represents a diverse array of interests, from water-using power companies and farmers, to environmentalists and oyster gatherers across the three states. The Stakeholders also worked closely with scientists and universities to bring rigor to their plan. In disclosure, The Cox Foundation was among more than 60 contributors financially supporting the project. Cox Enterprises Inc. owns the AJC.
Rather than wrangling further for a legal scenario likely to result in a clear winner – and sore loser(s) – the Stakeholders urge collaboration and coordination among the affected states to manage river flows in an equitable, environmentally and economically sound manner. Easier said than done, for sure, but it shouldn’t be an impossible task.
We said last summer that the ACF Stakeholders work deserved strong consideration. That holds equally true today, as legal bills already numbering in the scores of millions of dollars continue to rise, along with reams of legal documents.
So we urge on the mediator in their work to conclude, once and for all, this triple-state vexation. We believe that the governors of the Southern trifecta also have a strong role to play: either in encouraging mediation or, alternately, getting back to the negotiating table themselves in an effort to reach agreement.
Water is a necessity of both human life and much of the commerce upon which the Southern economy is built. Uncertainty over future access to water serves only to hinder progress in the affected states. That, alone, should be reason to be finally done with this squabble.
To that end, leaders in Georgia, Florida and Alabama should work ceaselessly toward a sustainable, fair solution to this matter.
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