Dry Southeast States Nearer To Water Deal

After five hours of "brutally candid" negotiations, the governors of Florida, Georgia and Alabama struck a tentative deal Monday in a 17-year battle over shared rivers.

"They agreed, at least temporarily, to shelve a plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bolster Atlanta's water supply by reducing the flow to Florida."

"And instead of suing each other, the three states will send teams of river experts to Washington in January to hash out a new plan for sharing water. The plan should be complete by February and approved by federal officials by March 15."

"The ongoing water war, intensified by this year's crippling drought across the Southeast, has pitted Atlanta's burgeoning $5-billion economy against Florida's $200-million seafood industry. So far the seafood industry has been losing, McLain said."

"So the corps' proposal to cut back the flow even further 'was like a sword hanging over the Apalachicola Bay oystermen's heads,' McLain said. Stopping that cutback, even temporarily, is good news, he said."