Georgia/Tennessee Water Settlement Proposal
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, April 26, 2013 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Good morning, Jim. A mistake was made in 1818 when the boundary between Georgia and Tennessee was drawn. The surveyor put the boundary one mile south of the actual location of the 35th parallel. Since then, several resolutions and acts by both Georgia and Tennessee have recognized the problem, but the boundary has not been corrected. That might not be an issue to the State of Tennessee, but a corrected border would give Georgia access to water in the Tennessee River at Nickajack.
H.R. 4 proposes a remedy to the error of 1818 and asks Tennessee to settle the dispute by adopting the proper location of the boundary as outlined in the bill. If Tennessee rejects these conditions and Georgia insists on a corrected boundary, Georgia could file suit against Tennessee to set the 35th parallel of north latitude as the true and correct boundary.
H.R. 4 gives Tennessee until the last day of the 2014 legislative session to reach an agreement OR the Georgia Attorney General will be directed to take whatever action necessary to file suit in the U.S. Supreme Court against Tennessee for final settlement of the boundary issue.H.R. 4 is a good bill and it did pass, but I’m always astonished when a good bill that would preserve evidence of our heritage is left in committee to die. H.B. 91 introduced by Representative Benton on January 28th went to the State Properties committee and it’s still there.
H.B. 91 would protect government statues, monuments, plaques, banners and other commemorative symbols that are erected, constructed, created, or maintained on state government property. If it were to pass next session, such government property could not be relocated, removed, concealed, obscured or altered in any way by any officer or agency. Anyone who damages, destroys, or loses a monument or takes or removes a monument without replacing it would be responsible got repairing it or replacing it and must repay the state for attorney fees and court costs if the issue has to be settled in court.
H.B. 91 also protects privately owned monuments located on private property and gives the private property owner the right to sue for injury or damages if this were to become law. The bad news is it didn’t pass this session. The good news is it remains alive for next session. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.