Border dispute a ‘ heinous assault’ by Georgia, Tennessee lawmakers say

Monday, February 25, 2008


By:
Andy Sher (Contact)

NASHVILLE — A top Tennessee legislative leader intends to introduce a resolution today that puts the state on record as officially rebuffing efforts by Georgia lawmakers to revisit a 190-year-old border dispute.

The resolution by Tennessee House Majority Leader Gary Odom, D-Nashville, says that “in the face of Georgia’s heinous assault on the sovereignty of Tennessee, this General Assembly must act expeditiously and with authority to protect the borders of our state for present and future generations.”

It says “this General Assembly refuses to participate in the Boundary Line Commission purportedly established by the Georgia General Assembly, or any similar commission established for such purpose.”

Georgia lawmakers last week passed a resolution creating a commission to revisit what it says was a faulty 1818 survey of the state line. With Georgia and in particular, Atlanta, dealing with an historic Southeastern U.S. drought, Georgia lawmakers are seeking to move the border 1.1 miles north.

Doing so would move into Georgia a section of the Tennessee River in Marion County at Nickajack Lake as well as portions of Chattanooga, East Ridge and the town of Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

The Tennessee resolution calls Georgia’s effort an “election-year ploy” that is little more than a “veiled attempt to commandeer the resources of the Tennessee River for the benefit of water-starved Atlanta, which is either unable or unwilling to control its reckless urban sprawl.”

The Tennessee resolution says the Tennessee-Georgia state line has been “well established for nearly 200 years, and that there is no valid reason for Tennessee to revisit this issue.”

It says that in addition to the doctrine of “adverse possession, in which long-term possession of real property trumps survey boundaries, all other pertinent legal precedent favors the Volunteer State, just as good fortune often smiles upon the righteous.”

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