The Tennessee River is once again begin discussed as a possible solution to our water problem. The river moves a massive amount of water through Chattanooga — roughly 34,300 cfs, which is about 17 times greater than the amount being released through Buford Dam.
The problem, of course, is politics. Tennessee understandably doesn’t want to part with their water. However, Atlanta might be able to offer a few things in exchange for some water.
First, Chattanooga is concerned that Atlanta might want to build a second airport in the northern part of the state. If we ruled out that possibility it might help. The second exchange might involve building a high-speed rail line from Atlanta to Chattanooga. $8 million has been put aside to study the possibility of building that rail line, which would eliminate the need for a second airport.
It could cost about $5 billion to pump water from Chattanooga (and another $10 billion to pump the used water back, which some people think should be done). The article doesn’t mention how long it would take to build the pipes to handle that, but I’d have to think it would take a few years. If anyone has a good answer for that, please post in the comments below. If we’re talking about a couple of years to get this done, it becomes more of a long-term solution than a short-term fix and we’re still in big trouble in a few months.
Of course, none of this would matter if our cheap governor in the early 1800’s hadn’t caused the state line to be placed a mile too far south. 
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