Saturday, June 13, 2009

CLEAN MEMPHIS WATER – BUT IS IT STOLEN?

Memphis Tennessee is known for its clean and tasty tap water. The city of Memphis is situated on top of an underground aquifer that has kept our ground water one of the cleanest, if not the cleanest, in the nation. As the city continued to grow over the years, additional pumping stations were added as needed. We have been quite fortunate to have such a sparkling water supply.
So what is the problem? The problem started when northern Mississippi, the border towns connected to Tennessee and just south of Memphis, also started a huge growth spurt. They too benefit from the underground aquifer. As a matter of fact, they accused Memphis of siphoning some of Mississippi’s underground water and filed a lawsuit against The Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Company alleging theft of water. That’s right! You read correctly. This suit has been around since 2005 brought on by the Mississippi Attorney General. This suit insisted that the city of Memphis, which owns the Memphis LGW Company, pay damages to Mississippi for ground water that was pumped into the borders of Tennessee. Of course, the attorneys hired by the MLGW argued that the aquifer is an interstate resource that is shared between all states that it runs beneath.
On June 5th, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld MLGW previous victory in the federal lawsuit brought on by Mississippi officials. And most of us thought the days of fighting for water rights were long over. In this case, they are over now.
MLGW is the largest three-service public power utility in the nation, serving more than 420,000 Memphis area homes in Memphis and Shelby County.