It's all about Water

Being from Monteagle, I know more about water issues than I care to admit. I recently read a National Geographic article about the history of water issues out west and how an entire civilization just disappeared one year because of an extended drought. I don't think we are going anywhere, but this border war can only get more heated with the dry summer season almost upon us.


Timeline: Georgia-Tennessee border war


03/06/08

1777: Georgia is admitted as the fourth state into the union with its northern border as the 35th parallel according to its charter.
1796: Tennessee was admitted into the union by the U.S. government and deeded lands west of North Carolina above the 35th parallel.
1802: Georgia cedes the Mississippi Territory to the United States. Under the agreement Georgia's western border would reach and cross the Tennessee River at Nickajack at the 35th parallel.
1817: Mississippi is admitted into the union with its northern border identified in its state charter as the 35th parallel.
1818: Georgia and Tennessee commission a joint survey of their border, whose mission was to identify the 35th parallel and mark it on the ground. It is believed that due to poor equipment and outdated astronomical charts, the survey party mistakenly placed the line a mile south of its actual location at Nickajack. Georgia never officially accepted the border as marked.
1819: Alabama is admitted into the union with its northern border identified in its state charter as the 35th parallel.
1887: Georgia passes an act calling for commissioners to meet and establish the Tennessee line.
1889: The Tennessee legislature enacts legislation expressing "grave doubts as to the location of the state line between Georgia and Tennessee on that part of the line between Dade County, Georgia, and Marion and Hamilton Counties, Tennessee, creating trouble and inconvenience between the two states."
1890: Tennessee forces Mississippi to correct a survey that placed the border between the two states four mile too far north into Tennessee. The border between the two states was corrected and placed along the 35th parallel according to the charts of both states.
1890, 1905, 1915, 1922: On four occasions, Georgia disputes border between itself and Tennessee.
1941: Georgia General Assembly reopens dispute of the entire Tennessee line by creating yet another Boundary Line Committee, with no reaction from Tennessee.
1947: Georgia passes acts authorizing a committee to look into the matter and authorizing Georgia’s attorney general to file suit in the U.S. Supreme Court if the committee could not resolve the dispute. In response, Tennessee’s governor met with the Georgia committee, but nothing was resolved.
1947-71: Many governors of Georgia contemplated reopening the border dispute but none did.
1971: The Georgia General Assembly enacts a joint resolution calling for Georgia governor Jimmy Carter to talk with the Tennessee governor about resolving the border dispute.
2005: Dade County officials sign an agreement with the water firm of Brown and Caldwell in Walnut Creek, Calif., to research the possibility of an agreement with Tennessee to pump water along a pipeline into Dade from the Tennessee River.
May 2007: Brad Carver, an Atlanta utilities lawyer and a water expert from the University of Mississippi, begins investigating the history of Georgia’s 190-year dispute with Tennessee over their shared border.
Feb. 8, 2008: The Georgia House and Senate introduce bills to form a commission to investigate the disputed Georgia-Tennessee border.
Feb. 20: Georgia House and Senate approve a Border Line Commission to work with Tennessee and North Carolina officials investigating of the disputed border. Tennessee Rep. Gerald McCormick calls Georgia lawmakers backing the plan “idiotic” and “crazy.”
Feb. 20: The measure to move the Georgia border one-mile north heads to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue for approval after being approved by the state legislature.
Feb. 25: Tennessee House Majority Leader Gory Odom files legislation to address Georgia General Assembly’s claim to portions of the southern border of Tennessee. The resolution states that no member of the Tennessee General Assembly would partake in discussions with Georgia’s Border Line Commission.
Feb. 26: Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen dismisses Georgia’s resolution to claim land from Tennessee’s southern border.
Feb. 27: Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield responds with “Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.” Littlefield asked area Chattanooga residents to donate bottled water to be given to the Georgia General Assembly in Atlanta.
Feb. 27: Matt Lea, a representative from Mayor Littlefield’s office, delivers Chattanooga’s water donation to the Georgia General Assembly.
Feb. 27: Polk County, Tenn., commission passes a resolution to dismiss plans of Georgia lawmakers calling for the annexation of land from Tennessee’s southern border.
March 3: Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield calls on lawmakers from both Tennessee and Georgia to begin trying to seriously resolve the disputed border claim.
March 4: Tennessee General Assembly members take up a resolution in committee strongly opposing Georgia’s border dispute claim.