Federal biologists have signed off on a plan to reduce the flow of water from Lake Lanier, the main water source for Atlanta and the focal point of a three-state water fight as the Southeast contends with a historic drought. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided that federally protected mussels can live with less water from Lanier, which could allow drought-sticken Georgia to keep more water in the drying lake. The fast-growing Atlanta region relies on the lake for drinking water. But power plants in Florida and Alabama depend on healthy river flows, as do farms, commercial fisheries, industrial users and municipalities. Florida and Alabama have balked at Georgia's effort to keep more water, arguing that its demands were unreasonable and that reducing the flows downstream could cripple their economies. At a recent three-state water meeting, the Army Corps of Engineers said it wanted to temporarily cut the flow of water to Florida by 16 percent until the drought breaks, but needed the approval of Fish and Wildlife because of the mussels. It made for a temporary truce in a tug-of-war that has pitted the states against each other for the better part of two decades, but has intensified as record drought descended over much of the region. 

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20071116/D8SUTJ801.html Associated Press, November 16, 2007