TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Negotiations among Florida, Alabama and Georgia are reportedly near collapse amid disagreements over water discharges from drought-stricken Georgia.

 The states began talks in December hoping to end a nearly 20-year-old dispute over water that flows from a reservoir near Atlanta, down rivers in Alabama and Georgia and finally to the Apalachicola River and Bay in Florida, the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reported Wednesday.

The three states had set a Feb. 15 deadline for themselves to reach an accord, the newspaper reported.

"At this time, there are no more plans for additional negotiations," said Todd Stacy, spokesman for Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, the newspaper reported.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue had been sanguine about the states hammering out an agreement.

"He said today that his optimism has waned," spokesman Bert Brantley said. "He was getting feedback from negotiators, and he wasn't as optimistic as he had been."

Talks are especially volatile since a drought across much of the Southeast has left Atlanta with little water, the newspaper said.

But officials in Florida say by Georgia wanting to save the water by restricting the Apalachicola's flow will kill

endangered mussels and fish and destroy a $200 million-a-year seafood industry in Apalachicola Bay

http://www.newsdaily.com/TopNews/UPI-1-20080227-20530900-bc-us-water.xml