A new Frontier in Water Wars in the East - NY Times... -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 3/3/2003
Last Visited: 3/20/2003
"This past year, we came within feet of shutting down nuclear power plants because there wasn't sufficient water to cool them," said Freddy Vang, the deputy director of natural resources in South Carolina, which is enmeshed in disputes with North Carolina, over the Pee Dee, and with Georgia, over the Savannah."At the same time, we came within feet of shutting down major municipal water supplies because they couldn't pump water anymore.
"So the question is, how do we take a shared resource and manage it to both entities' benefit?"Mr. Vang said."And right now, there are zero rules."
Compared with the West, where rivers like the Colorado were long ago apportioned drop by drop, most of the East is an empty page when it comes to deciding how much water a state can draw from a river.Until recently, that did not seem much of a bother, because most rivers seemed abundant.But then came the summer lows.
...
At the height of last summer's drought, Mr. Vang, the South Carolina official, went to North Carolina and successfully appealed to his counterparts there for more water to be released.South Carolina is also trying to persuade the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates the power plants, to guarantee more water for the state.
But the two states have yet to agree on a formula, despite what experts say is an increasingly pressing need to do so across the region.