If you haven’t already heard about this, the current drought conditions in most of Georgia have caused some of our lawmakers to rediscover an old surveying error that resulted in Georgia’s northern boundary being about a mile south of where it should have been.
Seems if the surveyors had done their job right, the Tennessee River would have just kissed the northwest corner of Georgia, thus offering the Peach State access to its water.
Tennesseeans reacted with humor, anger and defiance Thursday to Georgia’s legislative attempt to move the border north so the drought-plagued state can tap into the Tennessee River.
“Us good Tennesseeans will take our long rifles up to Lookout Mountain and fire when ready,“ said Justin Wilson, a Nashville attorney and former deputy governor.
Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) and Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell) introduced resolutions this week to, in essence, move the state line a mile north which would run the border right through a bend in the river. Then, the legislators say, Georgia could send billions of gallons of water to parched Atlanta without Tennessee’s permission.
Shafer, Geisinger and others say an “erroneous” survey completed in 1818 placed the border 1.1 miles below what Congress had earlier established as the boundary.
Virtually every Georgia legislator signed on to the resolutions (SR 822 and HR 1206), which direct Gov. Sonny Perdue to remedy the border dispute with his Tennessee counterpart.»
Water war between the states is for real
We’re already at war with Alabama and Florida over water, so why not also Tennessee?
Of course, shifting the border wouldn’t only affect that one corner of Georgia…
The mayor of McCaysville, Ga., Buddy Finch, 78, said it’s hard to say what the long-term repercussions will be if the border dispute between Georgia and Tennessee becomes more than just a political dust up over water.
The Tennessee-Georgia state line cuts through the heart of McCaysville, separating it from Copper Hill, Tenn. If the line moves about a mile north—where some Georgians argue it belongs—Copper Hill will be swallowed by McCaysville.
[...]
Vest and Finch said they hadn’t heard about the latest fracas, but it didn’t surprise them. “People have been talking about the border up here for years,“ said Finch.
Robert K. Ballew, a Blue Ridge, Ga., lawyer who was born 82 years ago in Copper Hill “50 feet inside the Tennessee line,“ said he was not sure what the legal ramifications might be if the line moves, but he might end up Tennessean by birth, but Georgian by Supreme Court decision.
“Locally it’s always been known to be wrong and in error; that’s not in dispute,“ he said. “But there’s never been a concerted effort to change that.“ »
Georgia town at the heart of border dispute
My mother-in-law in Chattanooga lives within a mile of the Georgia line. If this silliness were actually to happen, she would end up living in Georgia without having lifted a finger.
This would also affect Georgia’s border with North Carolina, and probably Tennessee’s borders with Alabama and Mississippi and North Carolina’s border with South Carolina. So I think what’s most likely to happen is the courts will simply direct Georgia and Tennessee to make nice and negotiate on Tennessee River water for Georgia.
