Georgia state senators push litigation in Tennessee border dispute

Jeff Gill in the Gainesville Times examines the brilliant new way of addressing water and climate issues – an asinine legal battle against a neighboring state that has water. It’s even better when their justification involve a two-century-old survey: The Georgia Senate has approved a resolution seeking to resolve a longstanding border dispute with Tennessee and shore up Georgia’s water supply in the process.

Today’s vote was 48-2, with an amendment added, directing the attorney general to start litigation if no agreement is reached with Tennessee. In essence, the legislative measure would allow Tennessee to keep 66 square miles and Georgia to take in 1 1/2 acres and give access to the Tennessee River.

“The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified the Tennessee River as a likely source of water for North Georgia,” said Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth. ”Yet the State of Tennessee has used mismarked boundary lines to block our access to this important waterway.”

Georgia’s streams and creeks “feed the Tennessee River,” Shafer said. “In fact, over 6 percent of the water of the Tennessee River originates in Georgia.” House Resolution 4 now returns to the House for agreement on amendments made by the Senate.

The dispute stems from an 1818 survey that improperly placed the Georgia-Tennessee boundary one mile south of the mutually agreed-upon border at the 35th parallel….

A beautiful example of Finley's important 1827 map of Tennessee. Depicts the state with moderate detail in Finley's classic minimalist style. Shows river ways, roads, canals, and some topographical features. Offers color coding at the county level. Title and scale in upper left quadrant. Finley's map of Tennessee is particularly interesting and important due to its portrayal of the rapidly changing American Indian situation in the south eastern part of the state. In 1827 a substantial part of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia was a confined territory assigned to the Lower Creek and Cherokee nations. Finley's map details the borders of this country as defined by the Tennessee and Hiwasssee Rivers. Also notes American Indian villages and missionary stations, including the Brainerd Mission, within and adjacent to the Cherokee territory. Just four years after this map was made the Creek and Cherokee would forcibly relocated westward in the infamous Trail of Tears. Engraved by Young and Delleker for the 1827 edition of Anthony Finley's General Atlas .

Tennessee enacts evolution, climate change law; America is doomed

Neela Banerjee in the Los Angeles Times: Tennessee enacted a law Tuesday that critics contend allows public school teachers to challenge climate change and evolution in their classrooms without fear of sanction.

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam allowed the controversial measure to become law without his signature and, in a statement, expressed misgivings about it. Nevertheless, he ignored pleas from educators, parents and civil libertarians to veto the bill.

The law does not require the teaching of alternatives to scientific theories of evolution, climate change and "the chemical origins of life." Instead, it aims to prevent school administrators from reining in teachers who expound on alternative hypotheses to those topics.

...The bill's critics, which include the Tennessee Science Teachers Assn. and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, counter that teachers currently have no problem addressing unconventional ideas and challenges that students bring up. They argue, instead, that the measure gives legal cover to teachers to introduce pseudoscientific ideas.

...The law is likely to stoke growing concerns among teachers around the country that teaching climate science is becoming the same kind of classroom and community flash point as evolution. Tennessee is now the second state, after Louisiana, to allow the teaching of alternatives to accepted science on climate change....

John T. Scopes, shortly before the infamous 1925 Monkey Trial, in which he was found guilty of teaching evolution in a classroom, the brute

Flood damage vexes Tennessee residents

John Pape in Disaster News Network: While much of the focus on the Mississippi River flooding is on the crest as it moves downstream into Louisiana, the recovery has begun in upstream areas like Memphis. Assessment teams from federal and state agencies, working with volunteers from a host of faith-based organizations, have begun to determine how much work will needed to rehabilitate the more than 700 homes that have been classified as “uninhabitable” after being inundated by floodwaters.

Still, recovery officials said, many parts of the Memphis area remain under water and the full extent of the damage will probably not be known for several more weeks. In its latest update, the Shelby County Office of Preparedness said both the City of Memphis and the county were only beginning the process of assessing the level of damage sustained by the flooding. In many cases, roads are still flooded.

“The Mississippi River and its tributaries will remain high for several more days. This will slow down the clean-up effort and prolong traffic delays,” the county said in a statement. “Many streets and intersections are closed because of high water.”…

NASA image of flooded Memphis, May 10 2011

Tennessee climate change is so subtle it's hard to gauge

Anne Paine in the Tennessean: The U.S. Department of Agriculture chief calls climate change "one of the greatest threats facing our planet," but little attention is being paid to it in Tennessee's farming world. More rain is falling in autumn in the Southeast than a century ago. Droughts have increased in spring and summer, and the temperature has made a slight move upward, particularly since 1970.

