The Tennessee–Georgia water dispute is an ongoing
territorial dispute between the U.S. States of
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
and
Georgia about whether or not the border between the two states should have been located further north, allowing a small portion of the
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...
to be located in Georgia. The dispute has existed since the 19th century, but was further fueled by the increase in demand for water due to the rapid growth of the
Atlanta metropolitan area
Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...
which began in the latter 20th century.
Background
The
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...
, the largest tributary of the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
, is a long river in the
southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...
. The river drains the
Tennessee Valley watershed, and is located within four states: Tennessee,
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
,
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
, and
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. In
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. Geographically and socioculturally distinct, it comprises approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee. East Tennessee consists of 33 count ...
, the river runs through
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
, whose city limits touch the Tennessee–Georgia border in some places, and runs into Alabama south of
Nickajack Dam
Nickajack Dam is a hydroelectric dam in Marion County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of nine dams on the Tennessee River owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the mid-1960s to replace the outdated ...
less than one mile from the
tripoint
A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...
where Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama meet. The river in Tennessee reaches as close as from the Georgia state line in
Marion County.
The southern border of Tennessee was declared to be located on the
35th parallel north
The 35th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 35 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America and the Atlantic Ocean.
In the United States, the parall ...
when Tennessee was established as a state by Congress on June 1, 1796. This would have allowed a small portion of the river to be located within Georgia. Georgia, one of the original
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of Kingdom of Great Britain, British Colony, colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Fo ...
, had become a state on January 2, 1788, but did not sell its western territory to the Federal government until 1802, when the selling agreement declared Georgia's western border to be "a line from the great bend of the Chattahoochee River and thence in a direct line
orthto
Nickajack
The area known as "Nickajack" generally refers to the rugged Appalachian foothills in eastern Tennessee and northeastern Alabama. "Nickajack" is a corruption of the Cherokee word (Ani-Kusati-yi) which translates to Coosa Town, but more likely r ...
Cherokee Indian settlement">Cherokee_Indian.html" ;"title=" Cherokee Indian"> Cherokee Indian settlementon the Tennessee River... running up the said Tennessee River and along the Western Bank thereof to the Southern Boundary line of the State of Tennessee."
[ The land that Nickajack was located on is now part of Nickajack Lake, a reservoir created by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The boundary between Tennessee and Georgia, however, was not surveyed until after the Alabama Territory was created on December 10, 1817. Shortly thereafter both Tennessee and Georgia's legislatures agreed to conduct a survey of their border. Georgia appointed mathematician and ]University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
professor James Camak as part of the surveying team. The survey took place in 1818, and both teams incorrectly determined the 35th parallel north to be south of its actual location. Tennessee's 1819 code describes Nickajack as being located "one mile and twenty-eight poles due south from the south bank of the Tennessee River as found by mathematician James Camak." The actual 35th parallel north crosses the Tennessee River near present-day Haletown, Tennessee. The equipment the surveyors used was also reportedly outdated, and one of the Georgia surveyors reportedly requested that the governor provide them with more modern equipment.[ The two teams started at Georgia's northwestern corner and continued eastward placing a marker where they believed the ]tripoint
A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...
of Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
was located, and stopped near Hightower Bald in the Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...
, approximately west of the northeastern corner of Georgia.[ This survey was later ratified by Tennessee's legislature, but not Georgia's. In 1819, the Georgia legislature asked the North Carolina legislature to appoint a surveying team to meet with their team and survey the rest of the boundary. The teams met at Ellicott's Rock, located along the Chattooga River, which was constructed by astronomer and surveyor ]Andrew Ellicott
Andrew Ellicott (January 24, 1754 – August 28, 1820) was an American land surveyor who helped map many of the territories west of the Appalachians, surveyed the boundaries of the District of Columbia, continued and completed Pierre (Pete ...
in 1811, marking what he determined to be the tripoint of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
, and continued westward until they reached the location where the Georgia and Tennessee teams had stopped surveying the boundary the year before. At this point, the termination of the line surveyed the year before was about north. Instead of attempting to correct the mistake from the year before, the teams instead marked a line directly southward to connect the two lines, an offset that came to be known as Montgomery's Corner after Hugh Montgomery, one of the surveyors on the Georgia team.[
In 1826, Georgia and Alabama, which had become a state in 1819, agreed to survey their land border. The survey was conducted between where the border splits off from the ]Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...
a few miles north of present-day West Point, Georgia
West Point is a city in Troup County, Georgia, Troup and Harris County, Georgia, Harris counties in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is located approximately halfway between Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama and Atlanta ...
and the river continues into Georgia, and the tri-point of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Georgia again appointed Camak, who described the location of the Nickajack settlement in the survey documents as "about one quarter of a mile north of the Georgia–Tennessee boundary as surveyed in 1818." Camak again expressed a suspicion that his instruments were outdated and inaccurate, but endorsed the results of the survey, believing them to be accurate.[
]
Disputes
Georgia has attempted to correct what they have believed to be an error on multiple occasions, reportedly since the early 19th century. According to the ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution
''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...
