Water wars

From USA Today:

Now comes a tougher challenge: resolving new and long-standing disputes over water that some experts say could hamper the region's emergence as an economic and population powerhouse. In a part of the nation where water shortages have not traditionally been an issue, it's difficult to tell whether even a historic drought has made a lasting difference, some scholars say.

"The Southeast has not yet come to grips with the fact that it has a water problem, that it needs to plan for its water usage, that it can't take for granted that all the water it needs will always be there," says Robin Craig, a law professor and water expert at Florida State University's College of Law.

Bitter battles over water could thwart the Southeast's evolution as one of 10 "mega-regions" across the USA, says Harry West, a professor at Georgia Tech's Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development.

"We've got to get around the parochial way of thinking about things and understand that these issues don't stop at the state line," he says.

Graeme Lockaby, director of Auburn University's Water Resources Center, says the Southeast needs a regional approach. "A lot of these watersheds cross state lines," he says. "Ideally, you would get people that have a vested interest in a river basin to just come to the table on a rational basis and try to work things out."

The article goes on to talk about inter-state disputes between Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and also between the Carolinas.

Just a foretaste of what's to come if our weather follows the patterns of the past several years, i suspect.