Fresh Loaf

Gov. Sonny Perdue kicked open the saloon doors in Washington, D.C., and will have a sit-down with the governors of Florida and Alabama today, as well as meeting with the Department of the Interior and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. There’s a phone-in press conference at 2:15 p.m. in which we’ll participate, so if you’ve got questions, leave them in the comments and we’ll try to get ‘em in for you.

The Corps announced that it may adjust the water releases from Buford Dam at Lake Lanier, but don’t look for a quick fix. Gov. Perdue continues to frame the crisis as man versus mussels while our neighbors to the west and south have requested that President Bush see past his rhetoric and take into account the thousands of homes, businesses and economies at stake.

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Alabama followed Florida’s lead today, asking President Bush to deny Gov. Sonny Perdue’s request to stop the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ release of water from Lake Lanier.

Citing the “profound socioeconomic” effect such an act would have on Apalachicola River and Bay’s commercial fishing industry, Florida Gov. Charles Crist told President  Bush in a letter that “further reductions would only hasten the decline of this important component of Florida’s economy.”

Crist also took an apparent swipe at Georgia’s laissez-faire development model:

Florida has enacted comprehensive water supply legislation to ensure water is available to meet the needs of its communities, prior to development. The legislation provides the plan and funding for developing alternative water supplies such as desalinazation, reuse, and conservation as well as adding new requirements for regional water supply plans to make them more useful to local governments and enhance consumptive use permitting. By ensuring water is available prior to development, Florida is, and has been, less vulnerable to periods of drought.

Zing!

Crist goes on to say the state is willing to work with Alabama, Florida and the Corps to develop a better water-sharing model, but that “reacting to the concerns of an upstream State to suspend environmental laws unilaterally at the expense of a downstream State’s ecology and economy cannot be justified in any circumstance.”

Click here for the PDF file of Gov. Charles Crist’s letter to President Bush

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