'', the Georgia General Assembly reportedly first tried to correct this perceived error in 1887.[ According to a 2008 publication in the Tennessee Bar Journal, a publication of the Tennessee Bar Association, Georgia attempted to "resolve the dispute" in the 1890s, 1905, 1915, 1922, 1941, 1947 and 1971 by moving the border north to the actual 35th parallel north, allowing them access to the Tennessee River in Nickajack Lake.
The issue of water access became a much larger problem in the later 20th century, when the ]Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
metropolitan area began to grow rapidly, which continues in the present. In 2008, as a result of a serious drought and resulting water shortage
Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is where ...
, the Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...
passed a resolution directing the governor to pursue its claim in the United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. The case was never appealed to the Supreme Court, but on March 14, 2008, a Chattanooga attorney familiar with case law on border disputes said the U.S. Supreme Court generally will maintain the original borders between states and avoid stepping into border disputes, preferring the two sides work out their disputes on their own.
In 2013 the Georgia Senate
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Legal provisions
The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, with the lower house being the Georgia Ho ...
approved House Resolution 4, which states that if Tennessee declines to settle the dispute with them, the dispute will be handed over to the attorney general, who will take Tennessee before the Supreme Court to settle the issue once and for all.[ The resolution, reportedly the tenth attempt to change the border by Georgia, also declared that Georgia, not Tennessee, controls the land to the north.] The dispute was revisited again by the legislature in 2018. In 2019, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution creating a committee to negotiate with elected officials in Tennessee and North Carolina about changing the border. The resolution also authorizes other actions, such as an effort to gain access to Tennessee River water without changing the border. The resolution was vetoed by governor Brian Kemp.
Georgia has accused Tennessee on multiple occasions of unwillingness to cooperate. Tennessee lawmakers have stated on multiple occasions that they will not agree to such a resolution, and that Georgia has no right to Tennessee water.[ In 2008, then-Chattanooga mayor Ron Littlefield told '']The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' when discussing the resolution sponsored by Georgia Senator David J. Shafer, "I saw him hafergrumbling that we didn’t seem to be taking it seriously. Well, I’m sorry, we’re not."[ That same year, then-governor Phil Bredesen asked an '']Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
'' reporter, "This is a joke, right?" In 2013, when the dispute was renewed, then-governor Bill Haslam
William Edward Haslam (; born August 23, 1958) is an American billionaire businessman and politician who served as the 49th governor of Tennessee from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Haslam previously served as the 67th mayor of ...
reported through a spokesman that he was opposed to any efforts by Georgia to change the border. In 2019, Tennessee State Senator Todd Gardenhire sarcastically told a group that Georgia could have access to "all the water they want" from the Tennessee River as long as the intake is located across the river from a sewage treatment plant
Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...
at Moccasin Bend
Moccasin Bend Archeological District is an archeological site in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that is part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park unit. The National Park Service refers to it as one of the "most unique units found in t ...
in Chattanooga.
Tennessee lawmakers have also accused Georgia of failing to control the rapid growth of the Atlanta metropolitan area, the primary driver of the increased demand for water in Georgia.[ Others claim that Georgia should work toward better water conservation efforts, citing a 2013 report by the Tennessee American Water Company that determined the per-capita water use in Chattanooga to be 95 gallons per day ( per day), and 151 gallons per day in Atlanta ( per day), despite watering bans in the summer and public appeals for better conservation.] Georgia has also been engaged in a water use dispute with Alabama and Florida, who claim that Georgia's use of water from rivers that flow into Alabama and Florida is harmful to their economies. Tennessee lawmakers insist that allowing Georgia access to the Tennessee River would lead to problems similar to those that have led to the disputes with Alabama and Florida.[
The dispute has resulted in several comical political acts on multiple occasions. In 2008, Littlefield sent a truckload of bottled water and a coonskin cap to the Georgia General Assembly, saying it was "better to offer a cool, wet kiss of friendship rather than face a hot, angry legislator gone mad with thirst." Georgia legislators responded that they were happy to accept the mayor's down payment. In 2013, a Georgia lobbyist hit a golf ball from the Georgia–Tennessee border into Nickajack Lake, referring to the area as "Occupied Georgia."]
See also
*Tri-state water dispute
The tri-state water dispute is a 21st-century water-use conflict among the U.S. states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over flows in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin. The U.S. Army ...
* List of territorial disputes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennessee-Georgia water dispute
Internal territorial disputes of the United States
Tennessee River
Borders of Tennessee
Borders of Georgia (U.S. state)