Interstate Water Allocation in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia

Book excerpt: This comprehensive case study of the "Tri-State Water Wars" from 1998 to 2003--centering on the shared waters of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama--presents critical lessons learned about the process of making water allocation decisions across political boundaries. Though the three states failed to reach a settlement in their negotiations to allocate water from the two major southeast river basins--the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint (ACF) and the Alabama, Coosa, Tallapoosa (ACT)--their case illuminates such issues as water availability, conservation, and the need for alternative allocations that can be applied in contentious situations. Alternative strategies may include dividing sovereignty for maintaining standards of each tributary, allocating benefits rather than water, and "enlarging the pie" by including joint development and even nonwater parameters in negotiations. Drawing on successful models of water conflict discussions elsewhere in the country, the authors provide a new conceptual framework for natural resources management. The book's 11 chapters, written by prominent authorities in water resources management, offer a thorough description of the tri-state geophysical setting, policy issues, and stakeholder interests in the ACF-ACT compact negotiations, as well as the long, rich legal history of interstate agreements and the role of the federal government in these agreements. The result of an 18-month project by the U.S. Geological Survey through the Alabama Water Resources Research Institute, which allowed for cooperative research among co-principal investigators from Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, this book will be of immediate interest to researchers, policy makers, and stakeholders in the ACT/ACF, as well as those involved in natural resources management, economics, environmental management, conflict resolution, and water law.