Drought Weary Governors Take Fight to Washington

It's been called the Tri-State Water War, and it's coming to the nation's capital.

The governors of Alabama, Georgia and Florida will meet at the White House today to carve out a compromise on how to use Lake Lanier, the main water supply for Atlanta, but also the source of water for dozens of communities, and wildlife downstream in Alabama and Florida.

The war has been simmering for years -- even while conservation and planning went by the wayside during a period of unbridled suburban sprawl -- but the conflict boiled over with the historic drought gripping the region. There's little prospect for relief, with a La Nina weather pattern promising to starve the region of water during the next several months, which are supposed to be its dry months anyway. The problem started when the wet season didn't turn out too wet.

Like the California wildfires, this crisis is a product of both the environment and human action -- the environment can create problems, but in both cases it was humans that failed to prepare for predictable vagaries of the weather.

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