The Singlebarbed Legal department is keeping a close watch on the Georgia drought issue, in part because it’s likely to become a big issue for us fishermen, and part because they smell blood in the water.

Last week Georgia sued the Army Corp of Engineers to reduce the outflow of water from Lake Lanier, the Army Corp of Engineers being bound by the Endangered Species Act to keep flows at a specific level.

In response, the Governor’s of Alabama and Florida have appealed to the White House:

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wrote a letter this week to President Bush saying his state is “unwilling to allow the unrealistic demands of one region (Georgia) to further compromise the downstream communities.”

Crist said allowing Georgia to fight drought by slowing water flow into Florida would imperil commercial fishing along the Florida Panhandle, and contended the three states need to work together on more research into alternative water sources.

His letter echoed a similar one that Alabama Gov. Bob Riley had sent to the president.

What makes this issue doubly important is that much of the power generation in the area is water-based, and reduced flows means reduced power. Your choice of a brownout or dehydration, neither being palatable to voters.

…and one of those plants is Nuclear, which requires plenty of cooling water around the reactor core. If memory serves a reactor can be shutdown with some planning, but the startup takes a great deal longer.

No, there is little chance of a large mushroom cloud – but as this issue heats up there could well be the political equivalent.

Technorati Tags: Georgia drought, lawsuit, Army Corp of Engineers, Endangered Species Act