Interstate Water Allocation in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia: New Issues, New Methods, New Models (review)

T H E A L A B A M A R E V I E W 154 ply because there are no sources—to give the reader a sense of the man as a human being, a sense of his interior life. Young seems to have had many friends but few intimates; even his family letters are not deeply personal. Holland tells Young’s story in clear if pedestrian prose, but the complexity of that story and that lack of a sense of Young’s inner life make it unlikely that the book would be a very gripping read for the non-specialist . Still, for the student of black educational history, this is an enlightening account of an interesting and genuinely heroic life. GEORGE F. BAGBY Hampden-Sydney College Interstate Water Allocation in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia: New Issues, New Methods, New Models. Edited by Jeffrey L. Jordan and Aaron T. Wolf. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006. xiv, 271 pp. $59.95. ISBN 0-8130-2934-1. This collection of essays examines ongoing “water wars” between Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The three states have been at odds over water allocations in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin since the early 1990s. An adjacent river basin, the AlabamaCoosa -Tallapoosa (ACT), has also been a source of contention between Alabama and Georgia because of inter-basin transfers of water from tributaries of the Coosa basin into the Chattahoochee basin. The essays in this volume—drawn from a project funded by the United States Geological Survey through the Southeast Regional Water Resources Research Institutes—evaluate numerous studies conducted before and during the short life of the ACF and ACT interstate compacts. These studies enhance our understanding of the effects of water allocation in each basin. This book covers aspects of water allocation issues ranging from analyses of stakeholders to a discussion of hydrologic models and presents them in terms easily understood by lay readers. This interdisciplinary approach makes for a volume that will appeal to both academics and practitioners in the fields of geological, hydrological, sociological, legal, and public policy studies. Ample and detailed maps of each river basin are provided throughout to assist with the learning process. A P R I L 2 0 0 7 155 Several essays discuss interstate compacts in regions throughout the country, draw conclusions, and make recommendations for water negotiations in the Deep South. Others focus on legal issues surrounding the compacts, water law in the United States, and international river basin agreements. Several essays describe in copious detail issues and concerns of water allocation in the Deep South as well as possible solutions to those concerns. The overall theme of the book is that stakeholders and government of- ficials need to establish an open discussion and work to develop a system of basin-wide management that addresses the concerns of each state and its stakeholders. Although several methods and models for basin-wide water management are discussed, a common thread in each approach is that a process of adaptive learning would bring the best answer to water management problems. Alabama readers will be interested in discussions of the evolution of development along each river and the effects of development on the issues surrounding the regional water wars. The essays in section one (by Caryn M. Davis, Jeffery L. Jordan, C. Hobson Bryan, and Susanne Rose) provide insights into the context and importance of water rights in Alabama. The Alabama, Chattahoochee, Coosa, and Tallapoosa Rivers have played such vital roles in development that it is difficult to imagine the state without them. Alabama’s future, as its past, is tied to the health of these rivers. Some of the essays contain repetitions or contradictions because the they originate from an eighteen-month project of research and workshops . For example, the essays by Lynne Y. Lewis and Aaron T. Wolf concerning, respectively, western and international compacts are somewhat repetitive, as their recommendations for the ACF and ACT river basins are similar. One essay discusses the expiration of the ACT compact (June 30, 2004) in future tense while others discuss the implications of its passing. Although “Conclusions: Outcomes, Updates, and Lessons Learned” (by Joseph W. Dellapenna...