Richard Shelby, that crafty U.S. Senator from Alabama, threw some divisive language into the Senate version of the Energy and Water appropriation bill. We're not sure if it was energy, as in gasoline on a fire, or water, as in dousing a flame, but with a few short words he has sent any progress on a tri-state water agreement into reverse.

Shelby succeeded in getting language in the final bill that prohibits the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from updating the operating manuals for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint and Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa river systems.

The manuals, which govern how the corps manages water resources, have not been updated for years as the states have fought over river allocations in court.

Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, in a speech on the Senate floor, said the only approved manual for the Chattahoochee has been in use since 1958 and does not take into account other reservoirs on the system including West Point, Walter F. George and George W. Andrews.

The battle over water between Georgia, Florida and Alabama has dragged on for nearly 18 years. Four Georgia governors have attempted to negotiate with the other two states and on many occasions have come close, but never close enough to seal the deal.

The current drought has exacerbated the water problem into a full-fledged crisis. The negotiations on a settlement, which had reached a stalemate, resumed with intervention by the White House through U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, who just last week settled a seven state dispute over use of the Colorado River.

Then comes Shelby, who depending on your point of view, found enough water to quench the fires of progress or reignited the flames of anger that have stymied the efforts to reach a long-term solution.
While the controversial amendment was Shelby's, some blame has to rest upon the shoulders of Georgia Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. This amendment was first introduced in the summer. They said they were surprised that it reached the floor of the Senate.

Georgia's U.S House delegation voiced its opposition to the amendment and kept it out of the House version of the spending bill. Isakson and Chambliss should have done the same.

Shelby says he wants Alabama to get its fair share of water, but he wants to do it with data that was written when he was a young man in his 20s in a much different Alabama.

The underlying differences between Georgia and Alabama have a lot to do with economic development. Prospects looking at the region often eye both states for their expansion. Shelby clearly wants Alabama to tout abundant water. That's fine, but you can't move Lake Lanier and the benefits of Atlanta to Birmingham.

There are indications that an agreement on a settlement could come by February. Now, thanks to the work of a single senator, implementing the results of that settlement could be delayed indefinitely.