Three states seek to keep water rights talks secret

AJC: 

Georgia, Alabama and Florida are asking a federal judge to order that their water rights negotiations be kept secret.

In a motion filed this week, the three states say keeping their talks and related documents confidential "may encourage the open exchange of information and proposals necessary to address the issues... and discourage the improper dissemination of the same."

Some observers object.

"We actually keep asking ourselves ‘What is it that has got to be concealed here?'" said Sally Bethea, executive director of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, a Georgia water protection group.

"After 20 years, don't we all basically know the facts? Is this confidentiality arrangement really something just to serve as cover for political leaders -- the governors? Bottom line, we think secrecy is not in the best interest of all the people in the three states who rely on these river systems."

The executive committee of the ACF Stakeholders objected to the states' request in a letter sent to Federal District Judge Paul Magnuson Wednesday. The committee spoke for itself in the letter and not for the ACF Stakeholders' 95 members, which include power companies, local governments, environmentalists and others in Georgia and Florida that may have different positions on the issue.

“Making decisions that affect the lives of millions of people in secrecy will not garner the support necessary to sustain the implementation of the decisions," Wilton Rooks, chairman of the ACF Stakeholders executive committee wrote in the letter.

Asked about the reasons for the request for secrecy, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue referred the AJC back to the motion before the judge.

Posted via email from Jim Nichols for GA State House