Border disputeNASHVILLE – Run to your bunkers, Georgia lawmakers: Incoming fire’s heading across the border, courtesy of your Tennessee counterparts.
Tennessee House members cheered, whistled and noisily clapped today as a Nashville colleague launched a verbal barrage at Georgia’s demands for access to Tennessee River water to slake the state’s thirst.
“I believe that we might be the Volunteer state, but I believe in no way should we surrender any part of our state, particularly land and water we’ve possessed for nearly 200 years,” Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, said in his floor speech.
“Just because another state and a specific large city in that state has not done a better job for planning and development, they do not have a right to what the laws and the citizens of Tennessee [have],” Powell said. “As far as I’m concerned Georgia can keep its greedy hands and its thirsty mouths away from our water.”
Replied House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga: “I believe the representative can rest easy.”