Tennessee has plenty of water. Georgia has far less and wants some of ours. So Georgia House Speaker David Ralston proposes that in exchange for water from the Tennessee River, Georgia might give Tennessee better transportation access – in some form – to the Atlanta airport and to the seaport at Savannah. That could be of benefit to our new Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga.
We obviously treasure our water supplies, while understanding Georgia’s need for more water.
But it is sensible that Tennessee officials are being extremely cautious about making any offers to part with some of our water – whatever Georgia might offer in return. A carefully crafted deal of some sort might possibly make sense at some point. But it shouldn’t in any way compromise Tennessee’s water supplies.