Bill to change Georgia’s border with Tenn. moves forward

Reported By: Sandra Parrish from wsbradio.com

ATLANTA — A State Senate committee signs off on a plan to change Georgia’s border with Tennessee.

The resolution would give up most of Georgia’s claim to 66 square miles wrongly given to Tennessee in a faulty survey in 1818.  It seeks just 1.5 square miles to build a pipeline into the Tennessee River.

It’s a mission attorney Brad Carver has spent the last six years pursuing.

“What we could in essence do is to tap that river through an inter-basin transfer and solve our state’s water problem for the next 100 to 200 years,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.

Carver says a 2004 environmental impact study found the Tennessee River had in excess of 1 billion gallons of water a day that could be easily be shared with other states at no detriment to its own.

The resolution has already passed the House and if it passes the Senate, Gov. Nathan Deal would be urged to take the proposal to Tennessee’s legislature and governor.

Carver says it would be in the best interest of Georgia’s neighbor to the north to comply.

“If the Supreme Court follows its own precedent when it deals with boundary disputes just like this one, Georgia will win,” he says.  “And we won’t just win the water; we’ll win the whole 30,000 people, all that real estate, including some very valuable land.”

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