text: Historians, take note: On this day, which is not a day in 1732, a boundary dispute between two Southern states took a turn for the wet. In a two-page resolution passed overwhelmingly by the state senate, Georgia declared that it, not its neighbor to the north, controls part of the Tennessee River at Nickajack. Georgia doesn't want Nickajack. It wants that water. 
   
   Georgia's claim is that the boundary between the states was set at latitude 35° north when Georgia first gave up the Mississippi territory, but that a lousy 1818 survey ended up putting that state boundary a mile south of where it should have been. The blue line on this map is a rough approximation of that latitude parallel. 
   
   Georgia's not worried about its sovereign territory, like the Pennamite Wars that pitted Pennsylvania against Connecticut before the Revolutionary War. Nor is it an ideological conflict like that in the Koreas, which, interestingly, centers around the 38th parallel. What Georgia cares about is that splash of blue that is the Tennessee River. 
   
   During the summer of 2012, up to 95 percent of the state experienced some level of drought; in December, it hit 99 percent. Last May, nearly a quarter of the state experienced drought that registered as extreme. Despite the state legislature arguing that the drought wasn't that bad (in an effort to avoid hurting the landscaping industry), it was. 
   
   Nor was last year the first time such a drought imperiled the state. In 2008, there was a similarly bad drought — prompting the state to try to gain access to the river by moving the boundary north. Tennessee rejected that effort. 
   
   Georgia's renewed focus on accessing the river isn't just a smart plan for right now. (Eighty percent of the state is still under drought conditions.) Climate change is likely to ensure ongoing droughts of similar magnitude, making an additional steady source of freshwater a critical need for the state. 
   
   If Tennessee agrees to redrawing the state line, the issue would be brought to Congress for approval. If it doesn't, the result probably won't be war. At least not between Georgia and Tennessee. Shortly after leaving the upper corner of Georgia, the river flows into Alabama, which last year saw drought cover 72 percent of its state. The odds are good Alabama isn't eager to give up its water either. 
   
   Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at pbump at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. 
   
   Philip Bump ||||| Georgia senators today passed a resolution calling for the correction of survey areas along the state’s northern border in a 48-2 vote, a news release states. 
   
   “The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified the Tennessee River as a likely source of water for North Georgia,” said Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, as he presented the resolution. “Yet the state of Tennessee has used mismarked boundary lines to block our access to this important waterway.” 
   
   Georgia House Resolution 4 proposes a settlement of the boundary dispute, based on almost 200-year-old survey errors, clarifying Georgia’s access to Tennessee River water. It directs the state’s attorney general to sue to gain control of the entire area south of the 35th parallel if no agreement is reached with Tennessee, the Georgia Senate Press Office release states. 
   
   House Resolution 4 now returns to the House for agreement on amendments made by the Senate. 
   
   The Tennessee Valley Authority must approve interbasin water transfer that take water out of the Tennessee River watershed. TVA says it has not recommended using the river as a primary water source for North Georgia. 
   
   "We aren’t certain where Sen. Shafer got his information, but TVA is not involved in this discussion at this point," TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said. ||||| Read the complete story... 
   
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target: – Georgia's Senate has voted 48-2 to shift the state's northern border to include a sliver of land it says was wrongly given to Tennessee by a surveyor's blunder in 1818. Georgia says the "mismarked boundary lines" have denied it access to the Tennessee River as a source of water and it says it will take its northern neighbor to court if it doesn't agree to surrender a slice of land big enough to allow it to do so, reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal would have to sign off on any border change, as would Tennessee and the US Congress, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution adds. "It is not something that would negatively impact the water supply of Tennessee," Deal says. The border dispute isn't likely to spark war between Georgia and Tennessee—but Alabama sits just downstream from the disputed area and, since it has suffered from drought as much as northern Georgia in recent years, it is unlikely to give up its water without some kind of fight, the Atlantic notes.