ATLANTA — Georgia would give up its longstanding claim to 66 square miles of Tennessee — including East Ridge and Lookout Mountain — if it’s given a strip of land to tap into the Tennessee River under proposed legislation that cleared a hurdle this afternoon in the Georgia Senate.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill authored by state Rep. Harry Geisinger, R-Roswell, who says Georgia’s actual border is at the 35th parallel — right in the middle of Nickajack Lake.
Geisinger told committee members that his bill, which already passed the House in a 171-2 vote, is a good offer for Tennessee.
A pipeline could take up to one billion gallons a day from the Tennessee River and deliver it to Georgia, Alabama and Florida with “little or no effect” on the river, Geisinger said, basing that figure on a 2004 study by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The judiciary committee approved the legislation, with the exception of Sen. Jason Carter, D-Decatur, who cast a symbolic “no” vote because he thinks Georgia should try to take back all of the disputed territory.
Sen. Carter is a grandson of former President Jimmy Carter.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Tim Omarzu covers Catoosa and Walker counties for the Times Free Press. Omarzu is a longtime journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor at daily and weekly newspapers in Michigan, Nevada and California. Stories he's covered include crime in blighted parts of metro Detroit and Reno, Nev.; environmental activists tree-sitting in California's Sierra Nevada foothills; attempts by the Michigan Militia to take over a township¹s government in northern Michigan. A native of Michigan, ...