It's projected to continue to rise, according to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Increasingly extreme weather is likely, such as heavier downpours and more intense droughts in some areas. Yet change in Tennessee could be difficult to tabulate, according to Joanne Logan, an associate professor of biosystems engineering and soil engineering at the University of Tennessee.

"In Tennessee, everything is pretty subtle," she said, adding that research has not been plentiful when it comes to agriculture and climate change here. If small changes are occurring under the radar, a trigger point could be reached suddenly where ecosystems as a whole could fail, unable to make changes quickly enough to keep up, she said.

…It's difficult for Tennesseans to be alarmed when faraway tundra melts or oceans rise, she said. But there are things worth noting here. "Who would have thought fire ants would make it up this far north?" she said….

The summit of Inadu Knob in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the southeastern United States. This view is from the high-altitude helicopter landing area along the Appalachian Trail. Shot by Brian Stansberry, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative CommonsAttribution 3.0 Unported license

Citizen's voice: Our water supply crucial for future

Lance Miller in Knox News, Citizen’s Voice (Tennessee): ...As East Tennessee emerges from one of the most dreary winters in recent memory, the spring rains remind me of these lines of poetry from my childhood. Given the amount of rain we have been receiving, it is tempting to believe that our water supply is abundant and endlessly renewable. It is also tempting to believe that seasonal droughts like the one our neighbors to the south in the Atlanta area have recently experienced are merely regional problems that will resolve with time.

Not so, explained activist Maude Barlow at a recent colloquium series on global water supplies and water politics sponsored by the Baker Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee.

Barlow is a best-selling author and has won several educational awards and honorary degrees. During her presentation at the Baker Center she warned of an impending global clean water supply shortage crisis that threatens economies, public health and the stability of nations worldwide. To illustrate the problem, she explained that if the Earth's total water supply was represented by a gallon, then the total freshwater supply available for drinking represents but half a teaspoon. Moreover, the rate at which we are depleting our water supply through consumption, exporting, agricultural and industrial use is simply unsustainable.

As water shortages reach crisis levels, they can contribute to civil unrest and exacerbate the public health problems caused by poverty. This could ultimately lead to regional conflicts over water supplies and geopolitical shifts. All of these conditions create fertile breeding grounds for terrorist ideologies and recruitment. That's right - water is a national security issue, too…

An old water tower in Brodnicka, Podgorne, Poland, shot by Arctgx, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Record rainfall disrupts Nashville

The Tennessean.com: Nashville Electric Service is reporting 38,000 people without power in the Nashville area. NES asks for 2-3 days for recovery of power in all areas. NES has 22 crews working at this time. 39 contract crews arriving Monday morning to help with restoration.

Several Metro water stations are without power, causing low water pressure in some Nashville communities. Metro Water Services is trying to get generators to the pump stations without power, but hazardous road conditions are slowing down services crews, said Sonia Harvat, Metro water spokeswoman.

The outages are disrupting water flow in the Whites Creek, Joelton, West Mead Hills and Time Valley communities. Harvat did not know when the problems would be fixed, but said overall, the county’s waste and treatment facilities are still working properly and Nashville’s water is safe.

At least 20 homes in Fieldstone Farms subdivision have been evacuated by police and fire rescuers, who are going up to front doors in a small boat. Officials are saying that the water level will continue to rise….

Satellite view of Nashville, from October 2006

Agency says wildlife-rich Tennessee has lot to lose with global warming

Tennessee.com: Brook trout, the state's only native trout, could disappear. Wood duck wouldn't be found as often raising their young along waterways and in wetlands. Drying of prairie potholes and marshes to the north could mean fewer mallard, northern pin-tail, blue-winged teal and other ducks migrating to Tennessee in winter, resulting in shorter hunting seasons.

These are among many possibilities that the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency lists in a new report showing that significant change would be in store for the state and its residents — the people, plants and wildlife — with global warming. The report was issued last week as Congress debates climate change legislation that could provide funds for wildlife agencies to address potential impacts….

…Tennessee, known for its variety of species, has much to lose. It's home to 77 amphibian species, which include 21 types of frogs and 56 kinds of salamanders, which make it third in the nation for the most variety in amphibians, according to TWRA. And the slippery slope is already underfoot.

…Proposed strategies in the report include protecting key ecosystem features, such as stream banks and headwater streams, maintaining a mix of habitat types, restoring habitats and ecosystems with at-risk species and reforesting bottomland hardwoods that can sequester carbon. Also, monitoring of changes as they occur is recommended along with research to identify the species and ecosystems most vulnerable to climate change….

A Canadian goose and turtle at Radnor Lake in Nashville, Tennessee, shot by Kaldari, who has generously released the image into the public domain