BIRMINGHAM, AL — Talladega County is seeking arbitration to resolve its differences with Shelby County over Coosa River water rights, The Birmingham News reported.
The arbitration request is a move Shelby County's attorney called a tactic to stall Shelby's quest for more water. The county is fighting any effort to take the case out of Shelby County Circuit Court and send it to arbitration, a process that County Attorney Frank C. "Butch" Ellis Jr. said would be needlessly expensive and critically time-consuming, according to the article.
Instead, Shelby County has asked Circuit Judge Dan Reeves to allow a contract between Shelby County and Alabama Power Co. to stand as written. That contract would allow Shelby County to take water out of the Coosa River near Wilsonville, where the county proposes to build a water treatment plant, the paper reported.
Talladega County wrote letters to Alabama Power and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission trying to set aside the contract. When Shelby County sued to get a judge to decide all parties' rights and responsibilities in the matter, Talladega filed for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association, the article stated.
Shelby officials said in the article that they need to get moving on the plant to serve the county's increasing demand for water. Talladega and Shelby own and operate jointly a water treatment plant on the Talladega County side of the river. That plant's capacity to meet Shelby County's peak drinking water needs will be outstripped by 2006, according to engineering studies cited by the paper.
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