Mapmaker's border error raises new water war front
By DAN CHAPMAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/10/08
In 1818, a University of Georgia mathematician named James Camak established the boundary between Georgia and Tennessee.
He screwed up. Georgia, especially during times of drought, has paid the price ever since.
Georgia legislators want to move the border with Tennessee 1.1 miles north -- to its original, yet disputed boundary (top red line) -- so they can freely tap the bountiful Tennessee River. The bottom red line shows the current border.
Mapmaker's border error raises new water war front
Today, Georgia legislators masquerading as mapmakers hope to fix Camak's error. They introduced resolutions last week to move the state line 1.1 miles northward ? smack into the middle of the bountiful Tennessee River. Billions of gallons of water could then flow unimpeded to parched metro Atlanta.
"The Tennessee River was part of Georgia long before there was a state of Tennessee," said Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), the resolution's sponsor. "I don't understand why a water-sharing agreement can't be worked out between the two states."
Tennesseeans scoffed at the legislation, saying Georgia's irresponsible growth prompts the water grab. "This is just a distraction from the real problem," said Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield.
Some legal scholars and water-rights experts question Georgia's broadside. The border may have been inaccurately drawn, they say, but it has been accepted for generations.
Others say portions of Georgia's case hold water.
"Boundaries for the oldest states were not very accurate," said Joseph Zimmerman, an expert on interstate relations at the University of Albany in New York. "Boundary disputes continue even to this day. This case seems straightforward and perfectly constitutional."
Congress established the state of Tennessee in 1796 and designated its southern boundary, and Georgia's northern one, as the 35th parallel.
With a commission from Georgia Gov. William Rabun, Camak perched atop a hill on the south bank of the Tennessee River to take measurements. On June 1, 1818, the mathematician planted the Camak Stone boundary marker.
"Interestingly," wrote Greg Spies, a Troy University professor who retraced Camak's journey in 2003, "the state line ... marked by this monument is more than a mile south of the actual 35th parallel."
In 1826, Camak acknowledged his error. He wrote that "the astronomical tables which I was compelled to use were not such as I could have wished them to be." And his sextant ? a device that measures distance via the stars ? was better suited for navigation at sea than boundary-making on land.
Fifty-one square miles of Georgia ? including a portion of the Tennessee River ? were placed in Tennessee.
"Because of a series of historical accidents, the state of Georgia should have full access to those sweet waters of the Tennessee River," Bart Crattie, a land surveyor registered in Tennessee and Georgia, wrote last month in The American Surveyor.
Shafer and Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell), with dozens of co-sponsors, hope to redress the mistake through SR 822 and HR 1206.
The resolutions request that Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen fix the border, and that boundary commissions from both states re-survey the line. And they want it done by January.
If the two states cannot resolve the dispute, the courts, and possibly Congress, will be beseeched.
"The Camak survey was never accepted by the Legislature of Georgia," said Shafer, who expects the Senate to vote on his resolution this week. "It's never too late to right a wrong."
'Adverse possession'
Justin Wilson, a Nashville attorney and former deputy governor of Tennessee, said the law of "adverse possession" renders Georgia's challenge moot.
Say your neighbor built a fence on your property, paid taxes on the land for years and you let it happen without complaint.
As owner, you've abandoned your right to the property, according to that interpretation of the law.
"I'm sure Tennessee would argue that's an implicit consent," said John Kincaid, an expert on federalism at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.
"If Georgia hasn't complained for almost 200 years, it's kind of a settled issue. Georgia is just complaining now because of the water problem."
However, Georgia's General Assembly has tried unsuccessfully at least four times since 1887 to establish boundary commissions with Tennessee, according to two attorneys who provided Shafer and Geisinger with the legal ammunition to fight the border war.
"There is no statute of limitations for losing a state's boundary such as this," said Brad Carver, who heads the government affairs practice for Hall, Booth, Smith & Slover in Atlanta.
Carver and Eugene Holmes, a University of Mississippi professor and water law expert, suggest that Georgia might more readily prevail in federal court rather than with Tennessee officials. The river, after all, is managed by a federal agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority.
"For the purposes of deciding an interstate water dispute, federal law should pre-empt any inconsistent state law, such as Tennessee's statute declaring the erroneous survey line as the true border," Carver and Holmes wrote in a white paper buttressing Georgia's claim.
The U.S. Supreme Court generally handles interstate disputes and is expected to settle an ongoing water battle between the Carolinas. South Carolina sued North Carolina last year over the distribution of the Catawba River, which flows through both states.
The Supreme Court appointed a "special master" last month to make recommendations to the justices.
Randy Gentry, director of the Southeastern Water Resources Institute at the University of Tennessee, said the Carolinas' dispute could be "precedent-setting," with implications for Georgia and Tennessee.
"Both states will likely be unwilling to do any arbitration, so it will likely go to the Supreme Court," he said. "It will be long, litigious and expensive and the [result] may not be to the liking of either party."
Water for Georgia
Carver said the Tennessee River contains plenty of water to slake metro Atlanta's thirst.
The TVA studied whether the river in 2030 would be plentiful enough to ship a billion gallons daily to the Atlanta, Birmingham and northeast Mississippi regions. The authority already sends water to numerous communities via Inter-Basin Transfers (IBTs).
The 2004 study concluded that the additional "IBTs are not likely to substantially affect future reservoir elevations" of the river. Metro Atlanta could receive 264 million gallons a day ? triple the average amount used daily by the city of Atlanta last December ? with minimal impact on the river.
"We're just asking for our proportion, for a larger share of the river," Carver said.
.............................................................
Give us our water back you Vols !
