RALEIGH
N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper has rejected a call by his South Carolina counterpart for closed-door talks to settle a dispute over waterways that flow through both states, according to a letter released yesterday.
Cooper said in the note that he wants the discussions to take place in a commission appointed by both states that would be made available for public input. S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster had suggested in a December letter to Cooper that the two sides hold confidential discussions directly with each other.
McMaster filed a lawsuit in 2007 to stop a plan that would have allowed two Charlotte suburbs to pump millions of gallons of water each day from the Catawba and Yadkin river basins, arguing that such a drawdown would deprive South Carolina of its equitable share of resources.
The Catawba supplies drinking water for more than 1 million people and is a major source of electricity generation.
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing the case. It ruled earlier this week that Duke Energy and the Catawba River Water Supply Project -- which argued that they have water interests that can't be encompassed by one state or the other -- must be allowed to participate in the water fight. Duke operates 11 dams and reservoirs in the two states.
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