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Crist Opposes River Water-Sharing Plan, Officials Say

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By BILLY HOUSE and MIKE SALINERO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 10, 2007

WASHINGTON - Just nine days ago, Florida, Georgia and Alabama seemed on the verge of resolving a 17-year-old battle over each state's share of water in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint rivers system.

But a compromise reached that day appeared to come undone Friday when a top Florida official said the state was opposed to a key element of the deal.

Gov. Charlie Crist raised no objections last week when appearing at a Washington news conference where the Army Corps of Engineers announced a plan that would reduce water flow into Florida's Apalachicola River.

On Friday, however, Michael Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said the state opposes the plan, which the corps proposed as a way to restock drought-stricken Atlanta's water supply.

Crist was out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

In a letter to federal officials released Friday, Sole said the flow-reduction plan would "starve the Apalachicola River and Bay of freshwater flows needed to keep ecosystems, species and the economy alive."

Sole went on to write that if the plan is implemented, it should only last through Feb. 15 - by which time Crist and Govs. Bob Riley of Alabama and Sonny Perdue of Georgia are to have come up with a long-range plan for sharing water.

The three states have been feuding over water rights since 1990, but a relentless Southeastern drought has reignited the tensions.

Sole's remarks were puzzling, coming more than a week after Crist, Perdue and Riley joined top Bush administration officials to announce an agreement in the fight over flows in the three-river system.

But DEP spokeswoman Sarah Williams and other state officials said Crist's position on the matter had been misconstrued by much of the media.

"It was incorrectly reported that the governor agreed to it," Williams said.

The tone of the next-day's newspaper stories upset some Crist administration staffers, including one that carried a headline blaring, "Florida Loses Battle for Water." And Crist has since come under heavy criticism from the fishing industry, local leaders and environmentalists.

But Williams said the reality was that Crist and other state officials had not even seen the corps' proposed "Exceptional Drought Operations" until after the governor's return from Washington.

"Now we have" seen the corps' plan, Williams said. "We reviewed it, and Secretary Sole's letter is addressing our concerns with the corps' proposal."

Department of the Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne had taken a leading role among Bush administration officials in brokering what had seemed to be a compromise on an interim plan until a more permanent strategy could be devised.

Kempthorne spokesman Shane Wolfe would not comment Friday on what Florida's opposition might mean to the plan.

"I am not going to speculate on what might be the next step," Wolfe said.

However, he said Kempthorne made it clear the process was in the hands of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which will issue an opinion next week on whether the corps' proposal would harm endangered species.

The governors will next get together on Dec. 12 in Tallahassee to continue talking about the issue.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero

@tampatrib.com.

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