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CNN Live At Daybreak

River Wars Among Florida, Georgia and Alabama

Aired April 22, 2002 - 06:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is in the Adirondack Mountains today to commemorate Earth Day. Yes, today is Earth Day. Aides say he will promote environmental issues but declined to give us any details.

But our Sean Callebs is on the Earth Day beat this morning. He joins us live from Apalachicola Bay in Florida. Ooh, that's a hard one, Sean, good morning.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Sort of rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?

COSTELLO: Oh yes.

CALLEBS: We are at one of the many docks all along Apalachicola Bay where, as you can see behind me, every day shrimpers and other watermen go out to work this bay. But Florida, like many areas of the U.S., is right now locked in a bitter water dispute. Now in this case, it has pitted development upriver in other states versus the delicate environment of this bay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice-over): Indian Pass, a roadside stop in Apalachicola, Florida, where they come for the steamed shrimp and the oysters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mmm good.

CALLEBS: Treasures that come from here, a backyard estuary. Apalachicola Bay provides 90 percent of the oysters sold in Florida and 10 percent sold in the U.S.

TOMMY WARD: The best oysters in the world come from here.

CALLEBS: For 70 years, Tommy Ward's family has made a living working the bay.

WARD: I love it down here. This is -- this is the last part of this country that's like this I feel like, you know, far as growing oysters on this coast that's not developed.

CALLEBS: But the health of the bay is threatened and that is putting fewer oysters on the table and putting some watermen out of business. Development on tributaries that feed the bay, especially the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, is sucking critically important fresh water from Apalachicola.

SALLY BETHEA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UPPER CHATTAHOOCHEE RIVER KEEPER: Atlanta right now takes out 300 million gallons a day of water out of the river up here. Projected not too many years away to be taking 500 million gallons of water a day.

CALLEBS: It's triggered a water war among Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Florida is demanding restrictions on how much water the other states use.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very hard to find estuaries that have not had serious problems related to development or alteration of the habitat or alteration of the freshwater flow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: We're back live now in Apalachicola. Talks among the three states have broken down and this could be resolved by the courts and eventually the bay could be the big loser and a way of life that for generations has kept watermen working could be gone forever.

Live in Apalachicola, Florida, I'm Sean Callebs.

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: You know, Sean, that's happening in so many parts of the country. It happened between Maryland and Virginia and that did go to court and the judge had to decide.

CALLEBS: The same thing out West. I mean this is not a new argument. It is going on everywhere. The big concern here, this is really one of the estuaries where it is a delicate mix of fresh and salt water that has remained relatively pristine. It has not been affected by development that much here in this area or pollution coming in. The big concern is they need that fresh water to come down the Chattahoochee, the Apalachicola River and the other feeders to this bay to continue to flush out the area. And if that water continues to be pulled out for development, it is not going to be pretty for this area down here.

COSTELLO: Something else for President Bush to deal with.

Thank you, Sean.

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