Fighting Over Resources In a recent The Commercial Appeal edition, there's an interesting story about a lawsuit filed by the State of Mississippi against Memphis, Tennessee over water rights and use, actually misuse. Essentially, it's about the Memphis Sands aquifer and how misuse may have contributed to a water problem for people living in bordering North Mississippi. Something tells me that I may be the only person in this little corner of Tennessee (and maybe a few biology perfessers at the local college) that read it and thought "Hey, there's a perfect reason why bioregional organization makes sense and organization by senseless political boundaries makes much less sense." But what do I know, and who am I to question the wisdom of the founding fathers. As the story clearly indicates, resource extraction by humans almost always extend beyond political boundaries because the resources extracted aren't neatly packaged according to man made boundaries. The Chickasaw had this knowledge. While they maintained their permanent villages south of Memphis, close to what we now call Greenville, MS, their territory and hunting grounds extended up to just north of Memphis, roughly aligned with an eco-province we now call the Lower Mississippi Riverine Forest Province (the Memphis sands mentioned in the article are almost entirely in this eco-province). Bordered by the Mississippi river to the west, Chickasaw territory extended south to about the point where the mixed hardwood forests are no longer dominant, giving way to the pine forests of southern Mississippi, the territory of the Choctaw. If our society is to have any chance of long term survival, we as a people must adopt the land ethic of the Chickasaw and learn how to live in a close, cooperative relationship with the earth.  It means we must stop seeing the world as something to be exploited for human gain and embrace tried, successful ideas much older than those of capitalists, exploiters and politico industrialists. This of course will require a radical shift in thinking, one I'm not sure is possible given the short amount of time we have to get our act together, but I prefer to try and fail and not just sit idly by waiting for the end to come. And it most assuredly will come. Hey, that's our water, Memphis Mississippi accuses MLGW of diverting the Sand's flow By Tom Charlier The Commerical Appeal March 5, 2005 Memphis owes Mississippi "hundreds of millions of dollars" for the water its municipal wells have robbed from underground formations lying south of the state line, according to a landmark federal lawsuit filed by Mississippi. The complaint before U.S. District Court in Oxford also seeks to force Memphis to start obtaining a portion of its water from the Mississippi River -- a step that would require the city to build a treatment plant costing millions. The suit, filed Feb. 2 but under seal until midnight Thursday, bears few similarities to other water-rights disputes that have flared across the Southeast and other regions in recent years. Unlike those conflicts, which involved the use of rivers, the Mississippi case asks for repayment for underground water resources "owned by, and subject to the right of use" by the state. "This would be something entirely new, I think," said Jerry Anderson, director of the Ground Water Institute at the University of Memphis. The suit comes amid rising worries about the long-term health of the critical aquifers -- particularly the one known locally as the Memphis Sand -- that are used by cities, industries and farmers across the Mid-South. Just this week, local officials have been in Washington asking Congress to fund an ambitious study of area aquifers and form a caucus focusing on groundwater issues. The lawsuit drew strong reactions from officials at the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, which, along with the city, was named as a defendant. "MLGW's use of the aquifer has not harmed this vital resource in the past, nor will our anticipated future use pose a threat," utility president Joseph Lee said. MLGW general counsel Max Williams said that contrary to the claims in the suit, "our use of the aquifer does not create any liability to the state of Mississippi." Mississippi officials referred questions about the suit to state Atty. Gen. Jim Hood and his chief of staff, Geoffrey Morgan. Both were traveling Friday and unavailable for comment. The suit centers on the heavy pumping by MLGW, which each day withdraws 160 million to 200 million gallons from the Memphis Sand. The aquifer is a deep zone of saturated sand and gravel that filters the water trickling through it to a high level of purity. The Memphis Sand extends into portions of Mississippi, Arkansas and Kentucky. Although scientists understand little of the aquifer's hydrology, recent studies have shown that the flow of water in the Memphis Sand has been altered by the "cones of depression" beneath MLGW's well fields, three of which extend to within about 21/2 miles of the Mississippi line. Studies since at least the late 1990s have shown that these cones, or low areas in the water table of the aquifer, have literally sucked water northward from areas beneath Mississippi. In parts of DeSoto County, the water levels in wells have been dropping a foot or more each year, with the declines blamed on both local pumping and withdrawals in Memphis. In its suit, Mississippi claims that one-third of the water Memphis pumps -- about 60 million gallons a day -- comes from south of the state line. This water is "unreasonably and unlawfully diverted," causing harm to the aquifer, it says. The suit asks the court to order Memphis to halt its "excessive" withdrawals and "use water from other nearby abundant and available sources, such as the Mississippi River." The suit follows efforts to develop interstate cooperation in groundwater issues. Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee embarked on an aquifer study in recent years and continue to pursue research. Shelby County public works director Ted Fox, contacted in Washington during his efforts to get funding for studies, said it's difficult to say what kind of impact Memphis's withdrawals are having on the aquifer. "That's the real purpose of this groundwater study -- to see what's happening," he said. back