By DAN CHAPMAN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/10/08
In 1818, a University of Georgia mathematician named James Camak established the boundary between Georgia and Tennessee.
He screwed up. Georgia, especially during times of drought, has paid the price ever since.
Georgia legislators want to move the border with Tennessee 1.1 miles north -- to its original, yet disputed boundary (top red line) -- so they can freely tap the bountiful Tennessee River. The bottom red line shows the current border.
Mapmaker's border error raises new water war front
Today, Georgia legislators masquerading as mapmakers hope to fix Camak's error. They introduced resolutions last week to move the state line 1.1 miles northward ? smack into the middle of the bountiful Tennessee River. Billions of gallons of water could then flow unimpeded to parched metro Atlanta.
"The Tennessee River was part of Georgia long before there was a state of Tennessee," said Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), the resolution's sponsor. "I don't understand why a water-sharing agreement can't be worked out between the two states."
Tennesseeans scoffed at the legislation, saying Georgia's irresponsible growth prompts the water grab. "This is just a distraction from the real problem," said Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield.
Some legal scholars and water-rights experts question Georgia's broadside. The border may have been inaccurately drawn, they say, but it has been accepted for generations.
Others say portions of Georgia's case hold water.
"Boundaries for the oldest states were not very accurate," said Joseph Zimmerman, an expert on interstate relations at the University of Albany in New York. "Boundary disputes continue even to this day. This case seems straightforward and perfectly constitutional."
Congress established the state of Tennessee in 1796 and designated its southern boundary, and Georgia's northern one, as the 35th parallel.
With a commission from Georgia Gov. William Rabun, Camak perched atop a hill on the south bank of the Tennessee River to take measurements. On June 1, 1818, the mathematician planted the Camak Stone boundary marker.
"Interestingly," wrote Greg Spies, a Troy University professor who retraced Camak's journey in 2003, "the state line ... marked by this monument is more than a mile south of the actual 35th parallel."
In 1826, Camak acknowledged his error. He wrote that "the astronomical tables which I was compelled to use were not such as I could have wished them to be." And his sextant ? a device that measures distance via the stars ? was better suited for navigation at sea than boundary-making on land.
Fifty-one square miles of Georgia ? including a portion of the Tennessee River ? were placed in Tennessee.
"Because of a series of historical accidents, the state of Georgia should have full access to those sweet waters of the Tennessee River," Bart Crattie, a land surveyor registered in Tennessee and Georgia, wrote last month in The American Surveyor.
Shafer and Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell), with dozens of co-sponsors, hope to redress the mistake through SR 822 and HR 1206.
The resolutions request that Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen fix the border, and that boundary commissions from both states re-survey the line. And they want it done by January.
If the two states cannot resolve the dispute, the courts, and possibly Congress, will be beseeched.
"The Camak survey was never accepted by the Legislature of Georgia," said Shafer, who expects the Senate to vote on his resolution this week. "It's never too late to right a wrong."
'Adverse possession'
Justin Wilson, a Nashville attorney and former deputy governor of Tennessee, said the law of "adverse possession" renders Georgia's challenge moot.
Say your neighbor built a fence on your property, paid taxes on the land for years and you let it happen without complaint.
As owner, you've abandoned your right to the property, according to that interpretation of the law.
"I'm sure Tennessee would argue that's an implicit consent," said John Kincaid, an expert on federalism at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.
"If Georgia hasn't complained for almost 200 years, it's kind of a settled issue. Georgia is just complaining now because of the water problem."
However, Georgia's General Assembly has tried unsuccessfully at least four times since 1887 to establish boundary commissions with Tennessee, according to two attorneys who provided Shafer and Geisinger with the legal ammunition to fight the border war.
"There is no statute of limitations for losing a state's boundary such as this," said Brad Carver, who heads the government affairs practice for Hall, Booth, Smith & Slover in Atlanta.
Carver and Eugene Holmes, a University of Mississippi professor and water law expert, suggest that Georgia might more readily prevail in federal court rather than with Tennessee officials. The river, after all, is managed by a federal agency, the Tennessee Valley Authority.
"For the purposes of deciding an interstate water dispute, federal law should pre-empt any inconsistent state law, such as Tennessee's statute declaring the erroneous survey line as the true border," Carver and Holmes wrote in a white paper buttressing Georgia's claim.
The U.S. Supreme Court generally handles interstate disputes and is expected to settle an ongoing water battle between the Carolinas. South Carolina sued North Carolina last year over the distribution of the Catawba River, which flows through both states.
The Supreme Court appointed a "special master" last month to make recommendations to the justices.
Randy Gentry, director of the Southeastern Water Resources Institute at the University of Tennessee, said the Carolinas' dispute could be "precedent-setting," with implications for Georgia and Tennessee.
"Both states will likely be unwilling to do any arbitration, so it will likely go to the Supreme Court," he said. "It will be long, litigious and expensive and the [result] may not be to the liking of either party."
Water for Georgia
Carver said the Tennessee River contains plenty of water to slake metro Atlanta's thirst.
The TVA studied whether the river in 2030 would be plentiful enough to ship a billion gallons daily to the Atlanta, Birmingham and northeast Mississippi regions. The authority already sends water to numerous communities via Inter-Basin Transfers (IBTs).
The 2004 study concluded that the additional "IBTs are not likely to substantially affect future reservoir elevations" of the river. Metro Atlanta could receive 264 million gallons a day ? triple the average amount used daily by the city of Atlanta last December ? with minimal impact on the river.
"We're just asking for our proportion, for a larger share of the river," Carver said.
.............................................................
Give us our water back you Vols !
